ISRAEL’S Supreme Court offered Palestinian families in the district of Sheikh Jarrah in occupied East Jerusalem so-called “protected status” today, preventing forced expulsion but failing to give them ownership of their homes.
Under the deal, the four Palestinian families who appeared in court would be required to pay rent to Israeli settler organisation Nahalat Shimon, stripping them of ownership of the homes they have lived in since they were driven off their land when the state of Israel was created in 1948.
The protected-status offer, which the families are believed to have rejected, means that they could not be forcibly removed from their homes for years — but would make them mere tenants of buildings they bought years ago.
Police crackdowns on Israeli peace demonstrators combined with court rulings and settler organisations are designed to strip Palestinian families of their homes and land. The Israeli state has tried to silence both Israelis and Palestinians who resist, according to Zo HaDerekh (This Is The Way) the Communist Party of Israel’s Hebrew-language weekly
Labour's Emily Thornberry calls on PM to ban goods from Israel-held Palestinian territory
Given the recent rejection of peace proposals by Israel the world must provide an immediate and resolute response to force accountability on Gaza, argues RAMZY BAROUD
Bezalel Smotrich’s measures to extend Israeli property law into the West Bank are a continuation of a decades-long project to dispossess Palestinians and preclude statehood, argues HUGH LANNING



