Israeli activists came out last week to protest Mayor Nir Barkat’s ritual Chanukah candle lighting in Jerusalem and to bring a message that holiday cheer should not mask the fact that Palestinians in East Jerusalem are suffering due to his policies.
“Come tell Mayor Barkat: “Let this be a festival of light in dark times,” read the event’s facebook page. “Stop discriminatory policies and oppression in East Jerusalem.”
While Barkat spoke to a crowd of about 80 Israelis across from the Yehuda Market in Jerusalem, protesters stood on the side holding signs that read “There’s no sanctity in an occupied city”, “Stop the ‘quiet transfer policy'”, “No building allowed. Yours, the city”, and “House demolitions = Or Lagoyim” [a Jewish phrase for ‘Lighting the way for Gentiles,’ here used ironically].
Two people even stood behind Barkat’s platform, facing the crowd, and midway through unfurled a large banner that said “STOP EAST JERUSALEM HOUSE DEMOLITIONS.”
“Our goal was to disrupt ‘business as usual’ in West Jerusalem while East Jerusalem is burning,” said activist Sahar Vardi after the demonstration. “We wanted to demand from the Mayor of Jerusalem to stop violating the rights of the Palestinian residents of the city he’s supposed to care for. Specifically, to highlight the issue of house demolitions, as Jews celebrate the fact that the temple (which is referred to as ‘the house’ in Hebrew) was not destroyed over 2,000 years ago, today the Jerusalem municipality is destroying houses. We want to convey to the mayor that he can’t avoid the realities of East Jerusalem, and that wherever he goes, we will follow to remind him of that reality.”
After about ten minutes of Barkat speaking, protesters starting chanting with a megaphone, at which point several angry members of Barkat’s crowd rushed over and started pushing and yelling back at the protesters, trying to silence them. One younger man ripped a sign out an older female protester’s hand, tearing it in pieces as he walked away.
Since mid November Israel has increased its policy of home demolitions against Palestinians living in East Jerusalem, including revamping a policy of punitive home demolitions that had been halted in 2005 after reports indicated that they were ineffective. In recent weeks, Human Rights Watch as well as other human rights organizations have declared the demolitions to constitute “collective punishment,” saying they should be considered war crimes, but so far this has had little impact on Israel’s actions.
Activists pointed to both Barkat’s and the state’s policies more broadly of refusing to give Palestinians permits to build, while simultaneously demolishing their homes under the excuse that they were built without a permit. The Jerusalem municipality demolishes on average around 60 homes each year, one of its particularly cruel methods of encouraging Palestinian residents to leave the city in order to increase the Jewish demographic in Jerusalem.
The protest Tuesday was the latest in a string of Israeli actions over the last two weeks meant to both raise awareness amongst more Israelis of the situation in East Jerusalem and to begin to challenge it.
On Sunday, December 7, over 200 Israelis, many of them new to activism, showed up at a bar in Jerusalem to hear from East Jerusalem Palestinians about the situation they are facing in their neighborhoods. This was followed by a tour of the village of Issawiya the following Friday which was attended by 150 people, and a demonstration against the anti-assimilation group Lahava that brought out 500 people the following Saturday.
Some of you might recall that Gopstein, the idiot in charge of Lahava, was detained along with a few others. Fret not, he and the others have since been released. The cops claim that there is no evidence that his group was involved in the torching of the Jewish/Arab school.
Sigh.
Nice work by the activists! Predictable behavior by Barkat’s admirers.
Thanks, Sarah.