JERUSALEM, The Israeli Magistrate Court in Jerusalem decided today that an earlier decision to freeze the eviction of the Palestinian Salem family from its home in Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in occupied East Jerusalem for the benefit of Israeli settlers will continue to apply.

WAFA correspondent said that the court decided to continue the freeze order after accepting an appeal by the family against the intended eviction by Israeli settler groups from the home it has lived in for seven decades.

The judge also decided to return the file to the so-called execution and procedure judge to hold an expanded discussion of the case, stressing that there is a flaw in the procedures presented by the settlers that must be reconsidered, according to Nasser Qous, an activist, who told WAFA that this means possible dismissal of the whole case.

Majed Ghanayem, the lawyer for the Salem family, confirmed to WAFA the court’s decision to continue to freeze the eviction order until a final decision is issued in the near future.

While the Magistrate Court was deliberating the case, human rights activists organized a sit-in in front of the courthouse in solidarity with the Salem family and the residents of Sheikh Jarrah, and against Israeli plans to displace the Palestinian families from the occupied city, and against the double standards of the Israeli law in dealings between Jews and Palestinians.

The court froze the eviction of the Salem family from its home in February after the so-called Israeli Execution and Collection Authority issued an order last January to implement a decision to evict the family from their home in March.

The Salem family has lived in Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood for 73 years and owns a house and a plot of land next to it. The family has been fighting attempts by settler groups to evict it from its home since 1988 but was able to freeze the decision in the same year.

In 2012, the settler groups re-opened the file with an aim to implement the 1988 court decision that allows the eviction of the family, composed of 11 people, up to 25 years from the date of its issuance.

More than 200 Palestinian families in occupied Jerusalem face the threat of displacement in favor of settlement groups backed by the judicial system and government policy.

Source: Palestine News & Info Agency