International Solidarity Movement Nonviolence. Justice. Freedom.
30 December 2023 | International Solidarity Movement | Occupied Jerusalem
They came covered in black and wearing ski masks. On December 28, thirty extremists, armed with clubs and tear gas, invaded the Armenian Quarter’s ‘Cow’s Garden’ (Goveroun Bardez) in the Old City of Jerusalem and attacked members of the Armenian community. The coordinated ambush, caught on film, left several seriously injured, including seminary students, as well as two Armenian youth abducted by occupation forces. The vigilantes vandalized the grounds as part of the assault. Several of the injured were transported to a hospital for medical treatment.
The Armenian community of the Old City is resisting a controversial land grab coordinated by investors with ominous links to extremist settler factions.
The pressure campaign by extremist settlers utilizes violent tactics mirroring settler attacks on Palestinian communities in East Jerusalem and the West Bank. But Armenians have also learned from their Palestinian counterparts the importance of steadfastness and unity. Every settler attack thus far has been repelled by the close-knit Armenian community.
Armenians celebrate Christmas later than Christians in the West, and have begun installing a cross and a manger in the rubble (photo credit: ISM)
