Tensions are flaring again in Sheikh Jarrah as right-wing Israeli lawmakers and Jewish settlers continue to incite violence ahead of the looming displacement of another Palestinian family from the occupied East Jerusalem neighborhood.
Israeli police and settlers assaulted Palestinian residents of Sheikh Jarrah over the weekend, resulting in the injury and arrest of several of the neighborhood’s residents.
Scuffles ensued after the far- right Israeli lawmaker, Itamar Ben Gvir of the Religious Zionism alliance, “opened” an office in Sheikh Jarrah, on the property of the Salem family, who are under threat of expulsion. Ben-Gvir said he was setting up the make-shift office to “support the Jews living in the neighborhood.”
Dozens of armed settlers accompanied Ben-Gvir, setting up a tent, plastic tables, and Israeli flags on the Salem family’s lawn. Ben-Gvir, along with the settlers, engaged in inciteful behavior against the Palestinian residents, including verbal and physical harassment.
Videos showed groups of settlers dancing on the Salem family’s property, singing racist and Islamophobic, as well as vandalizing and throwing rocks at Palestinian cars in the neighborhood.
The presence of Ben-Gvir, who pulled a similar stunt during the height of the May uprising, sparked protests among the Palestinian residents of the neighborhood, who faced violent suppression from both the Israeli police and the settlers.
According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, since Saturday, Israeli forces injured at least 35 Palestinians, including two photojournalists and one medic, when Israeli forces fired rubber-coated steel bullets and stun grenades at crowds. At least six people were hospitalized.
Among the injured was of the Palestinians who was injured was 73-year-old Fatima Salem, who told journalists that settlers assaulted her and her family, injuring her hand with a blade.
Another video shows settlers pepper spraying Fatima at the entrance of her house in the middle of the night.
Fatima Salem was born in Sheikh Jarrah, and has lived in the neighborhood her entire life. In 1987, the Israeli courts ordered her to leave her family home on the premise that she could not prove her residence there prior to her parents’ death.
Though the eviction order was frozen that same year, it was reactivated in 2015, and in December 2021, Salem and her family were given a final eviction notice. They have until the beginning of March to leave the house.
The Salem family are one of dozens of Palestinian families in Sheikh Jarrah who have been fighting against their forcible removal for decades, as settler organizations seek to replace them Jewish settlers.
Last month, Israeli forces raided the Salhiya family home in Sheikh Jarrah and forcibly displaced the 15 family members living inside the house before demolishing the family’s home.
Once again, Israel is committing human rights abuses, and does not care that the world is watching.
They also know that the US and Western nations will not hold them accountable for these acts of violence against helpless people, who seem to have no support from the world, including other Arab nations. All this violence because they want to evict more Arabs? It is only natural these Palestinians will want to fight to keep their homes. This is sadistic, mean behavior, that Israel has become notorious for.
The US is as usual responding in it’s lame toothless way:
What they’re saying: “We’re following developments very closely in Sheikh Jarrah, both on the ground and here from Washington, and we’re deeply concerned by the events,” State Department spokesperson Ned Price said on Monday.
https://www.axios.com/us-presses-israel-deescalation-sheikh-jarrah-palestinians-533ff598-0f8e-4cc1-ad1a-63c6a4c8c2a0.html