This war with Hamas isn't about the confiscation of Muslim homes in Jerusalem

 The fighting this week has nothing to do with Israelis confiscating Palestinian homes in the old city of Jerusalem. The Palestinians riot every year at this time, to celebrate Ramadan - and to protest the Israeli “Jerusalem day” celebration. The homes in question were owned by Jews for hundreds of years prior to the 1948 war. At the start of the 1948 war, Jews were massacred in Jerusalem by their Muslim neighbors, and the Jews had to flee their homes with only the clothes on their backs. Just like in Poland after WW2, Muslims squatted in the abandoned Jewish homes. After the 1948 war ended, Jerusalem was divided into Jewish and Muslim sections, and the Muslims squatters were allowed to continue living in these Jewish homes for the next 19 years because they were now in the Muslim controlled side of Jerusalem. When Israel won the 1967 war, they unified Jerusalem and allowed the Muslims to stay in the Jewish homes that they stole during the 1948 war because the Israeli government was under intense international political pressure. 

 

Lawsuits were filed shortly after the 1967 war against both the illegal Muslim squatters AND the Israeli government by the descendants of the Jewish families who still possessed legal deeds to the “Jewish homes” that were now in the Muslim quarter. The Israeli court system acknowledged the Jewish family’s claim early on, but resisted enforcing their legitimate claims because of intense international pressure. 

 

The Israeli court system settled on allowing the original 1948 Muslim squatter families to continue to live in these Jewish homes, while paying below market rent to the Jewish owners and their descendants. The Muslim families held no title to the homes, and their property rights were not inheritable. The intent was that these families would “age out” of the homes and they would revert back to Jewish ownership.

 

The original 1948 Muslim squatters have long since “aged out”, and their descendants continued to live illegally in the homes – against the original intent of the Israeli court decisions that enshrined this special arrangement. The Jewish descendants had filed numerous lawsuits over decades, and the appeals by representatives of the Muslim squatters continued for years – until it recently reached the Israeli Supreme Court, which decided in favor of the Jewish owners. Even with the Israeli Supreme Court decision on their side, the Israeli government delayed and obstructed implementation of the inevitable eviction of the Muslim families in an effort to avoid inflaming the “Muslim Street”.

 

There is nothing easy about the conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians, and the seamline between the Muslims and Jews in the old city of Jerusalem is at the very center of the conflict. With that said, Israel is a country of laws, and the Israeli government is duty bound to enforce those laws. This isn’t about Israeli confiscation of Muslim property. It is about reclaiming Jewish property that was stolen during wartime, much like Jewish property that was stolen from Jews during WW2 and was reclaimed through the European Courts over the past 70 years.