Meeting to end efforts by KKL-JNF to evict family in Silwan is prohibited by Court

Attempts by a Reform movement representative of the KKL-JNF Jewish National Fund to put an end to the organization’s 30-year efforts to evict the Palestinian Sumarin family of the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan are stymied, after a pro-settlement member of the KKL convinces the Jerusalem District Court to issue a temporary restraining order prohibiting a meeting on the subject scheduled for today.

Judge Alexander Ron agrees that the meeting was called with insufficient notice (on Thursday) and indicates the sides should wait for a High Court decision on the eviction saga.

The Sumarin house is located close to the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem’s Old City. In 1989, according to Peace Now, the KKL-JNF got the Custodian for Absentee Property to declare the house as absentee property. The house was transferred to KKL-JNF, which filed an eviction suit against the Sumarins in 1991. The lawsuit was dismissed, but KKL appealed, and the case is still dragging on.

The property was subsequently leased to the City of David Foundation, which is committed to strengthening the Jewish presence around the Old City. Both the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court and Jerusalem District Court ruled recently that the eviction order was legal. In a last ditch attempt to stay in the house, the family has asked for permission to appeal to the High Court.

Matityahu Sperber, chairman of the KKL’s property acquisition company, Himenuta, called on Thursday for a Himenuta board meeting to be convened tomorrow. The main agenda item was a proposal to freeze the case against the Sumarin family on the grounds that it was damaging to the KKL.

Pro-settlement Himenuta board member Nachum (Nachi) Eyal petitioned the Jerusalem District Court to issue a temporary prohibition order against the meeting taking place, which was granted.

— Sue Surkes