By Nuha Sharaf and Zainah El-Haroun

JERUSALEM (Reuters – Palestinians in East Jerusalem’s Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood were faced with eviction. They rejected a Tuesday deal that would have had them accepting temporary Israeli ownership.

This long-running legal dispute over the evictions was a catalyst for an 11-day war in Gaza between Israel militants and Israel. It has also been a constant source of tension throughout East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza.

In October, Israel’s Supreme Court proposed a compromise that would have allowed four Palestinian families to remain their homes as “protected tenants”, while renting the land out to settler settlers.

The family was given until November 2, 2012, to choose whether or not to accept the offer.

Muna El-Kurd said that all the Palestinians who were facing expulsion had rejected the offer of settlement by Israel’s occupation court.

El-Kurd said, in a jacket with “No Fear” that “this refusal stems from our faith and the justice of the case and our rights and homes.” Other residents were there to support her.

According to the deal, the Palestinians would have had to recognize the claims of the settlers on the land that their family has lived on over generations. A condition they rejected for many years. The agreement would have allowed them to demonstrate their ownership of the land in the future.

A ruling on the families’ fate has been repeatedly delayed since May, after the case garnered international attention and the “#SaveSheikhJarrah” hashtag gained momentum overseas.

Since the 1950s, families have been living in their houses. However, the Israeli settlers claim that the land belongs to them and present evidence in Israeli courts using 19th-century documents.

A few Israeli settlers moved into the neighborhood already. Reuters called one of the settlers’ homes after the news conference but received no response.

Israel has presented the Sheikh Jarrah issue as a dispute over real property, while Palestinians claim that the court-ordered expulsions are intended to remove their presence from the holy city.

In 1967, Israel captured East Jerusalem and occupied it. Later it annexed. It considers the whole city its undivided Capital, which is not internationally recognized.

Palestinians desire East Jerusalem to become the capital for a new state, which they want to create in Gaza and West Bank.

(Reporting Stephen Farrell. Zainah Al-Haroun. Additional reporting by Sinan Awad, Ammar Adad and Nuha Shaaf. Editing done by Jeffrey Heller.