PA Land Department set to dispossess some 2,650 families from Jericho area homes

Date: 13 / 06 / 2009

Anybody want to bet that there won't be any NGO's around to intefere?

Bethlehem – Ma’an – Abla Darwish – Some 400 Palestinian families are being sued by the Palestinian Authority’s Land Department for building thatched clay homes and tents on Jericho-area land that the PA sold to the Palestinian Investment Fund Company for development.

The 400 are only a fraction of the 2,650 families that the government intends to sue, but fill the maximum capacity for suits at the district court.

The suits charge families from the villages of Nuwei’ma, Ad-Duyuk and Al-Auja of violating state property. Dozens of hearings have already been held, most of which were postponed on the request of families seeking time to get ownership documents in order.

Presiding over the 400 suits is Judge Jamal Shadid who was appointed by the Palestinian Higher Judiciary Council.

Most families have been living on the land for decades, others for centuries, and some were refugees who returned to Palestine following the 1993 Oslo accords that permitted thousands of refugees to live in the area.

According to dozens of the families involved in the suits, the late Palestinian President Yasser Arafat had given land in An-Nuwei’ma village to Oslo-era returnees.

The structures range from centuries old thatched clay homes, to stone to tents. None of the homes have municipal services; there are no roads, schools are shipping containers with three classes per container.

Residents of these three villages make their living from raising livestock, working in construction, and there are some even civil servants.

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