Mohamed Sabagh was born 70 years ago in Jerusalem.
His parents had then come from Gaza, where they fled by boat before the advance of Israeli troops, which had just been born in 1948, on the Palestinian city of Jaffa, now absorbed as a suburb of Tel Aviv.
"Then they went by camel to Hebron because the soldiers did not allow them to use the vehicles," he recalls among lemon and palm trees at his home in the Sheikh Yarrah neighborhood of East Jerusalem, where his family ended up settling down.
“They came out with what they were wearing. They left everything behind, even the keys to the house, ”he explains while showing the photograph of the El Ayami district building, now occupied by Israeli families, overlooking the port of Jafa, one of the oldest in the Holy Land. His grandparents had yet another house in the coastal city and farmland in a nearby town.
"My father always spoke to me about the sea, the scent of orange blossom, and then my mother would burst into tears," he recalls between the courtyards and gardens of Sheikh Yarrah.
"She said that they had a good relationship with the Jewish neighbors, that she did not understand why they had to leave without anything," she continues the thread of memories, while reviewing family photos of before and after the Nakba (disaster, in Arabic), the exodus of hundreds of thousands of civilians from their lands and properties after the birth of the State of Israel, which was commemorated this Saturday.
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The family finally settled in one of the dozens of little houses built in Jerusalem by the United Nations in the 1950s to host Palestinian refugees. The retired accountant Sabagh - married with seven children - worked for most of his life in the offices of Makased Hospital, which perches on the slopes of the Mount of Olives. Now he leads the fight of an entire clan - which includes the families of his four brothers, with whom he lives in the same building - to defend their homes from the threat of eviction. An organization of Jewish settlers took the lawsuit to court after seizing previous land titles from the State of Israel, which occupied the eastern part of Jerusalem in the 1967 war.
"I do not want it to happen to me like my father," expresses the fear of dozens of families.
"I want to die at home."
The one in Sabagh and seven other buildings have already received a final judgment of eviction from the Supreme Court.
Now they are fighting to freeze and cancel the execution of the ruling, which is still pending.
In an unexpected step, the Supreme Court postponed the hearing last Monday to evict six other families, in the face of the wave of protests against the expulsion of the Palestinians from Sheikh Yarrah.
The legal battle that this neighborhood has been waging for decades has become an emblem of the permanence of the Palestinians on their land after a history of dispossession.
In the building of the Sabagh clan, which has been expanding in height and area over seven decades, live a dozen children between 12 years and a few months.
"They do not sleep.
They are very afraid.
We have clashes with the settlers 24 hours a day.
Some of them already live next to me, in an evicted house ”, he expresses to reflect the fears of his daily life.
The border police (a militarized body) have sealed off the entrances to the neighborhood that now looks like a ghetto.
It only allows the accredited press, and not without restrictions.
A group of young non-resident settlers stone a police checkpoint, whose officers run after them to prevent them from confronting young Palestinians who are already preparing for a demonstration of solidarity with their neighbors.
"Violence has been a constant in recent weeks," acknowledges Bassem Sabagh, 64, Mohamed's brother.
Both are at the entrance of their house when a settler passes by who, without a word, insults them.
- "You are garbage," he blurts out after observing the photographer and the reporter who accompany them.
- "You are much worse," the brothers respond in unison.
The threat of eviction for Palestinian families living in this district north of the Old City exacerbated clashes between protesters and police that broke out in Jerusalem at the end of Ramadan a week ago. In what they denounce as a legal double standard, families that can be evicted cannot claim their properties - declared vacant due to the absence of their owners for more than three years - in territory that today is part of the State of Israel. However, following the annexation of the eastern part of the Holy City, Israeli law does allow Jews to regain their old possessions.
Two Jewish religious foundations, one Ashkenazi and one Sephardic, acquired the land around the tomb of Simon the Just, an ancient Jewish high priest, at the end of the 19th century.
After formally regaining the property in 1967, they ceded it to far-right settler associations who are now trying to evict the Palestinians.
"There was an agreement attempt in 1982 so that we could rent our houses, but nobody agreed," says Sabagh.
"It was like giving the land of Palestine to someone who wants to appropriate it, which is seen as a betrayal by our people," he emphasizes.
Mohamed Sabagh (left) and his brother observe the passage of a Jew in the Sheikh Yarrah neighborhood of Jerusalem. Edward Kaprov
“When they kicked out the first families in 2009, they stayed out in front of their houses.
For months, with no roof but heaven, with nothing ”, announces his will to continue fighting this Palestinian neighbor.
“I am going to do the same under my house.
I will not part.
I want to die here ”, abounds.
"A tree does not separate from its roots."
"Mere dispute of individuals", alleges the Government
For the Israeli government, the court battle of Sheikh Yarrah is "a mere real estate dispute between individuals", according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but for the Palestinian community, which touches 40% of the 920,000 inhabitants of Jerusalem, it is a historical emblem in the Holy City. Israel also fears that the demographic boom of the Palestinians will reverse the favorable balance for the Jewish community and therefore limits construction permits in the eastern area, where some 20,000 unlicensed buildings are pending demolition.
Hundreds of Palestinian residents risk losing their homes if justice rules in favor of Jewish settler associations in Sheikh Yarrah or other eastern neighborhoods, such as Silwan. The Israeli NGO Peace Now has counted 200 cases of houses whose Palestinian occupants are threatened with eviction.