JULY 2000, pages 47, 86

Jerusalem Journal

Hebrew University Seeks to Remove Forcibly Five Palestinian Families From Land It Has Seized

By Matthew Brubacher

For 87-year-old Aisha Aqel , receiving the renewed house demolition order last week from Israel’s Jerusalem Municipality came as no surprise. Her home and the five dunums of family property have been coveted for decades by both the university and, later, the neighboring Hyatt Regency Hotel since the property was confiscated by the Israeli government in 1968.

The most recent action brought back memories of being awakened in the middle of the night by Hebrew University’s bulldozers in the 1970s and being able to protect her house only by making herself and her children into a human shield, covering the front lawn with their bodies and waving a white flag. But, for Aisha, the flag did not symbolize surrender, but rather that neither her family nor the four neighboring families who joined them then would relinquish their homes so long as they were alive.

Hebrew University was founded in 1925, “pursuant to Zionist aspirations,” atop the crest of Jerusalem’s Mount Scopus. The fighting of 1948 left it isolated in an Israeli-controlled enclave surrounded by Arab-controlled East Jerusalem for 19 years. Then, with the conquest of East Jerusalem and the West Bank by Israeli forces in 1967, the university was reconnected to West Jerusalem and it began seeking to expand into the newly confiscated lands. However, five Palestinian families, including Aisha’s, refused to leave.

Today, some 32 years after Hebrew University gained access to the surrounding property, the five small houses remain as an irritating reminder of the fact that the former occupants have never given up their rights to the site.

Since 1968, the university has spared no expense to pursuade the families to move. Aisha and her 98-year-old husband, Jamil, recall being given blank checks by the university and various proposals for housing in neighboring areas.

“They offered us small pieces of land below the Hyatt and out in Beit Haninna,” said Nihad Aqel, Aisha’s daughter, “but we won’t leave our land here and, anyway, the land they offered us doesn’t really belong to them.”

Nihad, who is an American citizen who lived in Chicago for 14 years before returning in 1983 to live with her parents, says she remembers when her parents built their house in 1951. “Our family had around 300 dunums of property in Lifta,” she says, refering to a Palestinian village in West Jerusalem from which the family had to flee when it was occupied by Israeli forces in 1948.

“Now they want us to move again, but we have nowhere else to go. This is the last place our family has,” Nihad said.

On April 21, to finish the standoff with the families, Hebrew University issued a compaint to the Israeli District Court reprimanding the Municipality and the Police Department for not removing the families. Pursuant to a favorable court ruling on May 11, the order was given to the Aqel family to both vacate their property in 24 hours and destroy it.

According to Jerusalem Municipal practice, in house demolitions such as the six carried out in Azzaria earlier this month, the evicted families are billed a service charge of some $1,000 to pay for the forced demolition of each home.

Hebrew University receives much of its funding from abroad. So when foreign journalists began to question the university’s high-handed actions, university president Menachem Migador explained in a carefully worded response that the “history of the land is long and complex.” He charged that the university had made “numerous generous offers to the Aqels for compensation.” However, he said, when, instead of acceding, the Aqels added an additional room to their house, they left the university with “no option.” In anticipation of the clearing of the property, the university has already made plans to expand its dormitories and build a parking lot over the land presently occupied by the five Palestinian families.

Despite the university administration’s ability to enforce its claims, removing the families will inevitably be an uphill battle that will create deep resentment both abroad and even in Israel. Already, several demonstrations have been held at the Aqel family’s residence, with supporters ranging from Palestinians Legislative Council members to groups of Hebrew University students.

Israeli MK Azmi Bishara of the National Democratic Alliance, whose members are mostly Israeli Palestinians, has brought the issue to the attention of the Israeli Knesset. “The university cannot serve as a tool of the occupation,” stated Bishara, a long-time supporter of the families and alumni of Hebrew University. “The [Israeli] academics pay lip service to peace and brotherhood until it comes to their own interests.”

As the university wishes to avoid the bad publicity of a forceful eviction, especially during its 75th anniversary celebrations this year, the family’s lawyer has successfully delayed the demolition of the homes for one month, with an appeal to the Israeli SupremeCourt.

Commenting on the support received by the families, Issam Aqel, son of Aisha and an American citizen himself, says that the demonstrations will not stop. “The university opened the war and we are going to win it,” said Issam, who worked for UNWRA and lives in the small one-story house along with almost a dozen other family members.

He explains that the strategy of the university over the past 28 years has been to wait until the old generation dies and hope the second and third generations aren’t as attached to the land. “The university is mistaken,” he adds. “The new [Palestinian] generation is tied more strongly to the land and we have the connections to hold on to it.”

Issam hopes his American citizenship will strengthen the ability of the families to continue to occupy their property. However, in Tel Aviv, U.S. spokesperson Larry Schwartz told the Washington Report that the likelihood of American intervention in this case is slim.

“Property owned by U.S. citizens outside the United States is under the law of the local authority,” Schwartz said. He added that U.S. non-recognition of Israeli sovereignty over Jerusalem makes little difference.

Regardless of the unwillingness of the U.S. Embassy to intervene in the matter, the families are adamant in their refusal to leave. For Aisha and Jamil Aqel, who say they can hardly recognize their former land anymore in West Jerusalem, this is their final stand. Pointing to a knotted pine tree which she planted in 1951, Aisha says she has gone as far as she can go.

Matthew Brubacher is a free-lance journalist and human rights activist based in Jerusalem.