Jordan has provided great assistance to the Jerusalemites by revealing old documents confirming rental contracts dating back to 1956, which could help prevent the deportation of residents of the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood.
Jordan’s official Al-Mamlaka channel reported that Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi conveyed on Wednesday a message from King Abdullah II to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, stressing the country’s firm support to the Palestinians and their rights, adding that Jerusalem “is a red line” for the monarch.
East Jerusalem was subject to Jordanian sovereignty like all other West Bank cities, before Israel occupied it in 1967, in a move not recognized by the international community. At that time, Jordan built housing units for Palestinians who sought refuge in East Jerusalem after the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948, and documented their residency with lease contracts.
The documents, published by the Jordanian foreign ministry, shows that 28 families in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood were displaced due to the 1948 war.
The Jordanian move comes after media reports said that an Israeli court granted Palestinian families a deadline that expires on May 2 to evacuate their homes.
In comments during a visit to Ramallah on Wednesday, Safadi said: “We have provided all the documents available to us that can help Palestinian citizens preserve their full rights.”
He also noted that his country was coordinating with the international community to prevent the deportation of Palestinians from the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, in cooperation with the Palestinian Authority.
The Jordanian minister stressed the need to encourage an “international action capable of stopping the unilateral Israeli steps that undermine the two-state solution, specifically building and expanding settlements and deporting residents from their homes.”
On the other hand, the Jordanian message to the Palestinian Authority carried details of ongoing efforts to revive serious negotiations for a two-state solution, as well as a Jordanian confirmation of support for Palestinian rights in establishing a Palestinian state and in holding elections, including in East Jerusalem.
Safadi said that regional and international developments, especially with the arrival of the new US administration and the positive indications that it has made, “require us to interact positively” for this purpose.
