Tensions came to a head over the weekend in the occupied East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah after Israeli forces arrested local residents and journalists from the neighborhood, causing a storm on social media.
On Sunday morning Israeli forces arrested Muna El-Kurd, 23, from her home in Sheikh Jarrah and taken to an Israeli police station in Jerusalem for interrogation. Video footage being circulated on social media showed Israeli forces handcuffing El-Kurd and escorting her out of her home.
Israeli police also summoned Muna’s twin brother Mohammed for interrogation. Mohammed turned himself into the same police station where his sister was being held early Sunday afternoon.
Both Muna and Mohammed have become the internationally-recognized faces of the movement in Sheikh Jarrah, and have amassed millions of followers on social media as they shed light on their family’s fight to save their home from being taken over by Israeli settlers.
According to Reuters, without explicitly naming Muna El-Kurd, an Israeli police spokeswoman said “police arrested under court order a suspect (23) who is a resident of East Jerusalem, on suspicion of participating in riots that took place in Sheikh Jarrah recently”.
Both Muna and Mohammed were released on Sunday evening after several hours of interrogation. A press conference being held by the El-Kurd family outside the police station prior to the siblings’ release was reportedly dispersed by Israeli forces who fired stun grenades at the crowd, according to Haaretz.
“Israel fights my daughter because she is telling the story of Sheikh Jarrah,” Nabil El-Kurd, Muna and Mohammed’s father, told journalists and supporters outside the police station.
“She is not behaving violently towards anyone. The only purpose here is to silence her and silence the voices of protest in the neighborhood. This is the time for everyone to stand up for this struggle,” he said.
The arrest of Muna and Mohammed El-Kurd caused an uproar on social media in Palestine and across the world, as people called on Israel to release the siblings, and condemned what was largely seen as an attempt by Israeli authorities to silence the siblings over their activism.
Kenneth Roth, the Executive Director of Human Rights Watch called the arrest of the El-Kurd twins “an example of the Israeli government’s apartheid in action.”
Reports indicated that Israeli forces also arrested prominent Palestinian activist Zubair Al-Rajabi from the Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan on Sunday morning.
The arrests came less than 24 hours after Israeli forces violently detained a Palestinian journalist as she was covering protests in Sheikh Jarrah.
Videos went viral on social media on Saturday of Israeli forces arresting and beating Al Jazeera Arabic reporter Givara Budeiri, forcing her into handcuffs and rushing her out of the neighborhood.
Footage showed Budeiri, who was clearly marked as a member of the press at the time, presenting her press credentials to Israeli forces, who pulled and grabbed at her in attempts to detain her.
According to Al Jazeera, Israeli forces also destroyed equipment belonging to Al Jazeera cameraman Nabil Mazzawi.
Badeiri was released several hours later, reportedly on the condition that she could not go to Sheikh Jarrah for 15 days. She also suffered a fractured arm as the result of her violent detention.
“They came from everywhere, I don’t know why, they kicked me to the wall,” Budeiri told Al Jazeera after her release, adding that she was “treated as a criminal” by Israeli police. “They kicked me inside the car in a very bad way … they were kicking me from everywhere.”
Budeiri added that for the duration of her detention, Israeli police prevented her from removing her heavy flak jacket or closing her eyes, and that the police accused her of kicking a female soldier, “an accusation she vehemently denied,” Al Jazeera said.
Last week Israeli forces detained two Palestinian journalists, Zaina Halawani and Wahbi Makkia, from Sheikh Jarrah as they were covering events in the neighborhood. The two were held in Israeli detention for several days before being released and placed under house arrest.
For weeks Israeli forces have been preventing journalists and activists from accessing the neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah. According to Reporters Without Borders, as of the end of May, Israel was holding at least 13 Palestinian journalists in detention.
Over the weekend Israeli forces also violently dispersed a peaceful sit-in in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan, where local residents and activists from around the city had gathered after participating in the “Jerusalem Marathon” that set off from Sheikh Jarrah.
Like the families in Sheikh Jarrah, hundreds of families in Silwan are also under imminent threat of forcible eviction by Israeli settler organizations.
The Israeli Supreme Court and district courts have recently delayed decisions regarding the appeal of the families in both Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan, as global attention surrounding both cases continues to gain traction.
The country that claims it is the “only democracy in the Middle East” once again shows the world that it is no different to the authoritarian regimes around it, when it comes to human right abuses, and the silencing of the media. They have tried everything, including bombing of a media building, and the violent arrests of journalists and bloggers who record their crimes, and show the world what this so called “democracy” is capable of. They are apparently going to ask us for another billion dollars to keep the occupation, land grabs, and these human rights violations going, and you can be sure Congress will oblige them. This parasitic relationship should have ended a long time ago.
We will always be known as a nation that enabled this monster commit crimes against humanity.
If this was Iran, we would be reminded once again by the media that Iran is an evil empire, and the apologists for Israel would be howling with outrage at the treatment and muzzling of the media.
If anyone watch anti Muslim/pro Israel Bill Maher recently with Nicholas Kristof, where he kept repeating Hasbara talking points one after the other (some brilliantly disputed by NK), here is an interesting video of Omar Baddar of the Institute of Middle East Understanding calling him out on 20 of his lies.https://www.facebook.com/theIMEU/posts/bill-maher-made-at-least-20-false-or-misleading-claims-about-palestine-and-israe/4847720375244839/
Hi Yumna,
I watched the footage of the arrest of Givara Budeiri. It is highly likely that Israeli police are the most restrained, professional (and multi-racial and female empowering) police force in the Middle East and North Africa. It will require generations of moral and intellectual advancement for the surrounding countries to catch up.
Take a moment to learn about what Iraqi police are like according to Canadian soldiers who were there on a training mission. One Canadian Afghan combat veteran wrote: “I have thought about the incident every day since the event took place. I am bothered by the fact that my assigned duties allowed me to train and enable people who in my mind were criminals.” https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/iraq-security-training-atrocity-eyre-1.6054419
Perhaps one day, due to your own maturation, you will apply your skills to far more important projects than this reflexive, dishonest incitement of hatred towards Israel.