Sitting in their East Jerusalem living room, twins Muna and Mohammed Al Kurd talk about the legal battle their family has fought for years to hold on to a home that could soon be taken from them.
With an eviction order from an Israeli court looming, they and dozens of other Palestinians may soon be forced out of their contested neighbourhood.
“We’re caught up in this decades-long legal procedure that’s drained us psychologically; it’s drained us of our childhood,” says Mohammed, 22, who lives in the bungalow with his parents and three siblings.
The Al Kurds are among a dozen Palestinian families in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood facing legal proceedings. A third of them have been ordered to leave their homes this month.
Their street has become a flashpoint between Palestinian protesters and Israeli police, who this week have made multiple arrests as mounted officers and those in riot gear march through the neighbourhood.
The Al Kurd family has lived for generations in Sheikh Jarrah, which hosts European consulates and is a short walk from Jerusalem’s Old City, but the residents are up against legislation that privileges Jewish landowners from before the creation of Israel.
“My grandmother was made a refugee from Haifa and she came here, and I don’t think she was expecting another catastrophe,” says Muna, a freelance producer.
The siblings' grandparents were among 750,000 Palestinians who fled or were forced from their homes in 1948 when Israel was created. They reached East Jerusalem in the 1950s, which was then under Jordanian control, and were offered a newly built home as part of a state scheme for refugees.
Lying in a valley dotted with trees, the bungalow housed the family from Haifa, a northern coastal city, their six children and then grandchildren.
“It’s always been a very small and very full house,” says Mohammed, on a break from his master’s degree in New York.
Life in the neighbourhood was turned upside down by the 1967 war in which Israel took control of East Jerusalem and Jordan’s governance of the area come to an end.
Under Israel’s 1950 Absentees' Property Law, Palestinians who lost their homes during the 1948 conflict have no right to return to them.
“Around 2,000 Jews lost their homes in Jerusalem during that war, while around 35,000 Palestinians lost their homes in West Jerusalem,” says Hagit Ofran from Israeli NGO Peace Now.
The annexation of Palestinian land – in pictures
After Israeli forces took control of East Jerusalem nearly 20 years later, politicians enacted legislation that said Jews could reclaim properties in the city that they owned before the founding of Israel.
“That’s the discriminatory law,” says Ms Ofran, who specialises in Israeli settlement building in the Palestinian territories.
“We have a law from 1950 that says Palestinian refugees will not get their property, and we have a law from 1970, which says in East Jerusalem, Jews can get their property back."
With no legal right to return to the homes of their grandparents, Palestinians in Sheikh Jarrah and other East Jerusalem neighbourhoods such as Silwan faced numerous court cases in recent decades.
Sami Irsheid, a lawyer representing Sheikh Jarrah residents, said the latest legal challenge began in 2009.
"Every few years they initiate proceedings against several families in order to evict them, because they didn't want to do this at the same time," he tells The National.
The court case against the Al Kurds and their neighbours began shortly after the Israeli authorities evicted three other families from the neighbourhood, Mr Irsheid said.
Those supporting the residents say the cases are initiated by settler organisations who aim to Judaise East Jerusalem, using documents that they claim prove historic ownership by Jews of land or property in the city.
Lawyers representing clients seeking to evict the Al Kurd family and other residents did not respond to repeated requests for comment by The National.
The case has brought Israeli, Palestinian and foreign protesters to Sheikh Jarrah, chanting “freedom” and calling for an end to the occupation of East Jerusalem.
The rallies are regularly accompanied by a heavy police presence, whose officers often set off stun grenades as they disperse demonstrators.
In one high-profile incident last month, which was condemned by Israeli legislators across the political spectrum, MP Ofer Cassif was punched in the head and wrestled to the ground by officers.
Recently, the authorities have used mounted police and a skunk lorry, which sprays foul-smelling liquid that can stick to the skin and hang in the air for days.
The Sheikh Jarrah legal proceedings are being followed by the UN, whose human rights experts said last month: “Such forced evictions leading to population transfers are strictly prohibited under international law.”
The International Criminal Court confirmed it received a letter from the residents, requesting that their case be included in the court’s investigation into alleged war crimes in the Palestinian territories.
In Israeli courthouses, Palestinians have never won the right to home ownership in East Jerusalem, according to Peace Now.
Some have gained protected tenancy status, a temporary measure that allows them to stay put for a few more years.
“I think it’s good that we’re using the legal system because it buys us time in our homes, but I think ultimately this is a political thing. It’s a political game,” Mohammed says.
Four families, including the Al Kurds, were given a May 2 deadline to leave, but that date passed while the Supreme Court weighed up hearing the residents’ appeal.
“I want to be able to look back at this and say: 'If we were thrown out in the street, we were thrown out with our dignity',” Mohammed says, determined to continue campaigning against the eviction order.
With equal resolve, Muna says they will not walk away: “We always say that we won’t leave. Until the last moment, we will not leave.”
Tearful appearance
Chancellor Rachel Reeves set markets on edge as she appeared visibly distraught in parliament on Wednesday.
Legislative setbacks for the government have blown a new hole in the budgetary calculations at a time when the deficit is stubbornly large and the economy is struggling to grow.
She appeared with Keir Starmer on Thursday and the pair embraced, but he had failed to give her his backing as she cried a day earlier.
A spokesman said her upset demeanour was due to a personal matter.
Yahya Al Ghassani's bio
Date of birth: April 18, 1998
Playing position: Winger
Clubs: 2015-2017 – Al Ahli Dubai; March-June 2018 – Paris FC; August – Al Wahda
Pharaoh's curse
British aristocrat Lord Carnarvon, who funded the expedition to find the Tutankhamun tomb, died in a Cairo hotel four months after the crypt was opened.
He had been in poor health for many years after a car crash, and a mosquito bite made worse by a shaving cut led to blood poisoning and pneumonia.
Reports at the time said Lord Carnarvon suffered from “pain as the inflammation affected the nasal passages and eyes”.
Decades later, scientists contended he had died of aspergillosis after inhaling spores of the fungus aspergillus in the tomb, which can lie dormant for months. The fact several others who entered were also found dead withiin a short time led to the myth of the curse.
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Abu Dhabi traffic facts
Drivers in Abu Dhabi spend 10 per cent longer in congested conditions than they would on a free-flowing road
The highest volume of traffic on the roads is found between 7am and 8am on a Sunday.
Travelling before 7am on a Sunday could save up to four hours per year on a 30-minute commute.
The day was the least congestion in Abu Dhabi in 2019 was Tuesday, August 13.
The highest levels of traffic were found on Sunday, November 10.
Drivers in Abu Dhabi lost 41 hours spent in traffic jams in rush hour during 2019
Six tips to secure your smart home
Most smart home devices are controlled via the owner's smartphone. Therefore, if you are using public wi-fi on your phone, always use a VPN (virtual private network) that offers strong security features and anonymises your internet connection.
Keep your smart home devices’ software up-to-date. Device makers often send regular updates - follow them without fail as they could provide protection from a new security risk.
Use two-factor authentication so that in addition to a password, your identity is authenticated by a second sign-in step like a code sent to your mobile number.
Set up a separate guest network for acquaintances and visitors to ensure the privacy of your IoT devices’ network.
Change the default privacy and security settings of your IoT devices to take extra steps to secure yourself and your home.
Always give your router a unique name, replacing the one generated by the manufacturer, to ensure a hacker cannot ascertain its make or model number.
Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
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Mountain%20Boy
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More from Rashmee Roshan Lall
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
Ferrari 12Cilindri specs
Engine: naturally aspirated 6.5-liter V12
Power: 819hp
Torque: 678Nm at 7,250rpm
Price: From Dh1,700,000
Available: Now
MOUNTAINHEAD REVIEW
Starring: Ramy Youssef, Steve Carell, Jason Schwartzman
Director: Jesse Armstrong
Rating: 3.5/5
THE BIO
BIO:
Born in RAK on December 9, 1983
Lives in Abu Dhabi with her family
She graduated from Emirates University in 2007 with a BA in architectural engineering
Her motto in life is her grandmother’s saying “That who created you will not have you get lost”
Her ambition is to spread UAE’s culture of love and acceptance through serving coffee, the country’s traditional coffee in particular.
THE BIO: Martin Van Almsick
Hometown: Cologne, Germany
Family: Wife Hanan Ahmed and their three children, Marrah (23), Tibijan (19), Amon (13)
Favourite dessert: Umm Ali with dark camel milk chocolate flakes
Favourite hobby: Football
Breakfast routine: a tall glass of camel milk
Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
- Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
- Flexible payment plans from developers
- Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
- DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
How to invest in gold
Investors can tap into the gold price by purchasing physical jewellery, coins and even gold bars, but these need to be stored safely and possibly insured.
A cheaper and more straightforward way to benefit from gold price growth is to buy an exchange-traded fund (ETF).
Most advisers suggest sticking to “physical” ETFs. These hold actual gold bullion, bars and coins in a vault on investors’ behalf. Others do not hold gold but use derivatives to track the price instead, adding an extra layer of risk. The two biggest physical gold ETFs are SPDR Gold Trust and iShares Gold Trust.
Another way to invest in gold’s success is to buy gold mining stocks, but Mr Gravier says this brings added risks and can be more volatile. “They have a serious downside potential should the price consolidate.”
Mr Kyprianou says gold and gold miners are two different asset classes. “One is a commodity and the other is a company stock, which means they behave differently.”
Mining companies are a business, susceptible to other market forces, such as worker availability, health and safety, strikes, debt levels, and so on. “These have nothing to do with gold at all. It means that some companies will survive, others won’t.”
By contrast, when gold is mined, it just sits in a vault. “It doesn’t even rust, which means it retains its value,” Mr Kyprianou says.
You may already have exposure to gold miners in your portfolio, say, through an international ETF or actively managed mutual fund.
You could spread this risk with an actively managed fund that invests in a spread of gold miners, with the best known being BlackRock Gold & General. It is up an incredible 55 per cent over the past year, and 240 per cent over five years. As always, past performance is no guide to the future.
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Ads on social media can 'normalise' drugs
A UK report on youth social media habits commissioned by advocacy group Volteface found a quarter of young people were exposed to illegal drug dealers on social media.
The poll of 2,006 people aged 16-24 assessed their exposure to drug dealers online in a nationally representative survey.
Of those admitting to seeing drugs for sale online, 56 per cent saw them advertised on Snapchat, 55 per cent on Instagram and 47 per cent on Facebook.
Cannabis was the drug most pushed by online dealers, with 63 per cent of survey respondents claiming to have seen adverts on social media for the drug, followed by cocaine (26 per cent) and MDMA/ecstasy, with 24 per cent of people.
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
