17 May 2021; MEMO: The residents of Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood in occupied East Jerusalem have urged the Jordanian government to hand them missing documents proving their ownership of the homes from which Israel wants to displace them.
Human rights activist and lawyer Muhammad Abu Zand said that the documents given by Amman to the Palestinian Authority in April in an effort to help prevent Israel from expelling the Palestinian families are "insufficient". They do not support, he said, the residents' legal standing before the Israeli Supreme Court.
In 1956, 28 refugee families who lost their homes during the Nakba reached an agreement with the Jordanian Ministry of Construction and Development and UNRWA to provide housing for them in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood. At that time, the West Bank was under Jordanian rule (1951-1967).
According to the Civic Coalition for Palestinian Rights in Jerusalem (CCPRJ), "A contract was concluded with one of the main conditions being that the residents pay a symbolic fee, provided that ownership is transferred to them after three years."
However, the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, including Jerusalem, in 1967 has prevented the houses from being registered under the families' names.
In April, Jordan's Foreign Ministry said that it had provided the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs with 14 ratified agreements meant for the people of the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood in East Jerusalem which support their claim to their land and property.
The ministry said it had previously provided the Palestinians with all the documents that could help Jerusalemites maintain their full rights, including lease contracts, lists of beneficiaries' names and a copy of the agreement concluded with UNRWA.
