Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By richards on February 23, 2013

Thats whats happening in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah, known in Hebrew as Shimon Ha Tzadik, where Palestinian Nabil Al-Kurd and his family share a house with a Jewish family originally from Brooklyn, New York.

It's not a happy coexistence.

Nabils mother, now in her 90s, moved into the house shortly after she had to flee her hometown of Haifa, at the outbreak of the first Arab-Israeli war, in 1948.

The Jewish family moved into the house in 2009, and today lives in three rooms of the house. Al-Kurd, a 68-year-old business owner, and 11 other members of his family live in the other four rooms, in the back.

This bizarre story of real estate and conflict began when Al-Kurd, according to his retelling, decided to do some work on the house.

Over 10 years ago I expanded my house, in order to live more comfortably with my wife and sons. But I did it without a building permit, as it had been difficult to get one, he said.

So, as soon as work was finished, an Israeli court fined me, stating also that I hadnt paid the rent for 30 years. So the judge confiscated the new construction and later entrusted it to the settlers, Al-Kurd explained.

Even though his family had been living in the house for almost 60 years, the Israeli court acknowledged the claims of the Jewish plaintiffs, who had sued claiming to be the original owners, before 1948, of the land the house was built on.

What resulted was an uneasy cohabitation between two families that hate each other. The Al Kurds, ranging in age from the patriarch Nabil to his youngest daughter Maha, 4, are sandwiched in a small space, and two sons sleep in the open outside. They enter and exit through a door on the rear of the house. The Jewish family who refused to be interviewed for this story has the rest of the house, and enters through the front door.

Often the father is the only occupant of the Jewish side of the house;his two teenaged sons sometimes visit occasionally, said Nabil Al-Kurd. Sometimes the Jewish side of the house seems to be used as a kind of meeting place or social club for settlers, with dozens of people coming and going, Al-Kurd added.

See the original post here:
Israeli, Palestinian Conflict: Unhappy Neighbors - Two Families, One Arab, The Other Jewish, Forced To Share The Same ...

Category: Jewish American Heritage Month
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