Letters Opposing Evictions in Sheikh Jarrah
Ecumenical letter opposing evictions
The Hon Marc Garneau, P.C, M.P.
House of Commons
80 Wellington Street
Ottawa, ON K1A 0A2
Marc.Garneau@international.gc.ca
Marc.Garneau@parl.gc.ca
April 19, 2021
RE: Ecumenical letter opposing evictions and demolitions of Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem
Dear Minister Garneau,
Greetings. We hope this finds you and your colleagues well.
We represent Christian denominations, church agencies, ecumenical organizations and networks who work with long-standing Palestinian and Israeli partners towards a just and lasting peace. Our concerns are based on our long-term engagements in the region, our many church-to-church partnerships, and our longstanding relationships with both Palestinians and Israelis working for peace.
We draw your attention to the urgent plight of Palestinian families facing imminent evictions from their homes, in the Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan neighbourhoods in occupied East Jerusalem. According to Geneva Convention IV (Part III, Section III), this is a clear violation of the Palestinian people's inalienable right to their homes and lands.
Israeli courts ruled in favour of two of the main settler organizations pushing these evictions: Nahalat Shimon International and Ateret Cohanim. Through Palestinian and Israeli ecumenical partners, we have learned that fifteen families totaling 37 households and 195 individuals have been notified that they must vacate their homes by May 2, 2021. Human rights experts say the evictions are not random but strategic and systematic as they are carried out repeatedly, are based on ethnic identity and are aimed at changing the demography of East Jerusalem.
Israel’s domestic laws, used as the basis for the claims to evict the families, do not exempt Israel, as an occupying power, from meeting its obligations to provide protection for the local population. On the contrary, Israel’s administration is in violation of international humanitarian and international human rights laws, specifically Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which prohibits forcible transfers as well as deportations of protected people from occupied territory. We reiterate our strong opposition to Israel’s annexation and settlement policies, and the impunity in the actions of the occupation, which undermine the possibility of a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in the region.
We urge that:
i. Canada publicly condemn the evictions from, and demolitions of, Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem and call on Israel to immediately reverse the rulings on the intended evictions and halt its settlements policy;
ii. Canada live up to its obligations and commitments to protect and promote human rights and international law without exception;
iii. Canada, together with the international community, denounce the norm of impunity and the ongoing human rights violations.
We look forward to your reply, and to working with you toward a just and lasting peace for all the peoples of the region.
Sincerely,
Anglican Church of Canada
Lana Robinson, Clerk, Canadian Friends Service Committee
Canadian Friends of Sabeel
Catholics for Justice and Peace in the Holy Land
The Rev. Susan C. Johnson, National Bishop, Evangelical Lutheran Church In Canada
KAIROS: Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiatives
Mennonite Central Committee Canada
Mennonite Church Canada Palestine-Israel Network
Presbyterian Church of Canada
Rev. Michael Blair, General Secretary, General Council, The United Church of Canada
George Bartlett, Chair, United Network for Justice and Peace in Palestine-Israel
Cc:
Party Foreign Affairs critics
Rob Oliphant: Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs
Iqra Khalid, Chair, Standing Committee of Justice and Human Rights
Randall Garrison, NDP Justice Critic
The Honourable Rob Moore, Conservative Justice Critic
Rhéal Fortin, Bloc Québecois Justice Critic
Troy Lulashnyk, Director, Middle East & the Maghreb, Global Affairs Canada
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House of Commons
80 Wellington Street
Ottawa, ON K1A 0A2
Marc.Garneau@international.gc.ca
Marc.Garneau@parl.gc.ca
April 19, 2021
RE: Ecumenical letter opposing evictions and demolitions of Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem
Dear Minister Garneau,
Greetings. We hope this finds you and your colleagues well.
We represent Christian denominations, church agencies, ecumenical organizations and networks who work with long-standing Palestinian and Israeli partners towards a just and lasting peace. Our concerns are based on our long-term engagements in the region, our many church-to-church partnerships, and our longstanding relationships with both Palestinians and Israelis working for peace.
We draw your attention to the urgent plight of Palestinian families facing imminent evictions from their homes, in the Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan neighbourhoods in occupied East Jerusalem. According to Geneva Convention IV (Part III, Section III), this is a clear violation of the Palestinian people's inalienable right to their homes and lands.
Israeli courts ruled in favour of two of the main settler organizations pushing these evictions: Nahalat Shimon International and Ateret Cohanim. Through Palestinian and Israeli ecumenical partners, we have learned that fifteen families totaling 37 households and 195 individuals have been notified that they must vacate their homes by May 2, 2021. Human rights experts say the evictions are not random but strategic and systematic as they are carried out repeatedly, are based on ethnic identity and are aimed at changing the demography of East Jerusalem.
Israel’s domestic laws, used as the basis for the claims to evict the families, do not exempt Israel, as an occupying power, from meeting its obligations to provide protection for the local population. On the contrary, Israel’s administration is in violation of international humanitarian and international human rights laws, specifically Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which prohibits forcible transfers as well as deportations of protected people from occupied territory. We reiterate our strong opposition to Israel’s annexation and settlement policies, and the impunity in the actions of the occupation, which undermine the possibility of a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in the region.
We urge that:
i. Canada publicly condemn the evictions from, and demolitions of, Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem and call on Israel to immediately reverse the rulings on the intended evictions and halt its settlements policy;
ii. Canada live up to its obligations and commitments to protect and promote human rights and international law without exception;
iii. Canada, together with the international community, denounce the norm of impunity and the ongoing human rights violations.
We look forward to your reply, and to working with you toward a just and lasting peace for all the peoples of the region.
Sincerely,
Anglican Church of Canada
Lana Robinson, Clerk, Canadian Friends Service Committee
Canadian Friends of Sabeel
Catholics for Justice and Peace in the Holy Land
The Rev. Susan C. Johnson, National Bishop, Evangelical Lutheran Church In Canada
KAIROS: Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiatives
Mennonite Central Committee Canada
Mennonite Church Canada Palestine-Israel Network
Presbyterian Church of Canada
Rev. Michael Blair, General Secretary, General Council, The United Church of Canada
George Bartlett, Chair, United Network for Justice and Peace in Palestine-Israel
Cc:
Party Foreign Affairs critics
Rob Oliphant: Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs
Iqra Khalid, Chair, Standing Committee of Justice and Human Rights
Randall Garrison, NDP Justice Critic
The Honourable Rob Moore, Conservative Justice Critic
Rhéal Fortin, Bloc Québecois Justice Critic
Troy Lulashnyk, Director, Middle East & the Maghreb, Global Affairs Canada
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Call to ICC to Open Investigation into Imminent Forced Evictions in Sheikh Jarrah
16 April 2021
Ms. Fatou Bensouda,
Prosecutor Office of the Prosecutor
International Criminal Court
Oude Waalsdorperweg 10
The Hague, The Netherlands
Urgent: Call to Open Investigation into Imminent Forced Evictions in Sheikh Jarrah
Dear Ms. Fatou Bensouda,
We, the undersigned, are representatives of 500 Palestinian refugees residing in the Karm Al-Ja’ouni area of the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood in occupied East Jerusalem, Palestine, at risk of forced eviction by Israel, the Occupying Power. Amidst this global pandemic, eight families totalling 87 Palestinians, are at imminent risk of forced eviction. Unlawfully applying Israeli domestic law to an occupied territory, Israeli courts have ruled in favour of lawsuits undertaken by settler organisations to evict the eight Palestinian families. Israel’s Jerusalem District Court has ordered four families to leave their homes by 2 May 2021 and three other families by 1 August 2021.1 For this reason, immediate action by your Office is necessary to forestall the displacement of these Palestinian families from their homes in East Jerusalem.
We, and the co-sponsoring organizations, call on your Office to initiate an immediate investigation into the imminent forced displacement of Palestinians from Sheikh Jarrah, and the related war crimes and crimes against humanity on the territory of Palestine of which this action is but the latest example.
Read more/Download PDF Copy of the Letter
Ms. Fatou Bensouda,
Prosecutor Office of the Prosecutor
International Criminal Court
Oude Waalsdorperweg 10
The Hague, The Netherlands
Urgent: Call to Open Investigation into Imminent Forced Evictions in Sheikh Jarrah
Dear Ms. Fatou Bensouda,
We, the undersigned, are representatives of 500 Palestinian refugees residing in the Karm Al-Ja’ouni area of the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood in occupied East Jerusalem, Palestine, at risk of forced eviction by Israel, the Occupying Power. Amidst this global pandemic, eight families totalling 87 Palestinians, are at imminent risk of forced eviction. Unlawfully applying Israeli domestic law to an occupied territory, Israeli courts have ruled in favour of lawsuits undertaken by settler organisations to evict the eight Palestinian families. Israel’s Jerusalem District Court has ordered four families to leave their homes by 2 May 2021 and three other families by 1 August 2021.1 For this reason, immediate action by your Office is necessary to forestall the displacement of these Palestinian families from their homes in East Jerusalem.
We, and the co-sponsoring organizations, call on your Office to initiate an immediate investigation into the imminent forced displacement of Palestinians from Sheikh Jarrah, and the related war crimes and crimes against humanity on the territory of Palestine of which this action is but the latest example.
Read more/Download PDF Copy of the Letter
Open Letter to Marc Garneau (by The Palestinian Canadian Academics and Artists Network (PCAAN))
Open Letter to Marc Garneau, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Government of Canada, Re: Ethnic Cleansing of Sheikh Jarrah, East Jerusalem
Rasha Budeiri is a Canadian citizen who was born and raised in Jerusalem, Palestine. The Israeli occupying power is in the process of confiscating her maternal grandparents’ home, where her parents currently reside. Rasha’s family home is in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah.
Today, over 1,500 Palestinians from neighborhoods in East Jerusalem, including Sheikh Jarrah, are facing the imminent threat of forcible transfer, illegal under the Rome Stature of the International Criminal Court and the Fourth Geneva Convention. A significant number of children are among those threatened with homelessness.
Recently, an Israeli civilian court, which, under international law, has no jurisdiction in East Jerusalem, ruled in favor of Jewish settlers and has given 4 families in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood until May 2, 2021 to vacate their homes. Three other families, including Rasha’s, were ordered to leave by August 1st. There is also a looming threat of massive home demolitions in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan.
Rasha’s grandparents raised 6 children, and when they passed away, the legacy of love and the care for the house and its neighbourhood was passed down to aunts and uncles, and eventually to grandchildren. But now, there is an order for the ethnic cleansing of the neighborhood and that includes her parents from their multi-generational home.
To cement the Palestinian dispossession and displacement in East Jerusalem, Israel enacted the Legal and Administrative Matters Law in 1970, which facilitates the transfer of Palestinian property in the occupied Palestinian territory (OPT) to Jewish settlers. According to the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel (Adalah), there are over 65 Israeli laws – applied by the occupying power in both the OPT and Israel – that discriminate against Palestinian Arabs on the basis of their nationality
Similar to Rasha Budeiri’s family, in 1948, the El-Kurd family were dispossessed of their land and homes in Haifa by the newly formed state of Israel. With many other families they had moved into the Sheikh Jarrah district of East Jerusalem as part of a 1956 UNRWA agreement in which UNRWA provided the housing of 28 Palestinian refugee families who were displaced in 1948, without prejudice to the families right to return to the original homes, villages and towns from which they were displaced. According to the agreement, each family was allotted a house and a plot of land in Karm al-Jaouni in Sheikh Jarrah.
As an occupying power Israel is prohibited from transferring its own civilian population into the territory it occupies. Such practices constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity under international humanitarian law and international criminal law. They are, however, supported by Israeli courts which have ruled in favour of lawsuits undertaken by settler organisations to forcibly evict many Palestinian families. Settler groups using false and spurious claims are implementing a creeping takeover of Palestinian dwellings, and openly plan to forcibly transfer more families who have lived in the neighborhood for generations. Outrageously, those Palestinian families are then ordered to pay the courts to cover the legal costs of the settler organisations.
The United Nations (UN) Security Council has repeatedly affirmed that East Jerusalem is occupied territory and that Israeli civilian courts do not, thereby, possess any jurisdiction in that part of the city. Thus, resolution 476 (1980) affirms that “all legislative and administrative measures and actions taken by Israel, the occupying Power, which purport to alter the character and status of the Holy City of Jerusalem have no legal validity and constitute a flagrant violation of the Fourth
Geneva Convention”, and that “all such measures which have altered the geographic, demographic and historical character and status of the Holy City of Jerusalem are null and void and must be rescinded in compliance with the relevant resolutions of the Security Council.” These affirmations are in keeping with the erga omnes obligations of all states, including Canada, to ensure respect for the Fourth Geneva Convention (art. 1) in the whole of the OPT, including East Jerusalem, and to respect and bring to fruition the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination in whole of that territory in accordance with international law. To this end, Security Council resolution 2334 (2016) called “upon all States” including Canada, “to distinguish, in their relevant dealings, between the territory of the State of Israel and the territories occupied since 1967.”
Minister Garneau, it is in light of the clear requirements of international law as affirmed by the UN Security Council that Canada “does not recognize Israel's unilateral annexation of East Jerusalem”, “recognizes the Palestinian right to self-determination”, and “supports the creation of a sovereign, independent, viable, democratic and territorially contiguous Palestinian state”. Therefore, if Canada’s commitment to its obligations under international law and its own stated policy are to be given effect, we call upon the Canadian government to immediately:
• Exercise all reasonable efforts to ensure that Israel, the occupying power, ceases and desists from any and all actions to depopulate occupied East Jerusalem, including Sheikh Jarrah, and other portions of the OPT of its Palestinian population.
• Exercise all reasonable efforts to ensure that Israel to accepts its obligations to provide adequate restitution to those Palestinians who have been forcibly transferred from their homes in occupied East Jerusalem, including at Sheikh Jarrah, and the rest of the OPT, namely through allowing them to return to their stolen property and providing Palestinian victims with appropriate compensation for damages suffered.
• Remind Israel that any further forcible transfers of Palestinians from occupied East Jerusalem, including from Sheikh Jarrah, and the rest of the OPT may give rise to individual criminal responsibility under the Rome Statute.
Sincerely,
The Palestinian Canadian Academics and Artists Network (PCAAN)
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Rasha Budeiri is a Canadian citizen who was born and raised in Jerusalem, Palestine. The Israeli occupying power is in the process of confiscating her maternal grandparents’ home, where her parents currently reside. Rasha’s family home is in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah.
Today, over 1,500 Palestinians from neighborhoods in East Jerusalem, including Sheikh Jarrah, are facing the imminent threat of forcible transfer, illegal under the Rome Stature of the International Criminal Court and the Fourth Geneva Convention. A significant number of children are among those threatened with homelessness.
Recently, an Israeli civilian court, which, under international law, has no jurisdiction in East Jerusalem, ruled in favor of Jewish settlers and has given 4 families in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood until May 2, 2021 to vacate their homes. Three other families, including Rasha’s, were ordered to leave by August 1st. There is also a looming threat of massive home demolitions in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan.
Rasha’s grandparents raised 6 children, and when they passed away, the legacy of love and the care for the house and its neighbourhood was passed down to aunts and uncles, and eventually to grandchildren. But now, there is an order for the ethnic cleansing of the neighborhood and that includes her parents from their multi-generational home.
To cement the Palestinian dispossession and displacement in East Jerusalem, Israel enacted the Legal and Administrative Matters Law in 1970, which facilitates the transfer of Palestinian property in the occupied Palestinian territory (OPT) to Jewish settlers. According to the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel (Adalah), there are over 65 Israeli laws – applied by the occupying power in both the OPT and Israel – that discriminate against Palestinian Arabs on the basis of their nationality
Similar to Rasha Budeiri’s family, in 1948, the El-Kurd family were dispossessed of their land and homes in Haifa by the newly formed state of Israel. With many other families they had moved into the Sheikh Jarrah district of East Jerusalem as part of a 1956 UNRWA agreement in which UNRWA provided the housing of 28 Palestinian refugee families who were displaced in 1948, without prejudice to the families right to return to the original homes, villages and towns from which they were displaced. According to the agreement, each family was allotted a house and a plot of land in Karm al-Jaouni in Sheikh Jarrah.
As an occupying power Israel is prohibited from transferring its own civilian population into the territory it occupies. Such practices constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity under international humanitarian law and international criminal law. They are, however, supported by Israeli courts which have ruled in favour of lawsuits undertaken by settler organisations to forcibly evict many Palestinian families. Settler groups using false and spurious claims are implementing a creeping takeover of Palestinian dwellings, and openly plan to forcibly transfer more families who have lived in the neighborhood for generations. Outrageously, those Palestinian families are then ordered to pay the courts to cover the legal costs of the settler organisations.
The United Nations (UN) Security Council has repeatedly affirmed that East Jerusalem is occupied territory and that Israeli civilian courts do not, thereby, possess any jurisdiction in that part of the city. Thus, resolution 476 (1980) affirms that “all legislative and administrative measures and actions taken by Israel, the occupying Power, which purport to alter the character and status of the Holy City of Jerusalem have no legal validity and constitute a flagrant violation of the Fourth
Geneva Convention”, and that “all such measures which have altered the geographic, demographic and historical character and status of the Holy City of Jerusalem are null and void and must be rescinded in compliance with the relevant resolutions of the Security Council.” These affirmations are in keeping with the erga omnes obligations of all states, including Canada, to ensure respect for the Fourth Geneva Convention (art. 1) in the whole of the OPT, including East Jerusalem, and to respect and bring to fruition the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination in whole of that territory in accordance with international law. To this end, Security Council resolution 2334 (2016) called “upon all States” including Canada, “to distinguish, in their relevant dealings, between the territory of the State of Israel and the territories occupied since 1967.”
Minister Garneau, it is in light of the clear requirements of international law as affirmed by the UN Security Council that Canada “does not recognize Israel's unilateral annexation of East Jerusalem”, “recognizes the Palestinian right to self-determination”, and “supports the creation of a sovereign, independent, viable, democratic and territorially contiguous Palestinian state”. Therefore, if Canada’s commitment to its obligations under international law and its own stated policy are to be given effect, we call upon the Canadian government to immediately:
• Exercise all reasonable efforts to ensure that Israel, the occupying power, ceases and desists from any and all actions to depopulate occupied East Jerusalem, including Sheikh Jarrah, and other portions of the OPT of its Palestinian population.
• Exercise all reasonable efforts to ensure that Israel to accepts its obligations to provide adequate restitution to those Palestinians who have been forcibly transferred from their homes in occupied East Jerusalem, including at Sheikh Jarrah, and the rest of the OPT, namely through allowing them to return to their stolen property and providing Palestinian victims with appropriate compensation for damages suffered.
• Remind Israel that any further forcible transfers of Palestinians from occupied East Jerusalem, including from Sheikh Jarrah, and the rest of the OPT may give rise to individual criminal responsibility under the Rome Statute.
Sincerely,
The Palestinian Canadian Academics and Artists Network (PCAAN)
Download PDF