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It isn’t always right to exercise a right

JTA reports that a Palestinian family was evicted from their Jerusalem home to restore it to the Jewish family that owned it prior to 1948.

The Palestinian Shamasneh family, comprised of eight people, two of them elderly, one of them handicapped, had been residing in their Sheikh Jarrah home since 1964.

Israeli law permits reclamation of Palestinian property in eastern Jerusalem if the Jewish owners can prove they held the land prior to the War of Independence in 1948. This is because in 1948, Jewish residents of Jerusalem were expelled after the Arab nations declared war on the nascent Jewish state. Logic follows that those forcibly expelled in a war they neither started nor wanted should either be compensated or be allowed to reclaim their property. It still, however, may not be a great policy.

Settlements may not be an obstacle to peace, but the right of return certainly is. Israel could not survive the demographic shift that would take place were it to open its borders to Palestinians, and Palestinians will not relinquish this requirement. Regardless of whether one believes this is simply a strategic tactic on the part of Palestinians, their claim of a right of return has contributed to the stalemate in the peace process. Of course, this “right” is questionable when the refugees are the descendants of those who voluntarily fled or were expelled in their war of aggression.

Nevertheless, many Palestinians hold deeds, passed down from parents and grandparents, to properties their families owned within Israel’s borders prior to 1948, a theme explored in Amos Gitai’s poignant documentary trilogy “House.”

Another issue is how the current eviction of the Shamasneh family came about. It was facilitated by Israel Land Fund, an NGO that locates Jews who owned land in eastern Jerusalem before 1948 in order to help them re-claim their property. The NGO’s director, Jerusalem City Councilman Arieh King, recently told the Jerusalem Post that his plan is to transform the Palestinian Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood into a Jewish one.

Again, King’s plans are legal, and one could argue: Why shouldn’t Jews, forcibly removed in 1948 from their homes, reclaim their property?

If this were only about property rights, perhaps the answer would be simpler. However, this is also about control of a neighborhood. Groups like King’s are not concerned with the human cost of their policy but are instead pursuing population removal. Itcases like these, and groups like King’s, that give fodder to those who argue that with settlements, Israel is creating facts on the ground and obstructing peace.

It’s a one-dimensional argument that fails to take history into account, let alone the behavior of Palestinian Arab actors. Nonetheless, it is moves like this week’s eviction that bolster such arguments. That is why it is not good policy.

Copyright © 2017 by the Intermountain Jewish News




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