03 Nov 2021; MEMO: The Israeli occupation will pay the price of its crimes against the occupied Palestinian city of Jerusalem, member of Hamas' Political Bureau, Haron Nasser Al-Din, warned yesterday.
The remarks came after Palestinian families in the occupied East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah rejected an Israeli Supreme Court offer that would have seen them registered as "regulated tenants" in their own homes, paying 2,400 shekels ($763) in annual rent to settler groups.
Four Palestinian families in Sheikh Jarrah were given until yesterday to respond to the deal.
"No compromises with the occupation," Nasser Al-Din said, stressing: "All our occupied land is the right of our people and the occupation has to leave, along with the settlers."
"We promise to push the occupation to pay the price for its crimes against Jerusalem, and we will continue our liberation battle until we expel the occupation and the settlers, and bring the refugees back home."
The Hamas leader reiterated that the "Israeli judiciary is part of the occupation system and its role is to facilitate the settler organisations' control over the land and homes in Jerusalem."
Israel "is moving the ownership of the Palestinian land in Sheikh Jarrah to its settlers gradually," he said, pointing out "this is the Israeli plan to control all the neighbourhoods and property in the holy city."
Ir Amim, an Israeli left-wing human rights group focusing on Jerusalem, said that around 200 Palestinian families in occupied Jerusalem are underthreat of eviction similar to the threat facing the four families affected by yesterday's decision.
Their cases are slowly moving through administrative bodies and Israeli courts, the rights group said.
