Settler group patrols West Bank for demolition targets

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"A tiny village of Palestinian families in the southern West Bank has had an unwelcome visitor in recent months.

“He comes with small weapons and his camera, sometimes with armed forces, sometimes with settlers,” Susiya resident Nasser Nawaja says.

The armed visitor is Ovad Arad, the Judea and Samaria Director of Regavim, an Israeli non-governmental organization.

Arad’s job is to roam the West Bank photographing Palestinian buildings for the group’s legal petitions, which demand the Israeli government expedite their demolitions.

Susiya, a hamlet of 350 people, including 120 children, is now at immediate risk of forced displacement as a result of Regavim’s petition, the United Nations humanitarian affairs office says."

http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=483807

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1. Court prevents eviction of Palestinian family by JNF

After two decades of legal struggle, the Ruweidi family from Silwan has been granted recognition by the courts that they are indeed the rightful owners of their home. The decision rejects the Jewish National Fund’s claim that the home is the property of the State of Israel.

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"The Jerusalem District Court ruled in favor of the Ruweidi family from East Jerusalem last week (May 2), accepting the claim that their home is not “absentee property,” as the Jewish National Fund has sought to prove in court since the 1990s. The Ruweidi family will thus be able to continue living in their home.

The JNF, operating through its subsidiary organization Himnutah and together with the rightwing organization ELAD, claimed the Ruweidi’s home was legally seized by the state. During the proceedings it turned out that the confiscation was based on a declaration made in 1987 by a Palestinian man who has no connection to the family, and is suspected of falsifying similar claims in East Jerusalem on several occasions.

Sameer abu Alaa al Ruweidi, Juma’a's nephew, expressed the family’s relief at the court’s decision:

“This house was one of the first four houses in Wadi Hilweh, built by my great great great great grandfather. First of all, we give thanks to God. We also pray that the rest of the land that we own, which has been taken by the settlers, will be returned to us, and that all of the palestinian houses that have been taken over by settlers in Jerusalem will be returned to their owners.”

The court affirmed that the house, located in the Wadi Hilweh neighborhood of Silwan and referred to as “Plot 51,” is in fact owned by Juma’a Muhammad Saalim al-Ruweidi, now 85 years old, who was born raised in the house."

http://972mag.com/court-reverses-decision-prevents-eviction-of-palestinian-family-by-jnf/45202/