I’m currently writing in Silwan from the home of a local community leader. We’ve been anticipating the ethnic cleansing of yet another house in occupied East Jerusalem since early morning and the occupation authorities have been swarming all day.
Seven families – a total of forty-five people – will be made homeless once they’re evicted. Beit Yonatan, a settler outpost about forty meters down the street, is set to be evacuated as well. The idea is to resettle the settlers in the Palestinian home.
Basically, it’s the Hebron strategy at work here. Plant a racist in a hole and send a phalanx to guard him. I think it’s pretty reasonable to expect that all of the houses between the two homes will be ethnically cleansed in time. That’s because the Beit Yonatan house will be reoccupied as soon as it’s emptied. The Zionist Pincer.
Children have been throwing stones at the occupation forces and they’ve arrested (kidnapped) at least one little boy - 13 years old (short video) - and a young man (see video). I didn’t manage to get it on video, but the kid in the yellow was roughed up quite a bit by the occupation frenzy. He was dragged fifty meters or so before being shoved into the jeep.
Sound bombs are going off periodically and the Israelis are massing at Silwan’s entrance. According to one member of the occupation police, the Beit Yonatan house may be evacuated tonight.
Slightly off-topic, I had the pleasure of meeting Isabel Kershner here before the clashes began. She was interviewing people and I approached her to ask why the New York Times is so enmired in the Zionist perspective. I brought up her Israeli husband and Bronner’s son who’s in the Israeli army. While she was very approachable and nice, she didn’t really want to talk about it too much and said Bronner could comment about his own son. Another guy got prickly and he stormed off; I guess he works for the Times too.
