JERUSALEM (JTA) — A room and a courtyard of a Palestinian family home in eastern Jerusalem were turned over to Jewish residents.
On Sunday, the room was sealed off from the rest of the house with metal sheeting and barbed wire, according to reports.
A Palestinian couple and their 2-year-old son had lived in the room. Seventeen other members of the family live in the rest of the house.
The home is claimed by American millionaire Irving Moskowitz, who purchased the property from the Chabad Kollel, who bought it in 1886 from the occupying Ottoman. Chabad lost the land in 1948 when Jordan took over eastern Jerusalem and it was sold to the Hamdallah family, which has lived in the home since 1952.
The Kollel regained its rights to the land after the Six-Day War, but the family remained in the home.
Moskowitz has been working through the courts to evict the family for nearly two decades. He recently succeeded in getting a court’s permission to evict the family from additions made to the property.
It is believed Moskowitz that wants to expand the Jewish enclave of Ma’aleh Hazeitim, which he helped to fund, on to the property.
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