Will this Palestinian matriarch get to keep her Jerusalem home?

For the past year, as the coronavirus pandemic spread across the world, home has become an especially important source of shelter and safety. While some governments have responded to pressure from activists and paused evictions, Palestinians in East Jerusalem still face uncertainty.

That’s the case with the Sumarin family, who live just outside Jerusalem’s Old City in the Palestinian village of Silwan. The Jewish National Fund and the Elad organization have long been promoting Jewish settlement in the area — often at the expense of the Palestinian residents.

In April, after a decades-long legal battle, an Israeli court will finally decide whether the Sumarin family will be forcibly evicted from their home. On this episode, we teamed up with the +972 Podcast to tell the story of the Sumarin family and their struggle to remain in the house they’ve lived in for generations.

This episode was produced by Ilana Levinson, Max Freedman, and Emily Bell. Music from Blue Dot Sessions. Special thanks to Henriette Chacar and Edo Konrad at +972; Asaf Calderon, Uri Blau, Ayat Yaghmour, Hagit Ofran, and Leena Dallasheh.

RESOURCES

• Emek Shaveh website
• Timeline of the Sumarin eviction case (Peace Now, 9/23/19)
• Common Ground: The politics of archaeology in Jerusalem (Rachel Poser, Harper’s Magazine, September 2019)
• In Search of King David’s Lost Empire (Ruth Margalit, The New Yorker, 6/29/20)
• Palestinian family faces latest setback to save Jerusalem home (Aseel Jundi, Middle East Eye, 7/2/20)
• Documents reveal decades of close cooperation between JNF and Elad (Uri Blau, +972 Magazine, 10/19/20)
• JNF Plan to Expand Settlements Could 'Endanger Its Existence,' Jewish Groups Warn (Allison Kaplan Sommer, Haaretz, 2/15/21)
• Update on the Sumarin case before the Supreme Court (Peace Now, 4/6/21)