Court rules against 2 Palestinian evictions in Jerusalem

A Jerusalem court threw out two cases seeking to evict Palestinian families from their East Jerusalem homes, activists said Sunday. Litigants close to settler organization Elad said the Qaraeen and Farag family homes in East Jerusalem neighborhood Silwan were their property, but the Jerusalem Magistrates Court rejected the claims on Thursday, the Wadi Hilweh Information Center said. Silwan families have lost a number of homes to demolitions and evictions by Israeli forces. The Sumarin family, who live at the entrance to the neighborhood, face a pending eviction order after their home was transferred by the government to the Jewish National Fund. Silwan -- adjacent to the Old City's Dome of the Rock compound and Western Wall -- is a focus of Israeli settler moves into East Jerusalem. Jewish settlers illegally built seven-story building Beit Yonatan in Silwan, and a number of court orders decreeing its eviction have never been implemented. Israel insists that Jerusalem is its "eternal and indivisible" capital, and annexed the city's eastern sector after a 1967 war in a move never recognized by the international community. For Palestinians, East Jerusalem is the capital of their promised state.