It was time for evening prayers in East Jerusalem's Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood and Mohammed Shamasneh led relatives and neighbours through the prostrations, his forehead touching a carpet he had unfurled on the street outside his home.
"In the name of God, most gracious, most merciful, Praise be to God the Cherisher and Sustainer of the worlds," he said and continued to recite the opening chapter of the Quran. When he concluded, the others responded: "Amen".
It now seems that only divine intervention can save Mr Shamasneh, 45, his four children and his parents, Ayoub, 84 and mother Fahima, 76, from imminent eviction from the home they have lived in for more than 50 years.
How it has come to this is a stark illustration of how Israeli settlers are using the Israeli legal system adeptly to transform a neighbourhood to suit their own ends.
The Shamasneh family live in an area the settlers call Shimon Hatzadik (Simeon the Just) after a Jewish high priest from the Second Temple era (530BC to 70AD) whose traditional burial site is nearby. It is a pivotal area north of the walled old city and the fate of the Shamasnehs marks another success in the settlers' campaign to change its character - and in the process deal yet another blow to any chances of a peaceful solution in which occupied East Jerusalem emerges as the capital of an independent Palestinian state.
The Shamasnehs have lived in their two-bedroom house since 1964, three years before Israel captured the area from Jordan in the 1967 war. But in 2013, the Israeli supreme court upheld lower court rulings that effectively gave the property to the right-wing settler group, the Israel Land Fund, on the grounds that it was Jewish-owned before Jordan's capture of East Jerusalem in 1948. The fund had gained the cooperation of the heir of the original Jewish owners and took the lead in the legal proceedings, which began in 2009.
Seated on a plastic chair near signs that said "No to Occupation" and "Sheikh Jarrah is Palestine", Mohammed Shamasneh, a gardener, responded sharply when asked what the family would do when evicted.
"That's a question you have to ask the government which is throwing out on to the street a family with two elderly people. In the meantime, we aren't thinking about another place. We don't have a replacement. The feeling is absolutely awful. We don't have a place to go to," he said. "My parents are taking it the hardest. They are here for tens of years. They say there is no justice in this country. If it was a Jewish elderly couple, would they do this to them?"
__________________________________________________
Read more:
[ Netanyahu's possible downfall gives Palestinians little reason for optimism ]
[ King Abdullah and Abbas agree on Al Aqsa working group ]
Will new leader of Israel's Labour party bring hope for the Palestinians?
__________________________________________________
Seven years ago, there were three such evictions in Sheikh Jarrah but due to protests and an international outcry, including condemnation from then US secretary of state Hillary Clinton, the practice was suspended. Palestinians and moderate Israelis said it was unjust for the Israeli legal system to allow Jews to retrieve pre-1948 properties in East Jerusalem while at the same time barring Palestinians from regaining their old properties in West Jerusalem.
Eyal Raz, one of a group of Israeli activists helping the Shamasneh family, says the fear is that their eviction — the order came last month and now seems inevitable — could be the start of a "long and wide" series of evictions.
When it comes to settlements, he said, the current Israeli government feels unassailable, partly because the Trump administration is willing to indulge it. A local planning committee recently gave preliminary approval for construction of a settler residential building on a site near the Shamasneh home. The building that stands there now houses 70 Palestinians.
Mr Shamasneh does not know exactly when the eviction will happen but expects it to be soon. It was originally slated for August 9 but his lawyer had managed to delay it pending a court hearing on Sunday. But a reversal of the decision is highly unlikely, since the high court has already ruled on it, he said. "The eviction is a foregone conclusion," said Danny Seidemann, head of the Israeli NGO Terrestrial Jerusalem that monitors Israeli practices in East Jerusalem.
Inside the house, whose peeling walls are adorned with Quranic inscriptions and a picture of the Kaaba in Mecca, Ayoub Shamasneh, who suffers from swollen feet and high blood pressure, was distraught. He said the planned eviction showed a lack of mercy and was unjust. "The Jews don't own one centimetre of Palestine," he said.
Settler leader Arieh King, who is head of the Israel Land Fund and a Jerusalem city councillor, disagrees.
"This property belongs to Jews," he told The National, referring to the Shamasneh house. "There is no reason why Jewish people who own property in East Jerusalem including in Shimon Hatzadik should not be allowed to live in their property. The local court, the district court and the supreme court all told them to leave. Everything we do, we do through the legal system. And we succeed."
He said his group would continue its legal battles to gain evictions of Palestinians in Sheikh Jarrah. "At the end of our plans we will get to 400 Jewish families living in this area. Today there are 26, but in 10 to 15 years it will be 400. Of course we are in the middle of court hearings to reclaim more property. " He said his group had secured another three eviction orders in the same area as the Shamasneh home.
Asked whether he thinks Arabs should have to leave all their East Jerusalem neighbourhoods, Mr King replied: "If you ask me, the best way to have peace is for them to leave. But it's not practical and I need to deal with what is realistic here in Jerusalem. Do I want it? I do, but I think it's a very small chance that it will happen."
Yemen's Bahais and the charges they often face
The Baha'i faith was made known in Yemen in the 19th century, first introduced by an Iranian man named Ali Muhammad Al Shirazi, considered the Herald of the Baha'i faith in 1844.
The Baha'i faith has had a growing number of followers in recent years despite persecution in Yemen and Iran.
Today, some 2,000 Baha'is reside in Yemen, according to Insaf.
"The 24 defendants represented by the House of Justice, which has intelligence outfits from the uS and the UK working to carry out an espionage scheme in Yemen under the guise of religion.. aimed to impant and found the Bahai sect on Yemeni soil by bringing foreign Bahais from abroad and homing them in Yemen," the charge sheet said.
Baha'Ullah, the founder of the Bahai faith, was exiled by the Ottoman Empire in 1868 from Iran to what is now Israel. Now, the Bahai faith's highest governing body, known as the Universal House of Justice, is based in the Israeli city of Haifa, which the Bahais turn towards during prayer.
The Houthis cite this as collective "evidence" of Bahai "links" to Israel - which the Houthis consider their enemy.
Other ways to buy used products in the UAE
UAE insurance firm Al Wathba National Insurance Company (AWNIC) last year launched an e-commerce website with a facility enabling users to buy car wrecks.
Bidders and potential buyers register on the online salvage car auction portal to view vehicles, review condition reports, or arrange physical surveys, and then start bidding for motors they plan to restore or harvest for parts.
Physical salvage car auctions are a common method for insurers around the world to move on heavily damaged vehicles, but AWNIC is one of the few UAE insurers to offer such services online.
For cars and less sizeable items such as bicycles and furniture, Dubizzle is arguably the best-known marketplace for pre-loved.
Founded in 2005, in recent years it has been joined by a plethora of Facebook community pages for shifting used goods, including Abu Dhabi Marketplace, Flea Market UAE and Arabian Ranches Souq Market while sites such as The Luxury Closet and Riot deal largely in second-hand fashion.
At the high-end of the pre-used spectrum, resellers such as Timepiece360.ae, WatchBox Middle East and Watches Market Dubai deal in authenticated second-hand luxury timepieces from brands such as Rolex, Hublot and Tag Heuer, with a warranty.
START-UPS IN BATCH 4 OF SANABIL 500'S ACCELERATOR PROGRAMME
Saudi Arabia
Joy: Delivers car services with affordable prices
Karaz: Helps diabetics with gamification, IoT and real-time data
Medicarri: Medical marketplace that connects clinics with suppliers
Mod5r: Makes automated and recurring investments to grow wealth
Stuck: Live, on-demand language support to boost writing
Walzay: Helps in recruitment while reducing hiring time
UAE
Eighty6: Marketplace for restaurant and supplier procurements
FarmUnboxed: Helps digitise international food supply chain
NutriCal: Helps F&B businesses and governments with nutritional analysis
Wellxai: Provides insurance that enables and rewards user habits
Egypt
Amwal: A Shariah-compliant crowd-lending platform
Deben: Helps CFOs manage cash efficiently
Egab: Connects media outlets to journalists in hard-to-reach areas for exclusives
Neqabty: Digitises financial and medical services of labour unions
Oman
Monak: Provides financial inclusion and life services to migrants
Company profile
Company name: Tuhoon
Year started: June 2021
Co-founders: Fares Ghandour, Dr Naif Almutawa, Aymane Sennoussi
Based: Riyadh
Sector: health care
Size: 15 employees, $250,000 in revenue
Investment stage: seed
Investors: Wamda Capital, Nuwa Capital, angel investors
Indika
Developer: 11 Bit Studios
Publisher: Odd Meter
Console: PlayStation 5, PC and Xbox series X/S
Rating: 4/5
UAE athletes heading to Paris 2024
Equestrian
Abdullah Humaid Al Muhairi, Abdullah Al Marri, Omar Al Marzooqi, Salem Al Suwaidi, and Ali Al Karbi (four to be selected).
Judo
Men: Narmandakh Bayanmunkh (66kg), Nugzari Tatalashvili (81kg), Aram Grigorian (90kg), Dzhafar Kostoev (100kg), Magomedomar Magomedomarov (+100kg); women's Khorloodoi Bishrelt (52kg).
Cycling
Safia Al Sayegh (women's road race).
Swimming
Men: Yousef Rashid Al Matroushi (100m freestyle); women: Maha Abdullah Al Shehi (200m freestyle).
Athletics
Maryam Mohammed Al Farsi (women's 100 metres).
Sarfira
Director: Sudha Kongara Prasad
Starring: Akshay Kumar, Radhika Madan, Paresh Rawal
Rating: 2/5
Poacher
Director: Richie Mehta
Starring: Nimisha Sajayan, Roshan Mathew, Dibyendu Bhattacharya
Rating: 3/5
Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One
Director: Christopher McQuarrie
Stars: Tom Cruise, Hayley Atwell, Pom Klementieff, Simon Pegg
Rating: 4/5
UAE Warriors 33 Results
Featherweight title
Ali Al Qaisi by Jesse Arnett by submission, round 3
Welterweight title
Josh Togo bt Tahir Abdullaev by unanimous decision
Flyweight
Iago Ribeiro bt Juan Puerta by unanimous decision
Middleweight
Yerkin Darmen bt Tyler Ray by TKO, round 3
Welterweight
Abdulla Al Bousheiri bt John Adajar by submission, round 1
Catchweight 232lb
Asylzhan Bakhytzhanuly bt Hasan Yousefi by submission, round 2
Catchweight 176lb
Alin Chirila bt Silas Robson by KO, round 1
Catchweight 176lb
Arvin Chan bt Abdi Farah by TKO, round 1
Lightweight
Ole-Jorgen Johnsen bt Nart Abida by TKO, round 1
Bantamweight
Otar Tanzilov bt Eduardo Dinis by TKO, round 3
Strawweight
Coline Biron bt Aysun Erge via submission, round 2
Welterweight
Soslan Margiev bt Mathieu Rakotondrazanany by unanimous decision
Bantamweight
Bakhromjon Ruziev bt Younes Chemali by majority decision
'Falling for Christmas'
Director: Janeen Damian
Stars: Lindsay Lohan, Chord Overstreet, Jack Wagner, Aliana Lohan
Rating: 1/5
Company name: Play:Date
Launched: March 2017 on UAE Mother’s Day
Founder: Shamim Kassibawi
Based: Dubai with operations in the UAE and US
Sector: Tech
Size: 20 employees
Stage of funding: Seed
Investors: Three founders (two silent co-founders) and one venture capital fund
More coverage from the Future Forum
COMPANY PROFILE
Company name: Revibe
Started: 2022
Founders: Hamza Iraqui and Abdessamad Ben Zakour
Based: UAE
Industry: Refurbished electronics
Funds raised so far: $10m
Investors: Flat6Labs, Resonance and various others
The biog
From: Upper Egypt
Age: 78
Family: a daughter in Egypt; a son in Dubai and his wife, Nabila
Favourite Abu Dhabi activity: walking near to Emirates Palace
Favourite building in Abu Dhabi: Emirates Palace
UAE athletes heading to Paris 2024
Equestrian
Abdullah Humaid Al Muhairi, Abdullah Al Marri, Omar Al Marzooqi, Salem Al Suwaidi, and Ali Al Karbi (four to be selected).
Judo
Men: Narmandakh Bayanmunkh (66kg), Nugzari Tatalashvili (81kg), Aram Grigorian (90kg), Dzhafar Kostoev (100kg), Magomedomar Magomedomarov (+100kg); women's Khorloodoi Bishrelt (52kg).
Cycling
Safia Al Sayegh (women's road race).
Swimming
Men: Yousef Rashid Al Matroushi (100m freestyle); women: Maha Abdullah Al Shehi (200m freestyle).
Athletics
Maryam Mohammed Al Farsi (women's 100 metres).
UAE PREMIERSHIP
Final: Dubai Hurricanes v Jebel Ali Dragons
Saturday, 8.15pm, Al Ain Amblers
Semi-final results
Dubai Exiles 20-26 Dubai Hurricanes
Dubai Tigers 32-43 Jebel Ali Dragons
Table
1 Dubai Tigers, 33 points
2 Dubai Exiles, 24 points
3 Dubai Hurricanes, 18 points
4 Jebel Ali Dragons, 14 points
5 Abu Dhabi Harlequins, 14 points
Company Profile
Founder: Omar Onsi
Launched: 2018
Employees: 35
Financing stage: Seed round ($12 million)
Investors: B&Y, Phoenician Funds, M1 Group, Shorooq Partners
LOVE AGAIN
Director: Jim Strouse
Stars: Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Sam Heughan, Celine Dion
Rating: 2/5
ANATOMY OF A FALL
Director: Justine Triet
Starring: Sandra Huller, Swann Arlaud, Milo Machado-Graner
Rating: 5/5
The bio
Favourite vegetable: Broccoli
Favourite food: Seafood
Favourite thing to cook: Duck l'orange
Favourite book: Give and Take by Adam Grant, one of his professors at University of Pennsylvania
Favourite place to travel: Home in Kuwait.
Favourite place in the UAE: Al Qudra lakes
Women’s Asia Cup
UAE fixtures
Sun Oct 2, v Sri Lanka
Tue Oct 4, v India
Wed Oct 5, v Malaysia
Fri Oct 7, v Thailand
Sun Oct 9, v Pakistan
Tue Oct 11, v Bangladesh
UAE squad
Chaya Mughal (captain), Esha Oza, Kavisha Kumari, Khushi Sharma, Theertha Satish, Lavanya Keny, Priyanjali Jain, Suraksha Kotte, Natasha Cherriath, Indhuja Nandakumar, Rishitha Rajith, Vaishnave Mahesh, Siya Gokhale, Samaira Dharnidharka, Mahika Gaur
Results
4pm: Al Bastakiya Listed US$300,000 (Dirt) 1,900m; Winner: Emblem Storm, Oisin Murphy (jockey), Satish Seemar (trainer).
4.35pm: Mahab Al Shimaal Group 3 $350,000 (D) 1,200m; Winner: Wafy, Tadhg O’Shea, Satish Seemar.
5.10pm: Nad Al Sheba Turf Group 3 $350,000 (Turf) 1,200m; Winner: Wildman Jack, Fernando Jara, Doug O’Neill.
5.45pm: Burj Nahaar Group 3 $350,000 (D) 1,600m; Winner: Salute The Soldier, Adrie de Vries, Fawzi Nass.
6.20pm: Jebel Hatta Group 1 $400,000 (T) 1,800m; Winner: Barney Roy, William Buick, Charlie Appleby.
6.55pm: Al Maktoum Challenge Round-3 Group 1 $600,000 (D) 2,000m; Winner: Matterhorn, Mickael Barzalona, Salem bin Ghadayer.
7.30pm: Dubai City Of Gold Group 2 $350,000 (T) 2,410m; Winner: Loxley, Mickael Barzalona, Charlie Appleby.
Representing UAE overseas
If Catherine Richards debuts for Wales in the Six Nations, she will be the latest to have made it from the UAE to the top tier of the international game in the oval ball codes.
Seren Gough-Walters (Wales rugby league)
Born in Dubai, raised in Sharjah, and once an immigration officer at the British Embassy in Abu Dhabi, she debuted for Wales in rugby league in 2021.
Sophie Shams (England sevens)
With an Emirati father and English mother, Shams excelled at rugby at school in Dubai, and went on to represent England on the sevens circuit.
Fiona Reidy (Ireland)
Made her Test rugby bow for Ireland against England in 2015, having played for four years in the capital with Abu Dhabi Harlequins previously.
The specs
Engine: Dual synchronous electric motors
Power: 646hp
Torque: 830Nm
Transmission: Two-speed auto (rear axle); single-speed auto (front)
Price: From Dh552,311; Dh660,408 (as tested)
On sale: now
RESULTS
5pm: Al Maha Stables – Maiden (PA) Dh80,000 (Turf) 1,400m
Winner: AF Alfahem, Tadhg O’Shea (jockey), Ernst Oetrel (trainer)
5.30pm: Al Anoud Stables – Handicap (PA) Dh80,000 (T) 1,200m
Winner: AF Musannef, Tadhg O’Shea, Ernst Oertel
6pm: Wathba Stallions Cup – Handicap (PA) Dh70,000 (T) 1,400m
Winner: AF Rasam, Tadhg O’Shea, Ernst Oertel
6.30pm: Arabian Triple Crown Round 2 – Group 3 (PA) Dh 300,000 (T) 2,200m
Winner: Joe Star, Tadhg O’Shea, Helal Al Alawi
7pm: Liwa Oasis – Group 2 (PA) Dh300,000 (T) 1,400m
Winner: AF Alajaj, Tadhg O’Shea, Ernst Oertel
7.30pm: Dames Stables – Handicap (TB) Dh80,000 (T) 1,400m
Winner: Silent Defense, Oscar Chavez, Rashed Bouresly
UAE SQUAD
Khalid Essa, Ali Khaseif, Fahad Al Dhanhani, Adel Al Hosani, Bandar Al Ahbabi, Mohammad Barghash, Salem Rashid, Khalifa Al Hammadi, Shaheen Abdulrahman, Hassan Al Mahrami, Walid Abbas, Mahmoud Khamis, Yousef Jaber, Majed Sorour, Majed Hassan, Ali Salmeen, Abdullah Ramadan, Abdullah Al Naqbi, Khalil Al Hammadi, Fabio De Lima, Khalfan Mubarak, Tahnoon Al Zaabi, Ali Saleh, Caio Canedo, Ali Mabkhout, Sebastian Tagliabue, Zayed Al Ameri