National Geographic - USA (2022-01)

(Maropa) #1

I JUST WISH


WE DID NOT HAVE


TO LIVE WITH


SUCH WORRY.”
—Kayed al Rajabi,
whose family is threat-
ened with eviction

Thaer al Rajabi,
nine, wears a Palestin-
ian flag as a cape while
playing on the rooftop
where his father, Kayed
al Rajabi, set up an
inflatable pool to make
up for a missed vaca-
tion by the sea after
Ramadan. “There was
too much fear for us to
leave our house,” says
the 34-year-old father
of eight. “So I brought
them this pool.” The
Palestinian family faces
possible eviction from
their home in the
Silwan district of East
Jerusalem because an
Israeli settler organiza-
tion sued, claiming the
land had been owned
by a Jewish trust more
than a century ago.
The United Nations
estimates that 970
Palestinians in the city
are threatened with
eviction due to cases
brought mainly by
settler organizations.

Jerusalem, Israel PHOTOGRAPH BY TANYA HABJOUQA


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