The story of Al-Kurd's family begins already in 1959, when a Palestine refugee family started a new home in Sheikh Jarrah via a Jordan-UNWRA initiative.
In the beginning of the 1970's the family was for the first time mentioned in a court case demanding rent, where the property was declared to be owned by the Jewish Sephardi Community Committee. The Sheikh Jarrah families had protected tenant status as long as they paid rent but several families refused to pay, ending in their eviction.
Palestinian lawyers later brought documents from Istanbul's Ottoman archives, indicating that the Jewish organization only rented the land, and as such was not the rightful owner. When the Al-Kurd family pressed the court to look at the new evidence, they were told "it's too late".
Three years ago, police entered the home of Al-Kurd in the middle of the night. Instead of the Palestinian family, Israeli zionist settlers moved into the house on the 1st of December 2009.
Activists have been following the situation of the Al Kurd family from Sheikh Jarrah since 2009 and have kept a presence in the garden of their home ever since.
Now the family has been given 30 days by the Court of Magistrate in Jerusalem to decide whether they will give up their ownership and pay years of rent to the Jewish Sephardi Community Committee, or they might be evicted at any time.
The full background is found under:
Dispossession and Eviction in Jerusalem; the cases and stories of Sheikh Jarrah
Sheikh Jarrah: Al Kurd family faces 30 day deadline
