You'll often hear the dinosaur media refer to 'traditionally Arab East Jerusalem' without ever mentioning how it got that way - violent ethnic cleansing by Jordan in the 1948 war, followed by an influx of Arabs who simply moved into the vacant Jewish-owned homes.
I still recall seeing a CNN camera man filming an Arab in East Jerusalem who was ranting about how his family had lived in that house for 50 years - after which the camera man briefly focused on the upper right hand corner of the doorway, where the outline of where the mezuzah had been was clearly visible.
After Israel retook the area when Jordan attacked Israel in the Six Day War, they made a decision to allow these squatters to stay where they were.,
One of the places that happened was in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood. But the worm has indeed turned.
The normally Left leaning Israeli Supreme Court has made an historic ruling upholding a lower court ruling determining that a parcel of land on the western side of Nablus Road in East Jerusalem belonged to Jews who, according to the ruling, purchased it in 1892.
Since the Court upheld the lower ruling declaring that the land sandwiched between Nablus Road and Highway 1 in the Western half of the Shimon HaTzadik (Sheikh Jarrah) neighborhood belonged to Jewish, rather than Palestinian owners, it removes the last obstacle keeping the original Jewish owners from taking back their homes and land and paves the way the way for the possible eviction of Palestinians who have been living there rent-free in the stolen homes for 60 years, as the property reverts back to the rightful owners.
Perhaps some of the former residents of the Jewish communities in Gaza who were made into refugees by their own government will find homes there. A number of them are still living in trailers.
Justice sometimes works slow, but it does work most of the time.
(thanks to Carl for making me aware of this one.)
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