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.”
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
Company Profile
Founder: Omar Onsi
Launched: 2018
Employees: 35
Financing stage: Seed round ($12 million)
Investors: B&Y, Phoenician Funds, M1 Group, Shorooq Partners
MATCH INFO
Crawley Town 3 (Tsaroulla 50', Nadesan 53', Tunnicliffe 70')
Leeds United 0
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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Friday's schedule at the Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
GP3 qualifying, 10:15am
Formula 2, practice 11:30am
Formula 1, first practice, 1pm
GP3 qualifying session, 3.10pm
Formula 1 second practice, 5pm
Formula 2 qualifying, 7pm
if you go
The flights
Etihad and Emirates fly direct from the UAE to Seoul from Dh3,775 return, including taxes
The package
Ski Safari offers a seven-night ski package to Korea, including five nights at the Dragon Valley Hotel in Yongpyong and two nights at Seoul CenterMark hotel, from £720 (Dh3,488) per person, including transfers, based on two travelling in January
The info
Visit www.gokorea.co.uk
Coming soon
Torno Subito by Massimo Bottura
When the W Dubai – The Palm hotel opens at the end of this year, one of the highlights will be Massimo Bottura’s new restaurant, Torno Subito, which promises “to take guests on a journey back to 1960s Italy”. It is the three Michelinstarred chef’s first venture in Dubai and should be every bit as ambitious as you would expect from the man whose restaurant in Italy, Osteria Francescana, was crowned number one in this year’s list of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants.
Akira Back Dubai
Another exciting opening at the W Dubai – The Palm hotel is South Korean chef Akira Back’s new restaurant, which will continue to showcase some of the finest Asian food in the world. Back, whose Seoul restaurant, Dosa, won a Michelin star last year, describes his menu as, “an innovative Japanese cuisine prepared with a Korean accent”.
Dinner by Heston Blumenthal
The highly experimental chef, whose dishes are as much about spectacle as taste, opens his first restaurant in Dubai next year. Housed at The Royal Atlantis Resort & Residences, Dinner by Heston Blumenthal will feature contemporary twists on recipes that date back to the 1300s, including goats’ milk cheesecake. Always remember with a Blumenthal dish: nothing is quite as it seems.
About Karol Nawrocki
• Supports military aid for Ukraine, unlike other eurosceptic leaders, but he will oppose its membership in western alliances.
• A nationalist, his campaign slogan was Poland First. "Let's help others, but let's take care of our own citizens first," he said on social media in April.
• Cultivates tough-guy image, posting videos of himself at shooting ranges and in boxing rings.
• Met Donald Trump at the White House and received his backing.
ELIO
Starring: Yonas Kibreab, Zoe Saldana, Brad Garrett
Directors: Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi, Adrian Molina
Rating: 4/5
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
In Search of Mary Shelley: The Girl Who Wrote Frankenstein
By Fiona Sampson
Profile
MATCH INFO
Qalandars 109-3 (10ovs)
Salt 30, Malan 24, Trego 23, Jayasuriya 2-14
Bangla Tigers (9.4ovs)
Fletcher 52, Rossouw 31
Bangla Tigers win by six wickets
Dust and sand storms compared
Sand storm
- Particle size: Larger, heavier sand grains
- Visibility: Often dramatic with thick "walls" of sand
- Duration: Short-lived, typically localised
- Travel distance: Limited
- Source: Open desert areas with strong winds
Dust storm
- Particle size: Much finer, lightweight particles
- Visibility: Hazy skies but less intense
- Duration: Can linger for days
- Travel distance: Long-range, up to thousands of kilometres
- Source: Can be carried from distant regions
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In numbers: China in Dubai
The number of Chinese people living in Dubai: An estimated 200,000
Number of Chinese people in International City: Almost 50,000
Daily visitors to Dragon Mart in 2018/19: 120,000
Daily visitors to Dragon Mart in 2010: 20,000
Percentage increase in visitors in eight years: 500 per cent
Seven%20Winters%20in%20Tehran
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDirector%20%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Steffi%20Niederzoll%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarring%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Reyhaneh%20Jabbari%2C%20Shole%20Pakravan%2C%20Zar%20Amir%20Ebrahimi%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%204%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Start-up hopes to end Japan's love affair with cash
Across most of Asia, people pay for taxi rides, restaurant meals and merchandise with smartphone-readable barcodes — except in Japan, where cash still rules. Now, as the country’s biggest web companies race to dominate the payments market, one Tokyo-based startup says it has a fighting chance to win with its QR app.
Origami had a head start when it introduced a QR-code payment service in late 2015 and has since signed up fast-food chain KFC, Tokyo’s largest cab company Nihon Kotsu and convenience store operator Lawson. The company raised $66 million in September to expand nationwide and plans to more than double its staff of about 100 employees, says founder Yoshiki Yasui.
Origami is betting that stores, which until now relied on direct mail and email newsletters, will pay for the ability to reach customers on their smartphones. For example, a hair salon using Origami’s payment app would be able to send a message to past customers with a coupon for their next haircut.
Quick Response codes, the dotted squares that can be read by smartphone cameras, were invented in the 1990s by a unit of Toyota Motor to track automotive parts. But when the Japanese pioneered digital payments almost two decades ago with contactless cards for train fares, they chose the so-called near-field communications technology. The high cost of rolling out NFC payments, convenient ATMs and a culture where lost wallets are often returned have all been cited as reasons why cash remains king in the archipelago. In China, however, QR codes dominate.
Cashless payments, which includes credit cards, accounted for just 20 per cent of total consumer spending in Japan during 2016, compared with 60 per cent in China and 89 per cent in South Korea, according to a report by the Bank of Japan.
Copa del Rey
Semi-final, first leg
Barcelona 1 (Malcom 57')
Real Madrid (Vazquez 6')
Second leg, February 27
Results
1. New Zealand Daniel Meech – Fine (name of horse), Richard Gardner – Calisto, Bruce Goodin - Backatorps Danny V, Samantha McIntosh – Check In. Team total First round: 200.22; Second round: 201.75 – Penalties 12 (jump-off 40.16 seconds) Prize €64,000
2. Ireland Cameron Hanley – Aiyetoro, David Simpson – Keoki, Paul Kennedy – Cartown Danger Mouse, Shane Breen – Laith. Team total 200.25/202.84 – P 12 (jump-off 51.79 – P17) Prize €40,000
3. Italy Luca Maria Moneta – Connery, Luca Coata – Crandessa, Simone Coata – Dardonge, Natale Chiaudani – Almero. Team total 130.82/198.-4 – P20. Prize €32,000
THE SPECS
2020 Toyota Corolla Hybrid LE
Engine: 1.8 litre combined with 16-volt electric motors
Transmission: Automatic with manual shifting mode
Power: 121hp
Torque: 142Nm
Price: Dh95,900