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''' '' HOUSE JERUSALEM
HOSTS '' '''
IN ONE HOUSE - JERUSALEM'S STRUGGLE IN ONE HOUSE - a city's unending, ever complicated and complex fight. A repeat to the dynamic that led to the war in Gaza looms and grows in East Jerusalem.
MR. RAJABI AND MR. TANAMI LIVE ON the valley's eastern slope, in a neighborhood known to Palestinians as Batan aI Hawa and to some Israelis as the Yemenite Village.
From their windows you can see the glint of the Dome of the Rock, the shrine built where Muslims faith and believe that Prophet Muhammad [PBUH] ascended to heaven. Near the shrine is the Aqsa Mosque, sacred to Muslims.
And the compound is built on the ruins of the Second Temple, a site sacred to Jews, which has turned the surrounding areas like Silwan into ones coveted by Jewish settlers.
FOR 17 YEARS - THE RAJABAI AND TANAMI FAMILIES have shared this very house and locality uneasily. The two families barely speak to each other, except when the Tanamis accidentally drop laundry or toys from their balcony onto the Rajabis' downstairs terrace, forcing the families to negotiate an awkward handover.
Mr.Tanami installed a giant neon-lit star of David on his balcony, just 10 yards above Mr. Rajabi's terrace. Mr. Rajabi responded by erecting his own neon Islamic crescent.
On a recent night, Mr. Rajabi glanced up from his terrace to see Mr. Tanami on his balcony, texting on his phone, the screen illuminating his face.
''How should I talk to him?'' asked Mr. Rajabi, 48. ''Is he a neighbor? Or someone living in a house that is not his?''
[Mr. Tanami declined several interview requests].
How the two families ended up in the same house is complicated. Mr. Rajabi's relatives built the house and his family bought it from them in 1975, his lawyer said. In the 1980s, the family divided it into two parts and sold an apartment on first and second floors to a Palestinian family. The family later sold it to a third Palestinian owner.
The third owner sold his apartment to a settler organization in 2000, the organization said. But according to Mr. Rajabi, the third owner sold the apartment back to him in 2004.
In March 2004, a few days before Mr. Rajabi planned to move some of his family into the apartment, the settler group took over the apartment late one night, locked out Mr. Rajabi, and allowed Mr. Tanami to take his place.
Israeli courts ruled that the settlers had bought the apartment legally.
In a separate ruling, a court said a Jewish trust also has the right to the entire building because the land belonged to the trust before the foundation of the Israeli state in 1948.
The trust was dormant for years. But in 2001 a court appointed three new trustees to manage its assets, essentially reviving the organization.
Claiming all the land held by the trust in the 19th century, the revived organization wants to take over not just Mr. Rajabi's property, but the whole neighborhood.
Jewish settlers have already moved into five other homes on or near Mr. Rajabi's alley. Now they are pushing to evict more than 80 other families, numbering about 700 people, a move that would turn a Palestinian neighborhood of Silwan into a Jewish one.
The courts have already approved six other homes for eviction in cases that are also on appeal.
Ateret Cohanim, a settler group that spearheaded the revival of the trust and advocates for residents like Mr. Tanami, says the Jews have the right to live on the property because they lived there not just during the 19th century, but also in antiquity.
''We were promised this land from God, we were kept in exile for 2,000 years, and now we're back home,'' said Daniel Luria, a spokesman for Ateret Cohanim. ''There's never been a Palestinian people here. There's never been a Palestinian state here.''
FEW PLACES IN EAST JERUSALEM SHOW the struggle over the city more intimately than a four-story house on a narrow alley in the Silwan district. Nasser Rajabi, a Palestinian, and his family live in the basement, third floor and part of the second.
Boaz Tanami, an Israeli settler, and his family live on the first floor and the rest of the second. Each claims the right to live there. Each wants the other out.
An Israeli court has ruled that a Jewish trust owns the building and ordered the eviction of Mr. Rajabi, but the ruling is under appeal.
The case is not just a dispute over a single property : It is part of an effort by Jewish settlers to cement Jewish control of East Jerusalem, a process many Palestinians see as a slow form of ethic cleansing.
A similar dispute in the nearby neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah, which could lead to the eviction of Palestinians there to make room for settlers, led to protests, clashes and finally war last month between Israel and Hamas, killing more than 240 people.
Captured by Israel in 1967 but still considered occupied territory by much of the world, East Jerusalem remains a constant flash point between Israelis and Palestinians.
Like Sheikh Jarrah, Silwan has the potential to become a powder keg. ''Stones, Molotov cocktails, concrete blocks,'' said Mr.Lauria, the spokesman for Ateret Cohanim. ''We're talking about enormous amounts of aggression and hatred aimed towards the Jew because he is a Jew.''
Palestinians in the neighborhood speak of frequent detentions, raids on their homes, and the police use of tear gas and stun grenades. During a recent confrontation, a tear-gas canister flew onto Mr. Rajabi's terrace, damaging an armchair.
''You're living in a constant state of fear,'' Mr. Rajabi said.
The Sufferings and Sadness of the entire conflict and this publishing is shared by the students of the entire world. The World Students Society thanks authors Patrick Kingsley, Adam Rasgon, Myra Novek and Dan Balilty.
With respectful dedication to past, present and future leaders of the world, and then Students, Professors and Teachers. See Ya all prepare and register for Great Global Elections on The World Students Society : wssciw.blogspot. com and Twitter - !E-WOW! - The Ecosystem 2011 :
''' Struggles & Stirrings '''
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