Bar Association volunteers to represent thousands threatened of eviction in Zarqa

AMMAN — Jordan Bar Association’s (JBA) Zarqa branch has volunteered to represent thousands of the town’s Jannaa neighbourhood who recently received judicial warnings to vacate their homes. 

According to Abdullah Al Zaben, head of the Jannaa neighbourhood committee, around 400 housing units, where 10,000-15,000 people live without any proof of landownership, were requested by landlords to vacate their homes or pay rent. 

Zaben noted that a gathering for residents, Zarqa branch of JBA and the Municipality of Zarqa was held Tuesday to discuss developments in the case, adding that the lawyers volunteered to represent the families after they received vacation notices by the original owners of the land plots on which they set up their houses. 

According to Zaben, the issue of the neighbourhood, which lies some 22km east of Amman, dates back to 1949 and 1950, after a wave of Palestinians took refuge in Zarqa, and initially resided in Zarqa camp set up by UNRWA. 

But due to growing population in the camp, housing expansion reached empty lands in the adjacent Jannaa, which became a de facto extension of the refugee camp, he told The Jordan Times Wednesday over the phone.

He said the municipality owns part of the land, while a large part of the property is owned by the Amman-based White Beds (Al Asirra Al Baydaa) Society home for the elderly.

The rest, according to Zarqa Mayor Emad Momani, is owned by heirs of Bahaa Eldin Shishani and the Housing and Urban Development Corporation, in addition to the state.

Momani 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 the residents are financially challenged.

The evacuation notices were sent by the Shishani family, who own nearly 29 dunums, Zaben said, adding that the households threatened to leave do not have proof of landownership. 

Lawyer Laith Shamayleh, who legally represents the majority of Shishani’s heirs, said in previous remarks to The Jordan Times that his clients have the legal right to sue the residents for violating their property and to demand the “rent value of similar property”, noting that the majority of the population started living there during the 1950s and 1960s.

Shamayleh added that services provided to the residents have contributed to their increase, blaming some government agencies for treating them as property owners and taxing them accordingly.

But the lawyer said his clients are willing to negotiate the “rent value of similar property” with officials who have no personal interest in the issue, noting that some of the residents own businesses and shops.

Zaben and Momani are hopeful that a solution to the problem may come from authorities.

 “If this issue is not solved by the state as soon as possible, it may have impact on social stability of thousands of people,” Zaben said, adding that the committee that represents the residents will start to contact officials, lawmakers and the owners of the plot in a bid to prevent eviction. 

According to Zaben, Jannaa neighbourhood is home to around 30,000 people currently.