Just who are the rightful owners?

“IF YOU are the owner of the property, and someone was squatting on your property, wouldn’t you have the right to take him from your property?”

It was a question asked by Aryeh King, deputy mayor of Jerusalem in response to the eviction of Palestinian residents from East Jerusalem’s Sheik Jarrah neighbourhood.

King, like the Israeli government, portrays the current conflict as a private matter between the owners of the homes and tenants.

According to this perspective, the owners are Jewish families who bought the land in 1875. In 1948, Jordan invaded, kicked out the Jews and gave the houses to the current tenants. In 1967, the Israelis regained control of the area and allowed Jewish families to start a process to get back the homes.

Recently, the courts decided that some of the tenants should be evicted, sparking the current violence.

However, based on the logic of King, the founding and continued existence of Israel becomes questionable.

Britain took control of Palestine at the end of World War I. After World War II, the UN proposed a plan to divide Palestine into two parts – one Jewish and one Arab. The majority of the people who lived in the area, Palestinians, were opposed to the plan but it went ahead nevertheless.

May 15th is commemorated annually as “Memory of the Catastrophe”. It was the day in 1948 Britain gave up control of Palestine and Israel was born.

The people who had lived on the land had to make way for Jews. It is estimated that between 1947 and 1949 about 750 000 Palestinians were expelled from their towns and villages. Most fled to neighbouring countries where they continue to live as refugees.

If the Jewish homeowners in Sheik Jarrah have a right to their homes, shouldn’t the refugees also be entitled to get back what was theirs?