Several Palestinian families in the US and East Jerusalem presented rental contracts and other documents proving they owned the land chosen for the new US embassy in Jerusalem before the 1948 war.
The families are calling on the US and Israel to cancel their plans to build a big diplomatic complex in southern Jerusalem saying the new embassy would be located on the private property confiscated from Palestinians, Haaretz reported.
The statement comes two days before US President Joe Biden’s visit to Israel. The current US embassy is located in a temporary building in the Arnona neighborhood, but according to the plan drafted nearly a year and a half ago, American diplomats are expected to move to the Allenby Complex when the new embassy is built.
Together with the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, families Habib, Qleibo, El Khalidi, Razzaq, and El-Khalili presented rental contracts between them and the British Mandatory government going back decades. The papers show that the British established a military base there called Allenby Barracks and paid annual rent to the Palestinians, who owned the land.
For Palestinians, 1948 War of Independence, which led to the establishment of the State of Israel, is referred to as “nakba” – “catastrophe” in Arabic – resulting in the expulsion of over 760,000 Palestinians from their homes in villages that are today part of the Jewish state.
