Ramallah: Fabricated documents, approved by the government, have allowed the Israelis to resume colony construction in Occupied East Jerusalem.

With the freeze on colony construction having only just come to an end, already 28 Palestinian families from the Sheikh Jarah Arab neighbourhood have been ordered to evict their homes. Seven of these families have found themselves literally on the street and more will soon follow.

The Israeli colonists fabricated documents that were approved by the Israeli Supreme Court, top Palestinian officials said on Tuesday. This has been confirmed by a number of heads of non governmental organisations in Occupied Jerusalem.

The colonists say they own a huge plot of land in the Sheikh Jarah neighbourhood and stress that a Rabbi has also been buried in the neighbourhood for many years.

They provided the court with fake documents, claiming legal ownership of the land.

Zeyad Al Hamouri, who heads the Jerusalem Centre for Social and Economic Rights, says the actual owner of the land is Darwish Hijazi, who produced documents from Turkey to back up his claim. However the court refused to recognise them, claiming it was too late to file an appeal.

Pleas that it had taken time for the documents to arrive from Turkey fell on deaf ears. During the process, Darwish Hijazi, the owner of the land had died, and it was his children who obtained the documentation.

The 28 Palestinian families have been living in the area since 1948, in houses which they built themselves, following an agreement between the UNRWA and the Jordanian government, put in place to solve the plight of Jordanian refugees. The Jordanian Government was supposed to register this land in the names of the families but for some reason it failed to do so and the matter has never been resolved.

After the1967 occupation of East Jerusalem, the Israelis claimed the plot of land was the property of the Custodian General and said the families living on it were simply tenants who should be evicted once their tenancy contracts expired.

The evicted families are said to be extremely shocked that the owner failed to produce the documentation on time.

Already the Israelis have made plans to demolish the entire area and build 250 new houses. Approval was obtained from the Jerusalem Municipality even before a supreme court passed a verdict on the case, said Al Hamouri.