The Magistrate Court issued on May 20, 2016 a decision to evacuate a property in the neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah owned by Kiswani family under the pretext of ownership by the “public property guardian”.

According to the court’s decision, the occupation authorities claim that the property has been bought in the 1930s by the Jewish family “Rika” that emigrated from Syria to Israel and then left in 1948.

Hussein Kiswani, owner of the property, explained that his property is built on a 250-square meters land and consists of three residential apartments, an educational institute) and a coffee shop.

According to court, Rika family released its property from the “guardian of absentee property” in the 1990s and sold it to “Shabali” company that is owned by a Jewish investor in 2008 despite the fact that Palestinians have been living in it since 1967 and have been paying rent to the state of Israel. Since then, the company has been requesting the residents to evacuate the property under the pretext of “expiration of the contract they signed with them”.