he struggle continues for the al-Kurd family as their tent was destroyed for the fifth time yesterday morning (22 February 2008) by Israeli forces. The family’s tent was hauled away in a truck and the electric company came to cut the electricity that the family had been using. The al-Kurd family was left with their few belongings strewn about the area near where the tent had previously been erected. Once the Israeli authorities left the scene, the family along with activists began the cleanup process. Many of the belongings were covered with tarps to protect them from the light rain that had been falling throughout the morning. Within the hour, a new, smaller, tent was brought out and the family, along with activists and supporters, began setting up the new tent.
The family has been living in a tent on a friend’s privately owned property since 14 November 2008, following their eviction from their own home on 9 November 2008. This is not the first time the al-Kurd family has been forced by the state of Israel to leave their home. The first time was in 1948, when she and her family were forced out of their home in Talbyieh (Jerusalem).
قدس برس - هدمت سلطات الاحتلال الإسرائيلي، وللمرة الخامسة على التوالي، خيمة الصمود; التي أقامتها عائلة أم كامل الكرد وأهالي حي الشيخ جراح بالقدس المحتلة، بعد طردها من منزلها لصالح جماعات يهودية متطرفة، وذلك للمرة الخامسة. |
| وقال شهود عيان إنّ أعداداً كبيرة من جنود الاحتلال والخيالة والمخابرات وضابط المنطقة منير بركات، طوقت الأرض وقاموا بإخراج الموطن ;أم كامل; وبعض مواطني الحي بالقوة وتحت تهديد السلاح. وعلى إثر ذلك قامت هذه القوات باعتقال المتضامنين الأجانب واقتيادهم لمنطقة مجهولة قبل شروعها بهدم الخيمة |
| ورغ م تهديدات القوات الإسرائيلية وشرطة الاحتلال، باعتقال كل من يشارك في نصب الخيمة مرة أخرى، قام العشرات من أهالي حي الشيخ جراح، بنصب الخيمة من جديدة بعد ربع ساعة فقط من قيام بلدية القدس الاحتلالية بتجريف الخيمة التي أصبحت عنوان صمود المقدسيين في حي الشيخ جراح بالقدس المحتلة. |
| ويرى المواطنون المقدسيون أنّ خطوة إقامة الخيمة مجدداً تمثل تحدياً لإرادة الاحتلال، الذي طرد عائلة من منزلها وسلّمه لجماعات يهودية متطرفة |
| وكانت سلطات الاحتلال داهمت منطقة الشيخ جراح بأعداد كبيرة من الجنود وحرس الحدود والشرطة، وأزالت خيمة الصمود المقامة على أرض يملكها المواطن كمال عبيدات |
Since July 2008, the international community has expressed objections to the eviction, including, in July, the US State Department, which brought forward an official complaint to the Israeli government over the eviction of the al-Kurd family, openly questioning the legality of terms on which the Israeli Jewish settler group claimed to have purchased the land.
The family patriarch, Abu Kamel al-Kurd, died on 23 November, two weeks after he and his family were evicted from their home in Sheikh Jarrah.
According to the Jerusalem Municipality, there are plans to use the privately owned land on which the al-Kurd family protest tent stands as a parking lot.
History of Sheik Jarrah Neighborhood
The Sheik Jarrah neighborhood in East Jerusalem was built by the UN and the Jordanian government in 1956, to house Palestinians refugees from the 1948 war. A part of the agreement between the UN and the Jordanian government was that three years after building the housing units (i.e. 15 November 1959) the estate will become owned by the family living in it.
The al-Kurd family moved to the area in 1956, after they had fled from Jaffa and West Jerusalem.
Settlers in the Home
When the al-Kurd family decided in 1999 to build an extension to their house, in order to make it more comfortable for the elder of the family, the Israeli courts declared this construction illegal and fined the family.
Afterwards, settlers occupied this new extension, which measured approximately 80 square meters. Even though the settlers’ claim of the land had been revoked by the Israeli courts in 2006, the Jerusalem Municipality confiscated the key to the extension from the al-Kurd family and gave it to the Israeli settlers. Since that time, armed guards have protected the settlers living in the confiscated section of the al-Kurd home, the settlers’ front door only steps away from that of the al-Kurd family.
In July 2007, the Israeli High Court ruled that the settlers should be evicted from the al-Kurd home, but the settlers refused to leave and the Israeli police failed to enforce this court order.
Opposing the previous decision, on 14 July 2008, the Supreme Court issued a judgment in favor of the settlers, ordering the expulsion of the al-Kurd family. When the al-Kurd family received the eviction order in July 2008, it was for their refusal to pay rent to the settlers for use of the land. 
