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JERUSALEM (Ma’an) – An Israeli central court in Jerusalem on Friday suspended a legal case by the Israeli municipal council of Jerusalem seeking to confiscate a private tract of land owned by Palestinian Salman family in Beit Safafa neighborhood, a lawyer says.

Qays Yousif Nasser, who represents the Palestinian family, said in a statement that the court decided to wait until the Supreme Court makes its final decision into the case.

Nasser highlighted that a local Palestinian committee from Beit Safafa neighborhood had appealed to the Israeli Supreme Court contesting the municipal plans to build a new road known as route 4.

“The decision is of great importance as it could help freeze other legal proceedings submitted by the municipality of Jerusalem asking to confiscate private lands in other locations in the neighborhood,” the lawyer said.

Nasser revealed that he obtained earlier this week a very important document which would support the neighborhood’s struggle against route 4.

The document, he explained, is a letter sent in 1988 by late mayor of Jerusalem Teddy Kollek to the municipality’s planning engineer. In the letter, Kollek asked his engineer not to approve a suggested network of roads in Beit Safafa “because the neighborhood has lost a lot of lands for different projects.”

Kollek added in his letter, according to the lawyer, that “I doubt the municipality would have acted similarly if Beit Safafa was a Jewish neighborhood.”

Nasser says the letter could serve as a proof that confiscating private land for route 4 is illegal.