
(MFS Other) Palestinian Husseini family loses Shepherd Hotel court fight. (JPost). The
High Court of Justice ruled Monday that a prominent Palestinian family
could not claim ownership of a landmark and now derelict building in
east Jerusalem - paving the way for a Jewish settlement project. The
Husseini family said the Shepherd Hotel, now partially demolished, is a
symbol of the Palestinian rights to their land and to east Jerusalem,
and criticized the court ruling.
The
Shepherd Hotel was built in the 1930s and served as the home of
Jerusalem grand mufti Haj Amin Husseini, who fought the British and
Zionists. It was declared "absentee property" by
Israel after it was captured and annexed to east Jerusalem in 1967. The
title was transferred to an Israeli firm, which sold it in 1985 to
Irving Moskowitz, a Florida businessman and patron of Jewish settlers.
In 2009, the Jerusalem city hall approved a project to replace the
building with a block of 20 apartments. Israeli officials said
Washington had voiced its opposition to the plan to Israel's ambassador
in the United States. "This property, which is legitimately ours,
represents the Palestinians' rights to their land and to Jerusalem,"
Mona Husseini, heir to the property and Husseini's granddaughter, said
on Monday. In dismissing the family's case, the court
said too much time had passed since Israeli authorities had transferred
the property to private developers for a legal challenge to be brought, a
lawyer for the petitioners said. The family said it had been unaware
at the time that the site had been sold off."The court clearly sided with the other party, and this proves that the Israeli courts have never been fair to Palestinians,"
said Adnan Husseini, the Palestinian Authority-appointed mayor of
Jerusalem and a member of the extended family. The family said,
however, they would continue to seek legal action "against the
odds."Read the full story here.
I don't get it either. The place was vacant... right? and like usual they wanted it after the Jews did something with it.