Nakba #49 - Nabil Sa‘id al-Kurd

“In 1954, UNRWA reached an agreement with Jordan, which at the time governed East al-Quds, to build 28 houses in Sheikh Jarrah. We were one of the families who were to live there, and when the houses were completed in 1956, we moved in. But everything changed when Israel occupied East al-Quds, and in 1972 they evicted twelve of our neighboring families.

In 2009, I extended our house. The authorities considered it an illegal construction that was to be demolished. When I refused, the police took the keys to the new section and stationed four guards in front of the house—two Druze and two Bedouins.

That same year, 1,000 Israeli soldiers with dogs evicted another couple of our neighbors, the al-Ghawi and Hanoun families. My extension remained sealed off and stood empty for nine years. In 2018, the police gave the keys to some fanatical settlers and allowed them to occupy the new section.