14 December 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank
ISM has been following the situation of the Al Kurd family from Sheikh Jarrah since 2009 and has kept a presence in the garden of their home.
On December 4th Nabil Al Kurd and his mother, accompanied by international and Israeli activists went to the Court of Magistrate in Jerusalem and sat in the courtroom. After 40 minutes of intense argument between the lawyer of the family and the lawyer representing the Jewish committee, the decision left the Al Kurd family with 2 options regarding their home.
The first option would involve paying rent from now in addition to the amount of “years of rent” and signing a paper stating that the Israeli government, being the owner of the land, would not need any kind of authorization if they decided to use the land. If the family refuses to fulfill the conditions of the first option, they would face the second option: the family would could be evicted at any time.
11 December 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank
ISM has been following the situation of the Al Kurd family from Sheikh Jarrah since 2009 and has kept a presence in the garden of their home.
The Al Kurd family is of five other families targeted by these evications. The Fawziya Al Kurd family was evicted 9 November 2008. And the Ghawi and Hanoun families were evicted on 3 August 2009.
The Nabil Al Kurd family was evicted from one of their houses on 3 November 2009, and settlers finally moved in on 1 December 2009.
Illegal, Zionist settlers have decorated the Al Kurd home with Israeli flags.
On December 4th Nabil Al Kurd and his mother, accompanied by international and Israeli activists went to the Court of Magistrate in Jerusalem and sat in the courtroom. After 40 minutes of intense argument between the lawyer of the family and the lawyer representing the Jewish committee, the decision left the Al Kurd family with 2 options regarding their home.
The first option would involve paying rent from now in addition to the amount of “years of rent” and signing a paper stating that the Israeli government, being the owner of the land, would not need any kind of authorization if they decided to use the land. If the family refuses to fulfill the conditions of the first option, they would face the second option: the family would could be evicted at any time.
The judge gave them 30 days from the time of the court hearing to decide which option they want to follow. By choosing the first option the family that lives in this house since 1959 and were declared owners of their home by UNRWA, would handover their ownership to the Zionist community. The second option means giving up any little hope left to keep their house.
A Zionist settler occupying a home in Sheikh Jarrah
UNRWA recognized the house as property of the Al Kurd family and owners of the land on which it is built. However, Zionist organizations, with the support of the Israeli legal system are trying to colonize Sheikh Jarrah and what is left of East Jerusalem. The Israeli government continues its goal of judaization (and de-arabization) by openly exercising ethnic cleansing: that is, they wish to gain more land with as little arabs as possible.
Activists from all over the world have established a nightly presence in sheikh Jarah to protect the family from settlers attacks but also to show support and solidarity to all Palestinians living in Sheikh Jarrah.
Samar and Meriem are volunteers with International Solidarity Movement (names have been changed).
7 November 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank
ISM has maintained a daily presence at the al-Kurd residence in Sheikh Jarrah since August 2009 when Israeli authorities paved the way for Israeli settlers to occupy the front part of the family home. On the first night of Eid al-Adha, on November 6th, 2011, three international volunteers camped in a make shift area just outside of the residence, located in the same area where the ISM tent was before it was burned to the ground by the settlers just two months ago.
Thirteen al-Kurd family members spanning three generations gathered to celebrate the Muslim holiday. In tradition, gifts were given to the children and the women of the family. All enjoyed a dinner of lamb, salad, mansef (a local dish of bread, yogurt, and meat), and burma for dessert. And as always in Palestine, plenty of tea and coffee was prepared and enjoyed.
After staying the night I had more time to talk with Nabil. He showed me the blankets he’d been forced to hang to prevent water, vomit, and human waste being tossed at the family from the windows of the house occupied by illegal Zionist settlers. They were hung between the areas where his children used to play and the greatly reduced patio space just outside his family’s entrance. The metal gate that once separated the space was torn down by the settlers. The swing and seasaw that his children once enjoyed were also dismantled by settlers and now lie unusable in the back of the house.
The violence directed toward the Al-Kurds does not stop with the constant verbal abuse and the tossing of liquids. One female family member, for example, has been beaten on six occasions, each time requiring medical attention. On this first night of Eid, the settlers ran power tools until 3 AM, and dogs barked loudly, making sleep difficult for the family.
Activists were doused with water several times throughout the evening as well.
Nabil’s wife and daughters left early Monday, the second day of Eid Al-Ahda. Below are Nabil and his son Mahmoud just before leaving for more family festivities.
Nabil al Kurd and his son Mahmood
Wahed Rajol is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed).
28 October 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank
As I pass, my Palestinian scarf is hidden in my bag – I do not want to get any spit on me tonight. Around the tomb of Shimon HaTzadik, the festival is going on. The settlers have built a stage, erected a huge party tent and assembled a long line of portable toilets. Danceable klezmer music is booming from the loudspeakers and the Israeli police are present with horses and cordons. Children are playing around amidst guns and dancing men with beards and luminous bracelets.
One wouldn’t expect a Jewish festival to take place in the middle of the Palestinian neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah. But it’s not a coincidence – it’s a statement. Otherwise I would gladly have jumped into the crowd and joined the vibrant mass.
A while back, someone sprayed “A.S.A.B.” on the wall to the al-Kurd family house in Sheikh Jarrah. All Settlers Are Bastards. There are people in the garden when I enter it, and I am desperately trying to figure out whether they are friends of the family or rabid festival-goers that are here to backslap the Israeli settlers.
Illegal, Zionist settlers have decorated a settler occupied Palestinian house with Israeli flags.
I’m relieved when I catch a glimpse of Alex and Ellen in the tent outside the house. Since March this year, activists have been keeping watch outside the al-Kurd house, and tonight it is our turn. But there are more activists here tonight because the settlers’ festival is perceived as a threat. I greet an activist from EAPPI and some Israeli activists who say that they usually play drums on demos. “Good thing they didn’t bring their drums here”, I managed to think through the noise from the settler celebrations.
If one could break down the Israeli occupation of Palestine to one single conflict, it would be Sheikh Jarrah. Since 2008, many Palestinians here have been evicted from their homes and extremist settlers have instead moved in and barricaded themselves behind barbed wire and surveillance cameras. These settlers are neither interested in UN resolutions nor the Oslo Agreement. They are politically and religiously fanatical nationalists who believe that they have been given this land by God.
Nabil al-Kurd offers a new round of tea in the tent where we sit, and he pours a heaped teaspoon of sugar in my cup before I can protest. Since 2009 the al-Kurd family unwillingly lives side by side with a bunch of settlers occupying half of the family’s house. The settlers have marked territory using large Israeli flags on the terrace. The Palestinian flag, however, is conspicuously absent here in occupied East Jerusalem since it is banned by law.
The settlers are macho guys in their 20s whose main task seems to be turning the life of al-Kurd family into hell. They stay up all night, booze, provoke their dog, flash themselves and fuss a lot. Last time I kept watch in this tent, they tried to throw water on us seven or eight times through their window. They spat in my face, called me a “Palestine bitch” and threw stones in our direction. Activists have sometimes called the police there when the settlers go too far, but the police seldom intervene.
The legal process of the occupied houses in Sheikh Jarrah is still ongoing. “But this is not about law, this is about politics”, Nabil al-Kurd says. He is backed by the Civic Coalition for Defending Palestinian Rights in Jerusalem, which concludes: “The existence and continuous expansion of Jewish settlements throughout the occupied Palestinian territory, in particular East Jerusalem, is fast foreclosing any future possibility of a viable Palestinian State with East Jerusalem as its capital”. I tell Nabil al-Kurd that he needs a good lawyer. “I have three lawyers,” he says, smiling. “And it is Norway and Sweden that pay for them.”
The tent outside al-Kurds house where international observers keep watch
All through the evening, people walk in and out of the settlers’ part of the house. It is mainly young men with orthodox Jewish outfits who pass, but for the first time I also see women and children visiting the settlers. They chat a bit with the settlers and then the settlers’ dog scare the children so they get terrified and rush away.
Towards midnight, the festival begins to calm down and several of the activists leave Sheikh Jarrah too. Nabil al-Kurd goes to bed and I sit alone in the tent with Alex and Ellen. Some Palestinian teenagers from the neighborhood come by and try to teach us some curses in Arabic.
One of the settlers comes out and screams something, and the teenagers, who also speak Hebrew, scream back. “They said they’d call the police if we don’t shut up”, they translate. One of them, Joseph, tells how the Israeli police tend to harass Palestinians in Jerusalem, and how the policemen every day stop him in the street and ask him: “Hey, Joseph, will you show us your ID?”. People with “non-Arabic” looks can freely pass by.
Now a policeman with a luminous bracelet between his teeth enters the garden. He looks around and peeks into the house where the settlers live. “It’s gonna be cold tonight,” he says to us in the tent. “Yes,” we answer, interrogatively looking at each other. The policeman leaves again.
At 3 am the area is quiet and dark and even the settlers seem to have gone to bed. We are thankful for an early night without confrontation. Together we walk through Sheikh Jarrah and now I dare to wear my Palestinian scarf. The police are still there and someone yells “Go to hell!” after us.
Jenna Bereld is an activist with International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed).
28 September 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank
While Palestinian families continue to defend their right to reside in their homes in East Jerusalem, and while illegal Israeli settlers attempt to overtake whatever home or land to feed their colonial appetite, a different struggle is taking place on the walls of Sheikh Jarrah. As international activists and Palestinians use graffiti to express Palestinian resistance, Zionists scribble over the artful proclamations in reactionary stick images and symbolism of the Zionist agenda. As more walls are built or demolished by Israel, the artwork in Sheikh Jarrah reflects the struggle of Palestinian identity and resistance, despite the overbearing nature of Zionists who try to manipulate the meaning of Palestinian resistance, Palestinians and international activists are taking back the identity of Palestinians through street art.
