03 Aug 2021; MEMO: The United States said yesterday that Palestinian families threatened with having their homes demolished in occupied Jerusalem "should not be evicted".
In a press briefing US Department of State spokesperson, Ned Price, said: "Families should not be evicted from homes in which they have lived for decades."
"We're not going to get into these emerging reports or to comment on various detailed legal discussions, but we're closely following them and will continue to do so."
Price said that the US "remains engaged with our Israeli and Palestinian counterparts to take tangible steps that will improve the quality of lives and advance freedom, security, prosperity for all."
"We're doing all of this – the diplomacy, the assistance, the engagement – in an effort that at its core is really predicated on the simple idea that Israelis and Palestinians deserve equal measures of safety, of security, of freedom, and importantly, of dignity."
The Israeli Supreme Court yesterday failed to rule in the hearing on a leave to appeal submitted by the El-Kurd, Jaouni, Abu Hasna, and Askafi families who are facing eviction from their homes in Sheikh Jarrah by the Nahalat Shimon settler company. Instead, the court offered the Palestinians "protected tenant" status, saying their homes would not be demolished if they acknowledged the settler group's ownership of the land and paid it nominal rent. The Palestinian families rejected the proposition.
Analysts have said the court's inaction is a political move by Prime Minister Naftali Bennett ahead of his scheduled visit to Washington this month.
