The Al-Kurds continued to reclaim what remains of their Sheikh Jarrah home today with an art project. Three graffiti artists from Palestine, Israel and the UK joined Sheikh Jarrah residents and activists for a day of garden beautification. The artists met with residents in the morning while activists prepped the walls for painting. “Sheikh Jarrah” was sprayed in both Arabic and English with an Al-Aqsa style mosque between the two. The Gawi children, evicted from their homes in August 2009, assisted with the creation. Neighborhood kids also made stencils to decorate the doors, walls and pathways of the yard.
Nasser Al-Ghawi sits by reclaimed wall
Settlers were present in large numbers, upwards of 15 at times, throughout the day. They sat in front of the occupied Al-Kurd home watching as over 40 residents, Israeli and international activists filled the yard to support the evicted families of Sheikh Jarrah. Police also had a heavy presence. Artists were blocked from painting on the western wall of the yard, shared by a Palestinian neighbor who recently received eviction papers because the wall. Painting was only permitted on the eastern wall of the yard. At one point during the day, police blocked access to the yard to everyone except Yoni, a leader of the settlers.
Sheikh Jarrah youth paints wall
A legal battle will ensue shortly regarding the ownership of the yard. Settlers claim that it is communal property thus they have the right to access the playground toys recently installed by the Palestinian Authority and the right to paint the walls. One settler remarked how glad he was that we were painting the walls white, as it prepares it for the Israeli flag. Sheikh Jarrah residents and activist supporters insist that the court gave the settlers the Al-Kurd home and just the home. The legal basis for the home being transferred to settlers is that it lacks the proper permits. The yard and walls however, do not require permits and were never deemed illegal, thus logic would state that these parts of the property should not be transferred to the settlers.
Settlers continued in their attempted provocation of residents and activists throughout the night despite even attempts by the military to calm them down.
The Al-Kurd yard has received a makeover in the past month, going from a graveyard of their former life to a playground with olive and fruit tree landscape. The landscaping was completed by Palestinian youth from around occupied East Jerusalem; the playground was funded by the Palestinian Authority and installed by representatives from the government and residents; today’s artwork was organized by the dedicated Israeli activists in Sheikh Jarrah.
Nabil Al-Kurd, head of the Al-Kurd family was arrested last night at midnight. He went with police to file a report against a settler who threatened his life and was violating previous release agreements by coming to the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood and was arrested. Two settlers are also being held. At the police station both settlers and international and Israeli activists came to give statements. Settlers were allowed to enter the police station and give statements. International and Israeli activists waited for three hours with video footage but were not allowed to speak to police. Police arrive to arrest Nabil as settlers destroy Al-Kurd property
Settlers began gathering around sundown at the entrance to the Al-Kurd home. The door to the home was malfunctioning, angering and embarrassing the group of 15 young men. The fence, erected two weeks ago through a garden-beautification project organized by East Jerusalem youth, has been a source of contention since the beginning. While waiting to enter their stolen home, settler boys began dismantling the fence with their hands, and by jumping on it.
Settlers claim that the fence violates their “property rights” while legal documents state that only the home, not the yard can be occupied by settlers. The Al-Kurd home was built without a permit, providing legal grounds for eviction. The yard is not unpermitted and therefore transfer to settlers is illegal.
The fence was completely removed at 4am by three settler boys. Four ISM volunteers were present for the destruction; one was physically assaulted while filming. The family will begin the
After a night in jail, Nabil Al-Kurd and the two settlers (despite parole violations) were released after a judge dropped all charges. Nabil Al-Kurds arrest continues the trend of arresting Sheikh Jarrah residents in an attempt to instill fear in the community about resisting the ethnic cleansing of their neighborhood and the occupation of Palestine.
Update: The Palestinians who were arrested last have been released without charge. No settlers have been questioned or detained in connection with the property destruction they undertook, despite photographic evidence proving their culpability.
Sheikh Jarrah, Occupied East Jerusalem, Israel, 12AM – Right-wing settlers began to dismantle a fence the Al-Kurd family erected around their garden shortly after midnight Wednesday morning. Palestinians and internationals in the Al-Kurds protest tent, where the family has have lived in for four months, placed themselves between the fence and the settlers. Police arrived soon after and arrested two young Palestinian men of Sheikh Jarrah. No settlers were taken into custody. Despite pleas by the Palestinians and internationals who witnessed the event, officers refused to look at the destroyed section of the fence. Settlers destroy Al-Kurd fence
The Al-Kurd family, assisted by residents across east Jerusalem, recently reclaimed their garden during a commemoration of Land Day. The reclamation included the seeding and transplanting of plants and erecting the fence that the settlers attempted to destroy this evening.
“The settlers actions in Sheikh Jarrah are a perfect example of the total power disparity between the Jewish and Palestinian populations of Israel and Palestine,” said Nina Mackay. “With the police behind them, the young settlers can make up any story in an attempt to incarcerate Palestinian residents of Sheikh Jarrah,” the Scottish ISM volunteer concluded.
Approximately 475 Palestinian residents living in the Karm Al-Ja’ouni neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah, located directly north of the Old City, face imminent eviction from their homes. All 28 families are refugees from 1948,, whose houses in Sheikh Jarrah were built and given to them through a joint project between the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) and the Jordanian government in 1956.
So far, settlers occupy four Palestinian families, displacing around 60 residents, including over 40 children. they have all been left without suitable housing but only some protest on the street continue to protest against the unlawful eviction from the sidewalk across the street from their homes, facing regular harassment from the settlers and racist police forces.
Earlier today in Sheikh Jarrah, East Jerusalem, Israeli settlers attacked Palestinian residents and international solidarity activists, five of whom sustained injuries. The settlers were armed with stones and sticks. According to eyewitnesses, one settler was wielding a knife.
A group of approximately twenty Israeli settlers entered the neighborhood and began throwing stones at three women from the Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI), hitting and lightly injuring each of them. Five Palestinian residents moved up the street towards the settlers in an attempt to stop the stone throwing, at which point the settlers began attacking them with sticks. According to eye witnesses, one settler then drew a knife and appeared to be about to stab Nasser Al-Ghawi, a local resident, when another Palestinian grabbed the blade of the knife to prevent the attack. The resident who intervened was then pushed to the ground and repeatedly beaten. He has been hospitalized, as his hand was lacerated by the knife blade, and he has suspected fractured ribs.
Settlers then left the area as soon as the police arrived. Nasser Al-Ghawi was arrested. None of the settlers were detained or arrested.
Newly planted trees in the al-Kurd yard in celebration of Land DayIn honor of Land Day, an upbeat group of local residents and school children gathered on Wednesday in front of the half-occupied Al Kurd home in Sheikh Jarrah. Neighbors, friends and supporters cleaned up the garden and planted olive trees. The conspicuous and unusual absence of both settlers and police contributed greatly to the positive mood of the day, although the ongoing threat of further evictions looms over the whole neighborhood.
The al-Kurd family live in the back half of their home, but were evicted from the newly built front partition in December 2009. The day’s actions were seen by many present as a sign of defiance against the illegal presence of Israeli settlers in the front part of the house, and against the imminent court proceedings which may be used to force them from the back half.
The day concluded with the usual Wednesday night community dinner, in which international and Israeli supporters join the local families for a shared meal in the street opposite the Gawi family home, which has been illegally occupied by settlers since August 2009.
Background on Sheikh Jarrah
Approximately 475 Palestinian residents living in the Karm Al-Ja’ouni neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah, located directly north of the Old City, face imminent eviction from their homes in the manner of the Hannoun and Gawi families, and the al-Kurd family before them. All 28 families are refugees from 1948, mostly from West Jerusalem and Haifa, whose houses in Sheikh Jarrah were built and given to them through a joint project between the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) and the Jordanian government in 1956.
So far, settlers took over houses of four Palestinian families, displacing around 60 residents, including 20 children. At present, settlers occupy all these houses and the whole area is patrolled by armed private security 24 hours a day. The evicted Palestinian families, some of whom 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 violent attacks from the settlers and harassment from the police.
The Gawi family, for example, had their only shelter, a small tent built near their house, destroyed by the police and all their belongings stolen five times. In addition, the al-Kurd family has been forced to live in an extremely difficult situation, sharing the entrance gate and the backyard of their house with extremist settlers, who occupied a part of the al-Kurd home in December 2009. The settlers subject the Palestinian family to regular violent attacks and harassment, making their life a living hell.
The ultimate goal of the settler organizations is to evict all Palestinians from the area and turn it into a new Jewish settlement and to create a Jewish continuum that will effectively cut off the Old City form the northern Palestinian neighborhoods. On 28 August 2008, Nahalat Shimon International filed a plan to build a series of five and six-story apartment blocks – Town Plan Scheme (TPS) 12705 – in the Jerusalem Local Planning Commission. If TPS 12705 comes to pass, the existing Palestinian houses in this key area would be demolished, about 500 Palestinians would be evicted, and 200 new settler units would be built for a new settlement: Shimon HaTzadik.
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.
Legal background
The eviction orders, issued by Israeli courts, are a result of claims made in 1967 by the Sephardic Community Committee and the Knesseth Yisrael Association (who since sold their claim to the area to Nahalat Shimon) – settler organizations whose aim is to take over the whole area using falsified deeds for the land dating back to 1875. In 1972, these two settler organizations applied to have the land registered in their names with the Israel Lands Administration (ILA). Their claim to ownership was noted in the Land Registry; however, it was never made into an official registry of title. The first Palestinian property in the area was taken over at this time.
The case continued in the courts for another 37 years. Amongst other developments, the first lawyer of the Palestinian residents reached an agreement with the settler organizations in 1982 (without the knowledge or consent of the Palestinian families) in which he recognized the settlers’ ownership in return for granting the families the legal status of protected tenants. This affected 23 families and served as a basis for future court and eviction orders (including the al-Kurd family house take-over in December 2009), despite the immediate appeal filed by the families’ new lawyer. Furthermore, a Palestinian landowner, Suleiman Darwish Hijazi, has legally challenged the settlers’ claims. In 1994 he presented documents certifying his ownership of the land to the courts, including tax receipts from 1927. In addition, the new lawyer of the Palestinian residents located a document, proving the land in Sheikh Jarrah had never been under Jewish ownership. The Israeli courts rejected these documents.
The first eviction orders were issued in 1999 based on the (still disputed) agreement from 1982 and, as a result, two Palestinian families (Hannoun and Gawi) were evicted in February 2002. After the 2006 Israeli Supreme Court finding that the settler committees’ ownership of the lands was uncertain, and the Lands Settlement officer of the court requesting that the ILA remove their names from the Lands Registrar, the Palestinian families returned back to their homes. The courts, however, failed to recognize new evidence presented to them and continued to issue eviction orders based on decisions from 1982 and 1999 respectively. Further evictions followed in November 2008 (Kamel al-Kurd family) and August 2009 (Hannoun and Gawi families for the second time). An uninhabited section of a house belonging to the al-Kurd family was taken over by settlers on 1 December 2009.
