A multisource video news service that highlights nuances in reporting from media outlets around the world.

“A family in despair, after being forcibly evicted from a home they’ve lived in all their lives.” (Al Jazeera English)

There are different takes on why Israel evicted Palestinians from their homes in East Jerusalem. Some say Palestinians have occupied the land for over fifty years; others say that doesn’t matter.

Al Jazeera English looks harshly on the evictions, which come at a time where there is increasing pressure on Israel to stop settlement building.

“Israel presses on with what many are describing as a cleansing of the Palestinian population from land internationally recognized as theirs.”

CNN reports international activists who tried to stop the evictions were arrested. The network speaks with an evicted homeowner who says he has proof of ownership from 1956.

“All the documents about the ownership... we have it.”

However, CTV talks to a spokesperson for the Israeli Prime Minister, who says the evictions are justified.

"This has been in the courts for quite some time and ultimately it was ruled that this property did in fact belong to other people and that's why they were evicted.”
 
The New York Times provides a historical perspective on this situation, as explained by one of the evicted family’s lawyer.

“The houses were built in the 1950s by a United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees when the area was under Jordanian control. Jordan gave the families ownership of the houses but had not formally registered the buildings in their names by the time the 1967 war broke out.”

Israel annexed east Jerusalem in 1967.
The BBC says the evictions are undermining negotiations for peace between Israel and Palestine.

“The houses are in what is probably the most contested city on earth and the diplomatic ripples from the evictions will spread.”

So what do you think? Does the land belong to the Palestinians or to Israel...