Supreme Court ruling could have consequences for dozens of Palestinian families in Silwan facing eviction because a Jewish organization says they lack rights to the land
Israel to pay victims of stolen babies affair
Issued on: 2 min
Jerusalem (AFP)
Israel said Monday it will compensate families whose children were taken from their parents in the early years after the state was founded, in a major development in the so-called stolen babies affair.
Activists and family members have for decades charged that up to several thousand babies were taken in the years after Israel gained statehood in 1948, mainly from Jewish Yemenite families, but also from immigrants of other Arab and Balkan nations.
They allege the babies were stolen and given to Jewish families of Western origin in Israel and even abroad, mainly those who could not have children themselves.
East Jerusalem – Fakhri Abu Diab, 59, may soon have to decide whether he should contract a crew to demolish his family’s building.
Diab is a community activist and one of several Palestinian residents of the Al-Bustan neighbourhood in Silwan, occupied East Jerusalem, served with demolition orders by Jerusalem’s Israeli-run municipality in December.
He built his property – in which 13 family members live across three units – without permission, having been denied permission four times since he first applied in 1987.
If the municipality carries out the demolition order, served on December 9, the cost could be $30,000.
Diab says that, if he loses his home, “I have no alternative at the moment but to put up a tent”.