Evicting Arab Squatters

From IsraelNN.com, 3/8/09, by Hillel Fendel:

... a domestic decision ...has been confirmed by various courts all the way up to the Supreme Court, evicting long-time Arab squatters from property that is not theirs.

The property in question is located in the northeastern Jerusalem neighborhood of Shimon HaTzaddik, also known as Sheikh Jarrah. Though the property has been owned by a Sephardic Jewish organization for over 120 years, Arabs were placed there by Jordan following its conquest of Jerusalem in 1948.

Over the course of the past ten years, Jewish groups have actively sought to restore the Jewish character of the neighborhood - which also features the traditional gravesite of the Talmudic sage Simon the Just (Shimon HaTzaddik). The focus of their activity is in the courts, where they have proven to “more than 15 judges in various courts,” according to one activist, that the properties are theirs.

...Several properties were evacuated of their illegal squatters on Sunday morning...

...A person close to the efforts to return the neighborhood to its Jewish character commented, “It’s true that the photos of the evicted families appearing in the world press are not favorable to our cause, but we know the justness and truthfulness of what we are doing...” ...