For decades, the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah has been at the center of a prolonged struggle against occupation and displacement, often misleadingly framed as a “property/real estate dispute.” What looks like a quiet historic residential district just outside the Old City is witnessing increasing efforts by Israel to uproot Palestinian residents and expand Jewish settlements in clear violation of international law. The neighborhood has endured repeated waves of forced displacement, legal battles, and grassroots resistance, with tensions regularly erupting into confrontations that draw international attention.
The roots of the current crisis in Sheikh Jarrah trace back to the aftermath of the 1948 Nakba, marked by the mass exodus of Palestinians who fled from their homes in what is now Israel. Some of these families—refugees from West Jerusalem and other cities—were displaced to Sheikh Jarrah in the early 1950s under an agreement between the Jordanian government and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA).1 Although the agreement stipulated that they would receive legal ownership of the homes after three years of residence, formal deeds were never issued.2
After the annexation of East Jerusalem in 1967, Jewish settler organizations began filing legal claims in the late 1970s to properties in Sheikh Jarrah, arguing that Jewish families owned land in the area before 1948.3 Israeli courts have generally accepted these claims, citing Ottoman-era documents and property records, and using the Absentees’ Property Law as a legal basis for dispossessing Palestinians of their property in East Jerusalem. By contrast, Palestinians displaced in 1948 are legally barred from reclaiming their former homes in areas that became Israel.4 This legal asymmetry has fueled allegations of systemic discrimination and has left dozens of Palestinian families in Sheikh Jarrah vulnerable to eviction.
Over the past three decades, a number of high-profile cases have shaped the neighborhood’s recent history. In 2008, Israeli police forcibly evicted Fawziya al-Kurd’s family from their home. The following year, settlers took over part of Rifqa al-Kurd’s house, while the Hanun and al-Ghawi families were fully expelled from theirs (see The Takeover of Part of the Rifka El-Kurd Family Home in Sheikh Jarrah).5 Images of their belongings dumped on the street sparked outrage and protests. The Shamasneh family was expelled in 2017 after a lengthy court battle.6 In 2021, renewed attempts to expel several other families, including the al-Kurds, triggered mass protests and solidarity campaigns across Jerusalem and the rest of the West Bank, which were met with violence and suppression by Israeli authorities and police.7 These events coincided with broader unrest and were seen as a tipping point in that year’s round of violence against Palestinians, culminating in the Dignity Uprising and an Israeli military assault on Gaza.
Despite temporary freezes and court-mandated delays, the threat of expulsion remains for many families (see Haunted by Waiting for Expulsion in Sheikh Jarrah). The Israeli government and settler organizations continue to pursue claims, while Palestinian residents and their supporters argue that the campaign is part of a larger effort to alter the demographic balance and Judaize East Jerusalem. For the people of Sheikh Jarrah, the struggle is not only about legal rights to property—it is also about resisting a long history of forced displacement and asserting their continued presence in a city they’ve inhabited for decades.
This Photo Album traces some of that history in images.