Silwan Valley
Silwan ValleyIsrael news photo: Flash 90

A Jewish family finally succeeds in moving into one room of a house owned by Jews but occupied by Arabs in the Silwan Valley.

Seven years after a court ruling that supported Jewish ownership, police escorted the family into their room separated by barbed wire and sheets of metal from the rest of the building, the Bethlehem-based Ma'an news agency reported Monday.

The Arab Hamdallah family still is resisting orders to leave the entire house, which was bought by an orthodox Jewish group more than a century ago and was re-sold in 1990 when U.S. philanthropist Irving Moskowitz bought the property.

Jews lost the property in the War of Independence, when Jordan occupied the eastern, northern and southern areas of the Jerusalem.

The regime then “sold” the property to the Hamdallahs, which has lived on the property since 1952.