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Background
In 1956, three UNWRA-Jordanian agreements promised 28 families Sheikh Jarrah property deeds they never got. One let them lease the land as refugees. The second agreed to fund their homes, and the third stipulated that "in exchange for nominal rent payments (and other provisions), the families would lease (them) for three years," after which they'd have legal title. Despite adhering to contract terms, they never got it.
After the 1956 Six-Day War, the Israeli General Custodian controlled Sheikh Jarrah. Then in 1972, the Sephardic Community Committee and the Knesset Israel Committee (both religious and ideological) sought ownership rights, based on a historical and religious affiliation during the Ottoman era, using "koshan," a legal title as the basis of their claim, dating from the early 19th century, then finalized in 1886.
The "koshan's" validity is central to the current claim and legal challenges to decide who has rightful ownership. But according to expert testimonies, the document's authenticity is in doubt as they don't conform to Ottoman era criteria, so therein lies the rub.
Further, according to the Israeli Land Registry Office, the "koshan" doesn't bear on the rights of parties already inhabiting the land and isn't proof of ownership. Nonetheless, 23 Palestinian families were ordered to pay rent. Legal challenges followed, so it's for the courts to decide who owns the land rightfully.
Earlier in 1982, a protracted legal battle began after the Committees jointly sued 23 of the families. At the time, it was resolved by granting the validity of the Committees' claim while giving the families "protected tenant" status, removing the threat of eviction provided they paid rent regularly and refrained from renovating or changing the property. The case became a modern precedent for settling Karm Al-Ja'ouni neighborhood disputes, but it failed to address the legitimacy of the Committees' claim or the consent of the other 17 families.
The agreement became the legal basis for subsequent court-ordered evictions and "rendered....inquiries into the legitimacy of the Committees ownership claims redundant from a domestic legal perspective."
Here's the problem. The four evicted families deny ever consenting, their lawyer acting on his own for settlement, yet what he achieved "diverged greatly" from his clients' wishes. The families remain steadfast, saying they were misrepresented, kept uninformed, and maintain the homes are theirs, based on the UNRWA-Jordanian agreement.
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