On Friday 11 December 2009, the fourth demonstration march against evictions and demolitions of Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem arrived in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood. The demonstration takes place every Friday, and gathers Israeli, Palestinian, and international activists in West Jerusalem to subsequently march to the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood in occupied East Jerusalem.
The demonstration this week gathered about 150 activists, demonstrating to the beat of an Israeli samba drum band. Following a scuffle between a settler and an activist, outside the occupied al-Kurd family house, the large police force on site proceeded to violently disperse the demonstrators. 24 activists were arrested; 21 Israeli, one American, one Canadian, and one German. Police unnecessarily used pepper-spray on two Israeli activists and a 13-year old Palestinian boy.
A non-violent Israeli activist being attacked with pepper-spray by the Israeli police:
13-year old Palestinian boy, a Sheikh Jarrah resident, recovering from being attacked with pepper-spray by the Israeli police:
Activists being arrested and taken to the al-Kurd family house occupied by Israeli settlers, temporarily turned into a police station to hold the 24 arrested activists:
The arrested activists subsequently suffered from bad treatment during their up to 40 hours detention, including exposure to cold temperature, strip search humiliation, food deprivation, and inadequate court process. A detailed description of their ordeal can be found here.
Settlers, who have since August 2009 taken over three houses in the Palestinian neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah in occupied East Jerusalem, have, after a series of violent attacks, initiated a number of actions this week with the intention of intimidating and harassing local Palestinians forcefully evicted from their homes.
In the past couple of days, Israeli settlers have three times harassed the evicted Palestinians. Even though their actions were not particularly violent, they highlight the daily suffering the Palestinians have to endure as the settlers take over more and more houses in the neighbourhood. The situation is especially difficult for the al-Kurds, as they have been forced to live alongside the settlers in their own house. On 1 December, a group of settlers occupied one section of the al-Kurd home which shares the same entrance gate and backyard as the other section, where the Palestinian family lives.
In the first incident, in the evening of Sunday 6 December, a group of about ten settlers occupying the front part of the al-Kurd, collected wood and set fire to it inside an oil barrel outside the house. They stole the oil barrel from the al-Kurds and proceeded to burn flammable items from the Kurd family belongings that the settlers took from the confiscated home and threw into the al-Kurds’ garden during the 1 December take-over. When the Kurd family discovered the theft in progress, they stopped the settlers by taking the barrel with burning wood away from them.
Settler who threatened to kill Nabeel KurdBed frame that belonged to the al-Kurd family. Its wooden parts have been stolen and burned by the settlers.Al-Kurd family belongings that were thrown out of their house, now occupied by settlers
The second incident followed on Thursday 8 December at 9am, when one of the settler leaders called Shlomo stopped by at the al-Kurd family tent built outside of their confiscated house. Nabeel Kurd, father of the family, was alone in the tent. Shlomo verbally harassed Nabeel, including insults that were perceived as a threat to kill Nabeel.
The third incident happened in the evening of 8 December 2009, as settler youths that occupy the confiscated al-Kurd and Gawi houses vandalised a mural art painted by the local Palestinian children on the walls of the Ghawi, al-Kurd, and Qassem family properties. The settlers painted over the art with white paint; on the al-Kurd wall an elaborate painting of Handala, a famous Palestinian freedom cartoon figure, was covered with Israeli stars of David. Along with the Israeli flags hanging from the houses that the settlers have taken over in Sheikh Jarrah, these symbols further accentuate the presence of the Jewish settlers in the Palestinian neighbourhood and their goal to take over the whole area, drive out its Palestinian population and build a new Jewish-only settlement.
Mural art created by local children on the wall of al-Kurd house, vandalised by settlers who covered the Palestinian painting with stars of David
Background
So far, over 60 Palestinians living in the Karm Al-Ja’ouni neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah have been left homeless after being forcibly evicted from their homes by settlers aided by the Israeli forces.
The Gawi and Hannoun families, consisting of 53 members including 20 children, were thrown out from their homes on 2 August 2009. The Israeli forces surrounded the homes of the two families at 5.30am and, breaking in through the windows, forcefully dragged all residents into the street. The police also demolished the neighbourhood’s protest tent, set up by Um Kamel, following the forced eviction of her family in November 2008. In addition, an uninhabited section of another house belonging to the al-Kurd family was taken over by setters on 1 December 2009.
At present, all four houses are occupied by settlers and the whole area is patrolled by armed private settler security 24 hours a day. Both Hannoun and Gawi families, who have been left without suitable alternative accommodation since August, continue to protest against the unlawful eviction from the sidewalk across the street from their homes, facing regular attacks from the settlers and harassment from the police.
The Karm Al-Ja’ouni neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah is home to 28 Palestinian families, all refugees from 1948, who received their houses from the UNRWA and Jordanian government in 1956. All face losing their homes in the manner of the Hannoun, Gawi and al-Kurd families.
The aim of the settlers is to turn the whole area into a new Jewish settlement and to create a Jewish continuum that will effectively cut off the Old City form the northern Palestinian neighborhoods. Implanting new Jewish settlements in East Jerusalem and the West Bank is illegal under many international laws, including Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention.
The plight of the Gawi, al-Kurd and the Hannoun families is just a small part of Israel’s ongoing campaign of ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people from East Jerusalem.
This was the ominous warning issued yesterday by Rabbi Arik Asherman, director of Rabbis for Human Rights who believes that “if nothing changes, Jerusalem will burn.” His remarks come in response to a court decision on Monday permitting Israeli settlers to take possession of another Palestinian home in the East Jerusalem region of Sheikh Jarrah. This is the fifth family to be evicted in a neighbourhood where more and more Israeli flags are appearing atop of freshly occupied Palestinian homes.
Photo by Lazar Simeonov
Yesterday Rabbis for Human Rights organized a demonstration in Jerusalem protesting the courts decision bringing together 150 Israeli and international activists from organizations such as ICHAD, EAPPI and Anarchists against the Wall. As they marched through the streets in West Jerusalem, they received a mixed reaction from passer bys. Some cheered them on whilst others shouted ‘traitor’, spat at demonstrators and at one point a hose was turned on the crowd from behind the curtain of an upstairs apartment.
The demonstration culminated in the front yard of the Al-Kurd’s family home where the front section is now occupied by Israeli settlers and the family has been moved to the back.
The Al-Kurd house was built in 1956 and an extension added 10 years ago is the current source of contention. On Monday the Magistrates Court ruled it illegal and gave permission for a group of Israeli settlers to take occupation. An immediate appeal issued by the Al-Kurd family was dismissed. On Tuesday a group of Israeli settlers, accompanied by armed private security guards and Israeli police forces, took possession of the extension strewing the Al-Kurd’s belonging across the front yard.
Rising tension
As Shabbat prayers began late yesterday afternoon an influx of Orthodox Israelis gathered at the house, pushing through the crowd and throwing things at demonstrators. As the first and most important prayer began the Orthodox crowd moved from inside the house to clap, dance and sing in front of the on looking Al-Kurd family and demonstrators. An Israeli activist present described the move “as intentionally provocative.” He said “people deliberately gathered at the house for prayers to show solidarity with the settler family and to demonstrate to protestors their strength and ownership of the house.”
More evictions to come
A UN official at yesterday’s demonstration warned of further misery to come for Palestinian families in East Jerusalem. A letter from lawyers representing Nahalat Shimon International, the settler organization forcing through the evictions in East Jerusalem, has ordered two more Palestinian families to hand over the keys to their house to the legal firm by December 15th. According to the UN representative there are now 8 families under eviction orders and 5 families who have already been evicted from their homes.
Too little too late?
The eviction of Palestinians from their homes in East Jerusalem is illegal under international law which forbids an occupying power from transferring its own people into an occupied area. Despite this the international community has done little to abate the appropriation of houses here. There is growing concern that Zionists are attempting to create a new Jewish settlement in East Jerusalem which will strengthen Israeli claims to complete autonomy of the capital. In reaction to this there is speculation that the European Union will issue a statement this week supporting the establishment of East Jerusalem as a future capital of a Palestinian state but many fear this is too little too late. As more and more settlement houses become ‘facts on the ground’ the balance of power and ownership is East Jerusalem is shifting perhaps irrevocably.
The tension in East Jerusalem is intensifying daily and many including Rabbi Asherman fear that without swift and decisive international intervention the situation will soon approach “breaking point.”
At approximately 9am this Wednesday, four police vehicles containing eight Jerusalem police and four border police armed with automatic weapons came to Sheikh Jarrah and demolished the Gawi tent for the fourth time. The demolition took place as there were several people sleeping in the tent. The police failed to alert those sleeping to their destructive actions. The Palestinian family’s possessions were confiscated and removed in police pick-up trucks and golf carts. One hour later, a British national was arrested. The Gawi family has lived in the tent for four months now, since 2 August 2009 when they were forcefully evicted from their home, now occupied by settlers.
This action comes in the wake of yesterday’s settler invasion of the front section of the al-Kurd family home. As the settlers moved some of their possessions from the occupied Gawi home to the newly-confiscated al-Kurd home, the police were destroying and stealing the blankets, chairs, mattresses, lights and shelter from the evicted Gawi family. The settlers have also run electrical wires from the confiscated Gawi house to the confiscated al-Kurd house. As the constant crowd watched the settlers’ actions and those of the police, a British national was arrested, seemingly, for standing in the entrance of the al-Kurd family’s garden.
On Friday 27 November 2009, the Eid al-Adha celebration in Sheikh Jarrah, a Palestinian neighbourhood in occupied East Jerusalem, was marked by prayers and demonstrations.
In the night unto Eid, the sleep in the neighbourhood was disturbed at 2am by loud music coming from a street party attended by Jewish settler youths, who gathered outside the Shimon HaTzadik Tomb, located just behind the Palestinian houses. This is the same location from which Jewish settlers threw stones at the Palestinian houses in the middle of the night on Friday 6 November. The disturbing music was played for 30 minutes until the police blue-lights drew near.
At 7am, the Palestinian families gathered in an open field in the neighbourhood to hold the traditional Eid Friday prayer. The prayer was led by Sheikh Raed Salah, an influential and well known imam, who in his speech talked about the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in 1948, 1967, and until present. The speech emphasized the current evictions and demolitions of Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem, including the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood, and blasted the illegality and immorality of these actions that are forcing Palestinians out of East Jerusalem and replacing them with Jewish settler population. The two-hour event was broadcasted live on Palestinian TV and ended with games, music, and sweets for the children.
Residents of Sheikh Jarrah hold an Eid Friday prayer against house evictionsEid fun for children of Sheikh Jarrah
At 3pm, the second demonstration and march against the evictions and demolitions of Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem arrived in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood. The demonstration takes place every Friday, and gathers Israeli, Palestinian, and international activists at Zion Square in West Jerusalem at 1:30pm to subsequently march to the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood in occupied East Jerusalem. An Israeli samba drum band helps to make the demonstration vibrant and also fun for the Palestinian children who towards the end of the demonstration learn to play the drums together with the Israeli activists. In Sheikh Jarrah, the demonstrators were, as usual, filmed and observed by heavily armed Israeli occupation forces.
Israeli activists and Palestinian children observed by heavily armed Israeli occupation forces
At 6pm, around 15 Jewish settlers gathered outside the Atiyeh family home in Sheikh Jarrah and conducted a provocative prayer directed towards the home; provocative because it manifests their desire to evict the Palestinian family and replace them with Jewish settlers. 28 Palestinian families in Sheikh Jarrah are threatened by eviction, including the Kamel Kurd, Hannoun, and Gawi families that were made homeless in the past year. This was the fourth provocative prayer in the past five weeks, directed twice at the Gawi family house (23 and 30 October) and twice at the Atiyeh family house (20 and 27 November). Each time, the provocation has been accompanied by heavily armed Israeli occupation police. This time a friend of the Sheikh Jarrah families protested against the provocation by standing close to the settler group and performing a muslim prayer towards the Atiyeh family house. Afterwards, the praying Palestinian was questioned by the police while the settlers were not. During the prayers, the police unnecessarily forced some Palestinian children to back well away from the street.
Background
The Gawi and Hannoun families, consisting of 53 members including 20 children, have been left homeless after they were forcibly evicted from their houses on 2 August 2009. The Israeli forces surrounded the homes of the two families at 5.30am and, breaking in through the windows, forcefully dragged all residents into the street. The police also demolished the neighbourhood’s protest tent, set up by Um Kamel, following the forced eviction of her family in November 2008.
At present, all three houses are occupied by settlers and the whole area is patrolled by armed private settler security 24 hours a day. Both Hannoun and Gawi families, who have been left without suitable alternative accommodation since August, continue to protest against the unlawful eviction from the sidewalk across the street from their homes, facing regular attacks from the settlers and harassment from the police.
The Karm Al-Ja’ouni neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah is home to 28 Palestinian families, all refugees from 1948, who received their houses from the UNRWA and Jordanian government in 1956. All face losing their homes in the manner of the Hannoun, Gawi and al-Kurd families.
The aim of the settlers is to turn the whole area into a new Jewish settlement and to create a Jewish continuum that will effectively cut off the Old City form the northern Palestinian neighborhoods. Implanting new Jewish settlements in East Jerusalem and the West Bank is illegal under many international laws, including Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention.
The plight of the Gawi, al-Kurd and the Hannoun families is just a small part of Israel’s ongoing campaign of ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people from East Jerusalem.
