E-mail your MP: Stop the eviction of a Palestinian family in East Jerusalem.

On June 30th 2020 the Israeli courts are due to hear the final appeal of the Sumarin family, who are fighting a decades long battle to remain in the home they have lived in, with deeds of ownership, for over 50 years. If the eviction order is granted, the Palestinian family of 18 will be made homeless, amidst a global pandemic.

The eviction proceedings are being brought on behalf of Himanuta, a subsidary of the Jewish National Fund (KKL-JNF), who own the land. The JNF has been central to the ongoing dispossession of the Palestinian land.

In 1989, KKL-JNF initiated a move whereby the Custodian for Absentee Property, established by the Israeli state in 1948, declared the house absentee property. This deemed it abandoned behind the family’s back and despite members of the family living in the home. Following this, the property was transferred to KKL-JNF along with a host of other Palestinian properties in Silwan.

Immediately after taking over the home’s ownership, the KKL-JNF filed an eviction suit against the Sumarin family in 1991. The lawsuit was dismissed but KKL-JNF appealed and continued the proceedings repeatedly for nearly 30 years. 

This cruel and unjust eviction, using legal methods stacked against Palestinians, cannot be allowed to happen. 

Call on your MP to sign EDM 529.