Events in Jerusalem over the past few days show that Ben Gvir’s declared war on East Jerusalem has already begun, as Israeli authorities crack down on Palestinians across the city.

International media and political leaders have attempted to explain an the January 27 attack in the Israeli settlement of Neve Yaakov that killed seven Israeli settlers as a religiously-motivated crime because it took place on the eve of Shabbat in an area adjacent to a synagogue. But these same accounts ignore the fact that Neve Yaakov is also home to the Israeli military’s central command center for the occupation of the West Bank, and the settlement has been central to cementing Israeli control over occupied Jerusalem.

When an attack like Khairy Alqam’s in Neve Yaakov occurs, you must understand that this violence does not occur in a vacuum.

Here is the context behind the attack in Neve Yaakov.

Palestinian human rights lawyer Salah Hammouri, who is currently imprisoned by Israel, has been ordered by the Israeli state to be deported on December 4th, following the revocation of his Jerusalem residency status. 

Rights groups and activists have expressed fears that Hammouri’s deportation will set a dangerous precedent for other Palestinians in the city, who could be forced out of their homes if found to be in “breach of loyalty” to the apartheid state.

Palestinians in Jaffa, Jerusalem, and across Israel are challenging discriminatory Israeli education policies.

The new settlements would effectively cut East Jerusalem off from the southern West Bank. “Politically, this is a strategic plan that will strike a blow at the possibility of a Palestinian urban continuum in East Jerusalem,” settlement watchdog Peace Now said in a report.

An estimated 70,000 Israeli settlers participated in the annual flag march in occupied East Jerusalem on Sunday, with some crowds chanting “Death to Arabs.” Hundreds of Palestinians have been injured across the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem as Israeli forces suppressed protests that erupted in response to the march. Follow here for news throughout the day.

In a new submission to the International Criminal Court, jailed Palestinian human rights lawyer Salah Hammouri called on the court to bring urgency to its investigation of war crimes committed by Israel in the occupied Palestinian territory. 

Israeli police attacked the funeral of slain Palestinian Walid al-Sharif, 23, in occupied East Jerusalem on Monday night, injuring dozens of funeral goers. Al-Sharif was shot in the head with a rubber coated steel bullet by Israeli forces on April 22 during an Israeli assault on the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound.

Data collection for Covid-19 rates in Palestine has continued to be challenging and contradictory; numbers out of East Jerusalem have been intermittently available “from local sources,” once again highlighting the differences in public health for East Jerusalemites versus the population in ’48 Israel. Occupied Palestinians, even those with residency permits, lack well-resourced, well-organized health and public health systems focused on their needs.

“The seizure of the Little Petra Hotel by the radical extremist group Ateret Cohanim is a threat to the continued existence of a Christian Quarter in Jerusalem,” says Greek Orthodox Patriarch Theophilos III.