700 families to leave Zarqa neighbourhood after court order

AMMAN — Zarqa Magistrate Court on Monday ordered the removal of facilities that were established on 28 dunums out of 255 dunums in the governorate’s Jannaa neighbourhood.

Around 700 families of the neighbourhood are now threatened to leave the area after the ruling to remove buildings and pay JD1,945 as a “rent value of similar property” for three years, in addition to paying fees and lawyer costs, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported. 

The land on which the neighbourhood was established is disputed in an ownership case and was pending legal settlement. 

The issue dates back to 1948, when a wave of Palestinians took refuge in Zarqa, some 22km east of Amman, and initially resided in Zarqa camp. 

But as population density increased, expansion reached Jannaa, which became interconnected with the camp due to its proximity, Zarqa Mayor Emad Momani told The Jordan Times last year.

The majority of the land plots belong to the Amman-based White Beds (Al Asirra Al Baydaa) Society home for the elderly, and the rest of the plots are owned by heirs of Bahaa Eldin Shishani and the Housing and Urban Development Corporation, in addition to the state, according to Momani.

He said the land sale occurred “outside the legal framework of the Department of Lands and Survey”; nonetheless, the municipality has provided residents with water and electricity services out of its “humanitarian” duty, especially that the majority of them face financial difficulties.

Momani told Petra that the social security and humanitarian aspects of the issue should be taken into consideration, noting that the municipality offered the heirs an alternative plot of land and tried to reach a settlement for residents to stay in the neighbourhood while paying the “rent value of similar property”.

Petra quoted lawyer Laith Shamayleh, who legally represents the majority of Shishani’s heirs, as saying that the defendants built houses on the land without having the right to. 

Shamayleh added that his clients were ready to resolve the case without resorting to court, and he tried to reach settlements with the defendants before they received fines, but they did not respond.