Join a conversation with Rabbi Arik Ascherman and Uri Agnon about life in East Jerusalem.
Like many Palestinian families in East Jerusalem, the Sumarin family is facing eviction under a controversial Israeli law. The JNF (KKL) has been trying to evict the Sumarin familiy from their home in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan for decades. An international campaigned stopped the eviction in 2011. Now, the family is threatened again.
Join a conversation with Rabbi Arik Ascherman, founder and director of the Israeli human rights organization "Torat Tzedek-Torah of Justice", and Jerusalemite activist Uri Agnon, to learn more about life in East Jerusalem under the threats of eviction and the role the JNF plays in evicting Palestinians from their homes.
Background
The JNF, through a subsidiary called Himnuta, has been attempting to evict the Sumarin family for decades. In 1991, after the JNF received land and houses in Silwan from the Israeli government, it leased the land, including the Sumarin’s home, to Elad, a right-wing settler organization that runs the City of David archeological site in Silwan. Israel took the Sumarin family's home through a particularly aggressive use of the "Absentee Property Law" Family members were living in the home, but not the legal heirs. The Israeli government later committed not to use the law in this way, but it was too late for the Sumarins. Family members were living in the home, but the JNF filed suit to evict the Sumarins in 2005, and in the fall of 2011 the Sumarin family received an eviction notice. A massive campaign led by Israeli and international activists successfully delayed the eviction of the family. Now, the Sumarin family is facing eviction again. On 20 September 2019, the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court accepted a KKL-JNF evacuation claim (through its subsidiary, Himanuta) against the Sumarin family and ruled that the family could be evacuated from its home after 90 days. The family has appealed, but there is not much optimism that an appeal can succeed.
Rabbi Arik Ascherman is the founder and director of the Israeli human rights organization "Torat Tzedek-Torah of Justice." Previously, he led "Rabbis For Human Rights" for 21 years. Rabbi Ascherman is a sought after lecturer, has received numerous prizes for his human rights work and has been featured in several documentary films, including the 2010 "Israel vs Israel." He and "Torat Tzedek" received the Rabbi David J. Forman Memorial Fund's Human Rights Prize fore 5779. Rabbi Ascherman is recognized as a role model for faith based human rights activism.
Uri Agnon is a Jesrusalmite activist and composer. Over the last decade he has taken part in many anti-occupation campaigns in Jerusalem and has been a founding member of groups such as Solidarity Shekih Jarrah, Rhythms of Resistance Jerusalem (Yasamba), and Free Jerusalem. Uri is especially engaged in solidarity struggles led by Palestinian activists against home demolitions and evictions, settler organizations, police brutality and collective punishment in Issawiya, Silwan, Sheikh Jarrah, A-Tur, Shoefat Refugee Camp, and the Old City, all in East Jerusalem. He has recently moved to London to complete his PhD on "Music as a Political Action" as many of his compositions attempt to tackle the situation in Jerusalem and change it.
Date: Thursday, 19 December
Time: 6 PM
Location: Camden, London
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