Muhsein Natshe, a Palestinian whose house was threatened with demolition by the Israeli government, will not lose his home to bulldozers, but could nonetheless be evicted. His attorney, Danny Seidemann, says the Israeli government told him that Tuesday.

“I received notice today from the attorney general that the indictment against Muhsein Natshe would stand, but given the Ministry of Defense’s undertaking not to demolish houses, they would not move to demolish [Natshe's] house,” Seidemann wrote in an e-mail to CNN.

In 2005, Natshe received a registered letter from the Jerusalem municipal council. The letter informed him that he was being indicted on charges of having illegally built his house four months previously. At the time, the Israeli government wanted to demolish his home to build a 20-foot-high concrete section of a separation barrier, which Israel said was needed for security. Natshe’s house is in the sprawling Shuafat refugee camp in East Jerusalem.

In court, Seidemann used utility bills and aerial photographs to prove that the house had been around for years — since at least 1997, according to Natshe. Seidemann acknowledges that Natshe did not have a building permit, but he adds that neither do the other 20,000 residents in the camp.

Israel ended up building the barrier behind his house. Even with Tuesday’s decision by the attorney general, Natshe’s case remains in the courts, but Seidemann is optimistic about his client’s fate.

“He can still be fined, or forbidden from using the house, but we have good defenses, and the threat of the demolition of the house has passed,” Seidemann wrote. “Small, sweet, albeit incomplete victories.”

Note: The title CNN has given to this article is misleading. As the article explains, Natshe may still be evicted, fined, or “forbidden from using the house”.