Press Release: Jordan Gov. Granted Sheikh Jarrah Families Full Property Rights
For Immediate Release
Jordan Gov. Granted Sheikh Jarrah Families Full Property Rights
New opinion submitted to Israel’s Supreme Court by Herzliya Law School Expert
Aug. 1, 2021 Jerusalem, Israel — In advance of Monday’s Supreme Court hearing on their request to appeal, the lawyers representing the Palestinian families in Sheikh Jarrah, Advocate Husni Abu Hussein and Advocate Dr. Sami Ershied, submitted a new legal opinion to the Supreme Court. The expert opinion, of Dr. Ronit Levine-Schnur, a property law expert at the Radzyner Law School - IDC Herzliya, states that families in Sheikh Jarrah have full property rights in their homes because the Jordanian government granted them the ownership, and even began the process of registering the property in the names of the families, until the procedure was interrupted in the 1967 war.
The hearing on the request to appeal submitted by four Palestinian families from Sheikh Jarrah is scheduled for Monday, 2/8/21, at 11:30 in Israel’s Supreme Court on behalf of the Jaouni, Iskafi, Kurd and Qase families. Last week, the Supreme Court froze the evictions of the Daoudi, Dajani and Hamad families with no date set for their hearing. As is well known, the Palestinian families living in Sheikh Jarrah are families of refugees who were settled there by the Jordanian government in exchange for relinquishing their status as refugees, with a promise to register the houses on their name. Dr. Levine-Schnur’s opinion reveals, for the first time, that indeed, in the 1960s, the Jordanian government worked to register all the plots and houses in the name of Palestinian families. The opinion presents documents dated April 1967 showing a detailed list of families and the boundaries of each plot. But the war that broke out two months later interrupted the registration proceedings, and the Israeli government never continued them.
“The Jordanian government had the authority to grant full ownership rights in Jewish property in certain cases,” states Dr. Levine-Schnur, “according to Israeli law, the government actions taken under Jordanian rule are fully binding the Israeli government.”
The opinion also states that the 1970 Israeli law that allows the return of Jewish property from before 1948 to their owners, does not extend to rights granted by the Jordanian government. A company, registered in the U.S. and Israel, that bought the claim of the Jewish former residents is demanding the eviction of the Sheikh Jarrah families citing that same 1970 Israeli law. The opinion even quotes from the 1968 Knesset debates during the enactment of the law, in which it was said about a property that was transferred to third parties by the Jordanians: "This house will not be returned."
In conclusion, Dr. Ronit Levine-Schnur clarifies that the obligations of the Jordanian government, including its obligation to transfer ownership of the land to the holders and complete the registration on their name, apply to the State of Israel and should be fulfilled in the framework of land rights registration proceedings.
For more information see: Ronit Levin-Schnur, “Public Obligations towards the Residents of Sheikh Jarrah”. ICON-S-IL Blog (7 June 2021).
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Adv. Dr. Sami Ershied joined the legal team for the Sheikh Jarrah families in 2008 in a case that has lasted 49 years so far. He received his doctorate in Law from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is a Leading Lawyer in cases of Human Rights with special focus in Housing Rights. He lectures at the Faculty of Law of the Hebrew University in the field of Transitional Justice and specializes in Law and Economic Development.
Dr. Ronit Levine-Schnur @RonitLevSchnur is a senior lecturer at the Radzyner Law School, and a research associate at the Gazit-Globe Institute for Real Estate at IDC Herzliya. She is a lawyer, an urban planner, and a property and land use law expert. Her current research project focuses on the effects of expropriations of private property and land use reforms on housing prices. Dr. Levine-Schnur obtained her LL.D. (Ph.D. equivalent) from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem Faculty of Law in 2015 and also holds a Master’s degree in Law and Urban and Regional Planning from the Harry Radzyner Law School, Interdisciplinary Center (IDC), Herzliya.
Dr. Muna Dajani @muna_d, a Jerusalemite Palestinian academic working in the field of environmental and climate justice, has published widely on topics relating to transboundary water politics, water history, and community-based resource management. Dr. Dajani holds a PhD in Geography and Environment from the London School of Economics. She is currently a Senior Research Associate at the Lancaster Environment Centre where she explores promising grassroots initiatives of holistic groundwater governance, shedding light on traditional and intergenerational skills and knowledge. Dr. Muna Dajani's grandparents’ house is one of those threatened with eviction in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of East Jerusalem.