JERUSALEM, Saturday, January 12, 2019 (WAFA) - The Israeli authority’s Law Enforcement Department has handed an order to the Sabbagh family in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah to evacuate a building it owns and where five Palestinian families live by January 23 and turn it over to Jewish settlers who claimed ownership of the building, the Civic Coalition for Palestinian Rights in Jerusalem (CCPRJ) said on Saturday.

The Sabbagh family filed a law suit at the Israeli District Court in Jerusalem in 2012 against the claim by settler groups that they own the land in question in Sheikh Jarrah.

Even though the Sabbagh family provided the court with evidence proving ownership of the land and that the setter groups’ land registration process done in 1972 was illegal and not proper and therefore claim of ownership of that plot is null and void, the court nevertheless rule in favor of the settlers on claim that the statute of ation in the case has expired.

The family, through its lawyers, appealed the ruling to the High Court on November 15, 2018, which rejected the appeal and upheld the District Court’s decision.

The family’s lawyers re-appealed the High Court’s ruling by asking for a five-judge panel instead of three, and this was rejected as well, which left the eviction of the five families imminent, said CCPRJ.

K.T./M.K.