The settlers led by Florida millionaire Irving Moskowitz, who made his money from gambling, have been after two brothers from the Hamdallah family in Ras el-Amoud since 1985 to get them to leave a plot of land they have lived on for decades.
After dozens of court hearings and back-and-forth lawsuits and appeals, an Israeli court decided in 2005 that Moskowitz was the legal owner of the plot located in the heart of the Arab neighborhood and ordered the younger of the Hamdallah brothers to evacuate his house while allowing the older to stay.
According to Khaled Hamdallah, the older brother, Moskowitz has claimed that a half-acre plot Khaled and his brother Ahmad had built their homes on was his and that he has plans to build a 119-housing unit settlement block on that property to expand his nearby project known as Maale HaZiteem.
Khaled Hamdallah said his family has lived on that land since 1952, long before Israel occupied East Jerusalem in 1967. Ahmad Hamdallah built the one-room house next door after he got married a few years ago.