As resistance activities intensify across the West Bank, indicating another potential uprising with similar causes as the previous two intifadas, the evolving armed resistance suggests a heightened level of sophistication and adaptability among the resistance groups.
The occupied Palestinian territories have undergone a series of significant changes since last year, with the most notable being the escalation of resistance operations in the occupied West Bank. This development has transformed the territory into a frontline between Palestinian resistance and the Israeli occupation state, reminiscent of the atmosphere during the Second Intifada over two decades ago.
That the occupation army has reactivated its assassination policy through targeted air strikes against resistance figures has solidified this line of argument.
The question that has been circulating for some time now is whether this signifies the onset of a third Palestinian intifada. Alternatively, a more realistic inquiry would be to determine when exactly the current uprising began.
Following the battle of Sayf al-Quds (“Sword of Jerusalem”) in May 2021, the frequency and organization of resistance attacks significantly increased. What initially started as individual actions by Palestinian youth groups evolved into coordinated operations supported by various resistance factions across the West Bank.
Growing support for another Palestinian uprising
The intensification of resistance operations led to over 28 Israeli deaths by the middle of 2023, in comparison to 31 deaths the previous year. This dealt a significant blow to the government of Benjamin Netanyahu, who, alongside his far-right allies, boasted during their election campaign that only they could prevent such attacks. However, the passage of time proved otherwise for “Mr. Security” (as Netanyahu is often referred to).
On 20 June, 2023, four Israelis were killed near the illegal Eli settlement in the West Bank. Just a day earlier, during the storming of the Jabriyat neighborhood in the Jenin refugee camp, a booby-trapped device exploded, injuring seven Israeli soldiers. The operation, claimed by the Al-Quds Brigades, the armed wing of Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), compelled the Israeli army to deploy combat helicopters for the first time since the Battle of Jenin in 2002.
Israeli Channel 14 published statistics on the first six months of 2023. The report claims that 147 operations took place in the occupied West Bank against the occupation forces and settlers, 80 percent of them (120 operations) shooting operations. As for the entirety of 2022, a total of 202 operations were carried out, 74% of which (150 operations) involved the use of firearms.
Meanwhile, the year 2021 witnessed 117 operations in total, 51% of which (60 operations) were carried out with firearms. In just one week of June 2013, 15 shootings were recorded in the occupied West Bank.
The numbers clearly indicate that resistance operations in the occupied territories have been on the rise, along with the percentage of the usage of firearms.
Aside from resistance developments on the ground, Palestinian public sentiment also suggests another intifada is imminent. In March, an opinion poll conducted by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research revealed a significant increase in the percentage of individuals supporting armed confrontations and an intifada.
Just over 60 percent in the West Bank expected the outbreak of a third armed intifada, while almost 70 percent expressed support for the formation of resistance factions, such as the Nablus-based Lions’ Den.
Another 70 percent of respondents also felt that “punitive measures” by the occupation forces against Palestinians would lead to further escalations and retaliatory attacks against Israeli soldiers and settlers.
Under the current extremist Israeli government, attacks against Palestinians have surged, exemplified by recent assaults by settlers on the towns of Turmusaya and Huwara. These attacks resulted in the death of two Palestinians and the destruction of numerous homes and vehicles, all under the watchful eye of the Israeli occupation forces.
This intifada will be different
Over the past year, the Israeli occupation forces killed 167 Palestinians in Jerusalem and the West Bank, 50 in the Gaza Strip, and four in the occupied Palestinian territories. The grim reality continues for Palestinian prisoners, with approximately 4,700 individuals, including more than 500 Jerusalemites, enduring harsh and inhumane detention conditions.
Among them, about 700 are suffering from various illnesses, and tragically, four prisoners have lost their lives due to the occupation’s policy of medical negligence. Furthermore, the year 2022 witnessed the arrest of 7,000 Palestinians, including 850 children and 160 women.
On the other side of the conflict, the number of settlers killed in Palestinian resistance attacks has risen to 31 this year, a significant increase compared to 5 in 2019, 3 in 2020, and 4 in 2021. This surge in Israeli casualties evokes memories of 2002, when the Israeli army launched Operation Defensive Wall in the West Bank in an attempt to suppress resistance and quell martyrdom operations.
The Israeli Prime Minister at the time, war criminal Ariel Sharon, dubbed the month of March as “black,” when 105 Israelis were killed, including 26 soldiers, in martyrdom operations. Under the illusion of ending the Al-Aqsa Intifada (which he provoked in the first place by visiting the mosque’s compound), Sharon gave the green light for an invasion of the West Bank.
According to Daoud Shehab, a spokesperson for the PIJ, there have been attempts in the West Bank to extinguish the national spirit and create a new generation that embraces coexistence with the occupation and normalizes its presence. However, these efforts have proven unsuccessful. Shehab tells The Cradle that, “Today, it has been proven that all these attempts failed.”
In a March report by Reuters, it was argued that any new Palestinian uprising will be completely different from previous ones, as it will be disconnected from traditional Palestinian leadership, yet informed about Palestinian suffering through social media.
The report highlighted the escalation of “spontaneous” armed attacks in the West Bank against the occupation forces and settlers, the endeavor of some young people to announce their affiliation with Palestinian factions, and the emergence of armed groups such as the Lions’ Den and Jenin Brigade are all indications that something out of the ordinary is happening.
The Nablus-Jenin nexus
The Lions’ Den has garnered widespread popular support, transforming into more than just a group of individuals. It has become an idea that unites Palestinian across political parties and affiliations. Together with the Jenin Brigade, these groups pose a significant threat to the Israeli army, which can no longer storm Nablus and Jenin without encountering armed resistance.
Moreover, both groups have transitioned from a defensive stance to an offensive one – taking the initiative in attacking occupation checkpoints and settlements surrounding the two cities in an unprecedented manner not seen since the Second Intifada.
Confrontations with enemy soldiers have evolved beyond gunfire, now involving the use of improvised explosive devices (IEDs), raising serious concerns among the Israeli army and the Shin Bet security service. On 14 March, Haaretz newspaper reported the growing unease within the army and Shin Bet regarding the rising attempts to manufacture local IEDs:
“During the second intifada, in the first years of this century, terrorist groups in the West Bank and Gaza Strip were intensively involved in preparing explosive charges and explosive belts, which were the most lethal and effective weapons against Israel.”
Despite operating under siege and facing numerous challenges, the resistance groups have succeeded in transforming the occupied West Bank into a battlefield where the occupation army faces attrition.
The De-facto Intifada
Under the current Israeli government, the Palestinian people’s awareness of the occupation’s plans for Judaization and settlement is growing, along with their determination to confront the far-right.
On 13 March 2023, the spokesman for the Al-Quds Brigades, Abu Hamza, called for a renewed intifada, stating:
“We call on all the fighters among our people and the free people in the West Bank and in Israel to mobilize for this war, so that there will be an overall intifada that will create the basis for the end of our enemy and its expulsion from all of Palestine.”
Hamas refugee affairs official Issam Adwan agrees on the likelihood of another uprising, informing The Cradle that “the people are the ones who resist and the pace will increase … neither the Palestinian Authority [PA] nor the Israeli occupation will be able to curb it.”
Developments are not restricted to the situation on the ground – Israel sends political messages to the Palestinian people, from which one can understand that the only option to liberate the land is through ‘revolutionary violence.’
In addition to the continuation of building settlements and the seizure of Palestinian property in Jerusalem and the West Bank, Hebrew media revealed on 26 June 2023 that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu informed the Foreign Affairs and Security Committee in the Knesset that the idea of a Palestinian state must be “eradicated.”
His statement expresses the systematic Israeli policy towards the Palestinians for 3 decades – that the only option before them is to surrender. But recent events have revealed that the Palestinian people reject kneeling.
In February, CIA Director William Burns expressed his concern over the situation in the West Bank resembling the prelude to the second Palestinian intifada, signaling Washington’s apprehension about the Palestinian Authority losing control. He stated that the CIA is working in coordination with the PA and Israel to achieve stability.
However, it is not necessary for the current circumstances to resemble those preceding the previous two intifadas for them to be labeled as such. Clear distinctions existed between the first and second intifadas. The first, which erupted in December 1987, started as a popular struggle primarily characterized by stone-throwing incidents and became known as the “Stone-throwing Uprising.”
In contrast, the Second Intifada involved armed acts of resistance, whether in Gaza, the West Bank, or through special operations in the 1948 territories. It witnessed the participation of both the public and the Palestinian resistance factions, along with a significant portion of the official PA apparatus.
Israel closely monitors the developments in the Palestinian landscape and is deeply concerned about the level of confrontation with the occupation. The “Intifada of Knives” that emerged in 2015 has transformed into acts of resistance that are affecting Israelis across all of Palestine. While a precise name for the current situation may not yet exist, it is evident that a new uprising is in the making – and its true nature will become clearer with time.
The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of The Cradle.
Israeli media says the Palestinian public is growing more outraged with the occupation’s practices, which indicates that a third intifada is looming on the horizon for “Tel Aviv”.
Israeli media talks about a Third Palestinian Intifada
There are clear signs pointing to the outbreak of a third Palestinian Intifada, former chief of the Israeli occupation forces’ military intelligence directorate Major General Tamir Hayman said on Thursday in light of the latest round of escalation from the people of occupied Palestine.
There are “clear signs that cannot be ignored indicating that there is an increased probability that a third Palestinian Intifada with unprecedented characteristics will occur,” Hayman stressed.
“The Palestinian arena is becoming more fomented than the majority of the public imagines,” the Israeli military official said, stressing that the occupation must “deal with the terrorist operations that took place in Al-Quds, such as kidnapping the body of Tiran Fero, as a sign that there will be an [Intifada] eventually.”
Palestinian freedom fighters managed on Wednesday dawn to seize the body of an illegal Israeli settler after he was killed in a traffic accident near the American University in the city of Jenin, north of the occupied West Bank.
The Occupation Army Radio reported that Resistance fighters managed to snatch the body of “Israeli” Tiran Fero (18 years old), who was killed in a car accident, adding that he arrived at the Jenin hospital by mistake.
According to the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth, the Resistance fighters captured the body after they stopped an ambulance belonging to the Palestinian Red Crescent that was on its way to deliver it to the occupation, while the Resistance refuses to hand it over.
On the same day, Israeli media reported that there was an explosion at a bus station in Al-Quds, which injured around a dozen people.
Israeli media reported that Knesset member Itamar Ben-Gvir went to the explosion site in Al-Quds.
Israeli media also reported that there is a fear of other explosives in other areas of occupied Al-Quds.
The explosion came after a long period of increased oppression of the Palestinian people at the hand of the Israeli occupation, which has been on a usual yet increased rampage, which has seen “Tel Aviv’s” forces brutally murdering Palestinians left and right.
A Palestinian child, 16-year-old Ahmad Amjad Shehadeh, was martyred yesterday morning after he succumbed to his wounds from a bullet the IOF fired straight to his heart when they entered the city of Nablus.
Palestinian media also confirmed the injury of six other Palestinian men with live bullets and tens of others by suffocation as a result of the IOF storming Nablus.
Back on November 9, Mahdi Hashash, 17, succumbed to serious wounds he sustained in his stomach after being shot by Israeli occupation forces, as per the Palestinian Red Crescent.
The IOF, accompanied by Israeli settlers, both in large numbers, stormed Al-Quds and Amman Streets in the vicinity of Qaber Youssef (Joseph’s Tomb), east of Nablus. The IOF shot live ammunition at the Palestinians and heavily deployed tear gas and stun grenades.
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A senior advisor to Leader of the Islamic Revolution His Eminence Imam Sayyed Ali Khamenei lauded the recent achievements of Palestinian resistance groups, emphasizing Iran’s support for the people of Palestine.
Ali Akbar Velayati made the remarks in a Sunday phone call with Ismail Haniya, who heads the political office of the Gaza-based Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas.
“We follow your great victories and achievements and what you do is a cause of honor for the [anti-‘Israel’] resistance [front],” Velayati told Haniya.
He added, “You are a role model for the Muslim world.”
Haniya, for his part, said Iran was a strategic support base for the people of Palestine and the resistance.
“Our people and resistance are in good shape and we will continue to defend al-Aqsa [Mosque],” the Hamas official said.
The phone call came amid the escalation of violent Zionist attacks against the Palestinian people and holy sites across the occupied territories, especially al-Aqsa Mosque in the East al-Quds.
Since the beginning of the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan, the occupied West Bank has witnessed an escalation of ‘Israeli’ violence, with over two dozen Palestinians having been martyred and many more injured at the hands of the regime’s troops.
The uptick in the ‘Israeli’ killing and repression of Palestinians has been green-lit by Zionist Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, who granted full freedom of action to ‘Israeli’ occupation forces earlier this month to intensify their brutal raids against Palestinians.
In the latest act of provocation against the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in the occupied Old City of al-Quds, at least 19 Palestinians were injured in confrontations on Sunday as Zionist settlers stormed the sacred site under the protection of ‘Israeli’ occupation military forces.
An “Israeli” settler was stabbed and wounded in a tense neighborhood in east al-Quds [Jerusalem] on Wednesday. A Palestinian female minor was later arrested inside a nearby school, “Israeli” police said.
The “Israeli” woman was taken to the trauma unit of the nearby Hadassah Mt. Scopus Hospital, which said the 26-year-old was conscious and in stable condition.
The stabbing took place in Sheikh Jarrah, where several Palestinian extended families are at risk of being evicted by “Israeli” settlers. Protests and clashes with police there last spring helped ignite the 11-day war on Gaza.
Sirens could be heard echoing across the neighborhood as traffic was backed up by the morning commute.
“Israeli” police later cordoned off Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, according to witnesses.
They said that “Israeli” forces closed all roads leading to the neighborhood, broke into homes, stopped and checked cars and buses as a helicopter hovered over the area in search of the assailant.
“Israeli” police later announced that officers arrested a teenage girl suspected of carrying out the attack in a nearby educational institution.
Palestinian Hamas resistance movement has hailed the attack on Israelis.
“The heroic actions in the West Bank and al-Quds, the most recent of which was the stabbing of a settler in Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, prove the greatness of our people whose resistance cannot be broken,” Hamas spokesman Abdul Latif al-Qanoo said.
He added, “Our people in the West Bank and al-Quds are in an open battle with the occupation. They will pursue invaders and herds of settlers, anywhere and by all available means, until they leave our lands.”
The operation came days after a Palestinian stabbed and wounded an “Israeli” man and tried to stab a member of the paramilitary Border Police just outside al-Quds’ Old City, about a mile [1.6 kilometers] from Sheikh Jarrah. The Palestinian was martyred by the “Israeli” police.
عملية نفق الحرية التي نفذها القادة الأسرى الأبطال ليست بلا سياق كي نتوقف في قراءتها عند حدود البطولة والعزم والإرادة، كعناصر تختزنها العملية وتعبر عنها بقوة من جهة، فيما تعبر من جهة أخرى، عن حال الاهتراء والضعف والتراجع في حال كيان الاحتلال ومستوى جاهزية وتفوق إجراءاته الأمنية، وتطعن بفعالية مؤسساته العسكرية والاستخبارية والإدارية والقضائية في ردع المقاومين الفلسطينيين، وتقديم السجن المؤبد كنهاية حتمية لجيل المقاومين القادة، إعلاناً بإخراجهم نهائياً من حلبة الصراع، فالعملية التي نفذها قادة مقاومون أصحاب رؤية ودور فاعل في رسم سياق النضال الوطني الفلسطيني، تأتي في سياق فهمهم لتنامي هاتين المعادلتين، معادلة تعبّر عن القوس الصاعد بثبات لحضور الشعب الفلسطيني ومقاومته، ومعادلة تعبّر عن القوس الهابط بثبات أيضاً، لحضور وفعالية المؤسسة العسكرية والأمنية لكيان الاحتلال، بصفتها العصب الوجودي لهذا الكيان.
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تأتي العملية ضمن سياق متلاحق على إيقاع سريع لوجهة واحدة، هي وجهة هذا الصعود والتألق في حضور الفلسطينيين شعباً وناشطين ومقاومة مسلحة، لفرض معادلات بدأت مع انتفاضة شباب القدس وحي الشيخ جراح والحضور في المسجد الأقصى، لتتوّجها صواريخ المقاومة الرادعة لحماية المقدسات، والتي انتهت بمواجهة سيف القدس التي كسرت خلالها مهابة ردع جيش الاحتلال لتحل مكانه عبر الصواريخ التي أحيت ليل تل أبيب معادلة الردع الفلسطينية، وبالتوازي تزامنت المواجهة مع ظهور عامل خطير تمثل بنهوض ظاهرة شباب الأراضي المحتلة العام 48 وإسقاط لمعادلة توصيفهم بـ»عرب إسرائيل»، وإعادة إنتاج موقعهم الحاسم في النضال الوطني الفلسطيني، على قاعدة رفض الاحتلال والاستيطان، وبعد تثبيت معادلة سيف القدس تواصلت حركة فلسطينيي الداخل، بصفتها تعبيراً عن توازن جديد غير قابل للكسر، وظهر المستوطنون في حال تراجع مع عمليات الهجرة التي سجلتها المدن والبلدات المختلطة بالنسبة لعشرات العائلات اليهودية، بما أعاد إحياء الصورة الأصلية لهذه البلدات والمدن، كجزء من الجغرافيا الفلسطينية، كما وصف نواب الجماعات المتطرفة للمستوطنين في مداخلاتهم تحت قبة الكنيست ما جرى في مدينة اللد، وترافق هذا المشهد المزدوج بين غزة والأراضي المحتلة عام 48 بحركة نضالية متصاعدة وثابتة الحضور في بلدات جوار القدس بوجه المستوطنين وامتدت إلى الضفة الغربية بتعبيرات مختلفة كانت أبرزها مواجهة بالسلاح في جنين سقط فيها أربعة شهداء، أعقبتها الطلقة الفلسطينية من مسافة صفر التي قتلت القناص الإسرائيلي في فوهة جدار غزة، وما تركته من تداعيات على صورة الآلة العسكرية الإسرائيلية أمام النهوض الفلسطيني الجديد، وفي تحول ربما يكون الأهم على الصعيد السياسي جاء التراجع الكبير في صورة السلطة الفلسطينية شعبياً، مع تحركات تشكك بوطنيتها وشرعيتها، مسجلة تحولاً جديداً لا يقل أهمية عن التحولات الموازية، وهو سقوط الشرعية الشعبية عن التنسيق الأمني الذي يربط أجهزة الاحتلال مع أجهزة السلطة الفلسطينية، وكانت الذروة مع استشهاد المقاوم نزار بنات، والانتفاضة التي رافقت استشهاده، بوجه السلطة وأجهزتها، من بوابة عنوان عريض لا للتنسيق مع الاحتلال ، ما حدا بالعديد من مسؤولي الأمن والاستخبارات والمحللين والخبراء الأمنيين في كيان الاحتلال للتحذير من خطورة انهيار السلطة وأجهزتها، أمام عجزها عن تحمل تبعات التنسيق الأمني والأحمال التي يرتبها على السلطة، مسجلاً سقوطها الأخلاقي بعيون الفلسطينيين، في ظل الغياب الكامل لكل المشاريع السياسية التي كانت تشكل غطاء تبرير التنسيق وتشرعنه، وظهور وعي فلسطيني ينظر بعين الريبة لكل وعود جديدة تطرح على هذا الصعيد، سواء في ظل حكومة بنيامين نتنياهو أو حكومة نفتالي بينيت.
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الذي يمنح هذه التحولات قيمة استراتيجية واستثنائية، ويجعل عملية نفق الحرية تزخيماً لمسار يبشر بلحظة نوعية قادمة حكماً، هو أنها تجري في مناخ دولي وإقليمي مليء بالمتغيرات التي تسير بالاتجاه ذاته، اتجاه التراجع لكيان الاحتلال وحليفه وداعمه الأول الذي تمثله الهيمنة الأميركية على المنطقة والعالم، فتحت ظلال معادلة القدس تعادل حرباً إقليمية أنجز تكامل التنسيق بين قوى وحكومات محور المقاومة، وتحت عنوان سفن المقاومة لجلب المحروقات من إيران إلى لبنان أرض لبنانية فرضت معادلة الردع في البحار على الكيان، وتحت عنوان مشابه دعت المقاومة للبدء بالحفر والتنقيب عن الغاز والنفط تحت حماية صواريخها، وجاء الانهزام غير المسبوق للأميركي في أفغانستان وما رافقه من ذل، لم تنجح محاولات التمويه والتغطية بتحويله إلى انسحاب منسق يتم تسويقه بصفته علامة مهابة القوة العظمى، فجاء مقتل الجنود المغادرين وإصرار الإدارة الأميركية على مواصلة الانسحاب قطعاً لكل جدل حول الهزيمة المحققة التي تمثل طليعة خروج أميركي من آسيا، لم يعد ممكناً تفاديه، وترجمت العملية العسكرية السورية في منطقة درعا الواقعة تحت أنف قاعدة التنف وعلى حدود القواعد الأميركية في الأردن والعراق والحدود مع الجولان المحتل، أكبر اختبار للحقائق الجديدة وأهم إثبات طازج على المعادلات التي ترسمها، ولم يكن الكلام الأميركي الذي ترجم بخطوات عملية لفتح الطريق لرفع العقوبات التي يفرضها قانون قيصر على استجرار الكهرباء الأردنية والغاز المصري إلى لبنان عبر سورية، إلا تعبيراً عن محدودية هوامش المناورة المتاحة أمام الإدارة الأميركية في مواجهة تمدد مساحات معادلات الردع التي ينقلها محور المقاومة من مدى إلى مدى جديد، كما فعلت سفن المقاومة بنقل معادلة الردع إلى البحار، فوجد الأميركي اضطراراً أن القبول بتثبيت نتائجها في البر، رد للضرر الأعلى بالضرر الأدنى.
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عملية نفق الحرية تأتي لتتوج هذا السياق المتسارع، تأكيداً لثنائية، مناخ فلسطيني جديد يشمل الشعب وفصائل المقاومة والنشطاء والنخب وشباب وصبايا الجيل الرابع، يرتكز على الشعور بالقوة، مفعم بالحيوية، مليء بالمبادرات، غير قابل للاحتواء، غير آبه بالتضحيات، قادر على فرض المعادلات، يتحرك تحت عنوان كل فلسطين لنا، ويضع السلطة بين خيارات صعبة، وكيان الاحتلال بين خيارات أصعب، وبالمقابل كيان مترهل، يشعر بالضعف، يتشظى سياسياً ويتراجع أمنياً، لا يملك هامش الاختيار للمناورة بين حرب يخشاها، وتسوية لا يقدر على رفع فواتيرها بما يجعلها قابلة للتداول، فهو بين شاقوفي مقاومة شعبية وعسكرية متصاعدة واثقة من أن كل معركة تقربها شوطاً من تحقيق أهدافها، ومستوطنين يزدادون تطرفاً وتوحشاً وشكوكاً بصدقية حكوماتهم، وهو عالق في منتصف الطريق بين مواجهة هذه الروح الفلسطينية الجديدة، فلا يجرؤ على تحديها والمضي في التحدي حتى النهاية، وبين التعامل مع عدمية وعبثية التطرف الاستيطاني الذي يشكل البيئة الانتخابية لصاعة السياسة، لا يجرؤ على تخطيها والقفز فوقها لإطلاق مبادرات سياسية تتجاوز الكلام الإنشائي الفارغ.
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لحظة دراماتيكية لتلاقي هذا القوس الفلسطيني الصاعد وهذا القوس الإسرائيلي الهابط ستشعل المنازلة الشاملة، وتنشئ حقائق جديدة تشبه لحظة ولادة التحرير في غزة، لتشق الطريق نحو مسار تراكمي جديد، يضع الكيان بين خياري المضي في حرب شاملة قد تكون آخر حروبه، أو التساكن مع متغيرات تزيد هزاله وتعمق حال التراجع الاستراتيجي، وتمنح خيار المقاومة مساحات إضافية في توازن الردع والتحرير، على قاعدة معادلة «القدس أقرب»، والمعادلة التي سبقتها «إسرائيل أوهن من بيت العنكبوت» التي جاءت عملية نفق الحرية أبرز تجسيد حي لحضورها.
لم تكن فلسطين في العقل السوري في أي يوم من الأيام إلا جزءاً من البيئة الجغرافية السورية.
تلقَّفت دمشق نتائج الانتصار الكبير للمواجهة الأخيرة بين “إسرائيل” والمقاومة الفلسطينية، التي توحّدت بمستوويها المدني والعسكري، وبقطاعاتها الثلاثة في غزة والضفة الغربية والأراضي المحتلة العام 1948، بسعادة كبيرة، لظهور نتائج موقفها الداعم للمقاومة الفلسطينية الذي لم ينقطع، رغم كل ما أصابها من بعض حركة “حماس” أثناء قيادة رئيس مكتبها السياسي السابق خالد مشعل، ما دفع الرئيس الأسد إلى استقبال قادة المقاومة بشكل علني، والتركيز على ضرورة إبراز الدور السوري في كلِّ الانتصارات، بما في ذلك الانتصار الأكبر، عملية “سيف القدس”، التي غيرت المعادلات داخل فلسطين، وأظهرت مدى هشاشة الكيان الذي لا جذور له في هذه الأرض، حتى تاريخياً، والَّذي تشبه خرافة قوّته خرافة وجود يهوذا و”إسرائيل” ومعبد سليمان في أرض فلسطين. كما أدركت دمشق بحسها السياسي الخبير بالشؤون الدولية أنَّ هذا الانتصار سينعكس عليها إيجاباً في المدى القريب إقليمياً ودولياً.
لم تكن فلسطين في العقل السوري في أي يوم من الأيام إلا جزءاً من البيئة الجغرافية السورية، التي حدَّدها أغلب الجغرافيين العرب بمصطلح بلاد الشام، ومنهم الإدريسي الأشهر، باعتبارها المناطق التي تمتد من شمال وغرب السويدية، التي تشكل الحد الفاصل بين بلاد الشام وبلاد الأرمن، إلى العريش أو رفح جنوباً. وقد قُسِّمت إدارياً في عهد السيطرة العثمانية في القرن التاسع عشر إلى 3 ولايات، هي دمشق وحلب وبيروت.
ولَم يكن الفلسطينيون يتعاطون مع دمشق إلا باعتبارها مركزهم السياسي والاقتصادي، وهو ما دفعهم إلى الاشتراك في مؤتمر سوريا الأول في دمشق في العام1918 ، بوفدٍ مؤلف من 17 شخصية فلسطينية، على رأسهم ممثل نابلس الباحث والمؤرخ عزة دروزة، الذي اختير نائباً لرئيس المؤتمر وقام بتلاوة بيانه الختامي، الذي عبَّر فيه عن رؤية مشرقية للهلال الخصيب ضمن إطار عربي.
لَم تغب هذه الرؤية عن أغلب الفلسطينيين من الناحية الفعلية، حتى بعد تشكّل المقاومة الفلسطينية بفصائلها المتنوعة، واختيارها دمشق مركزاً وحاميةً لها أثناء احتلال بيروت وإبّان تحريرها من العدو الإسرائيلي، والأهم من ذلك، حركتا “حماس” و”الجهاد” الإسلاميتان، رغم التناقض الأيديولوجي بينهما. وخير من استطاع أن يعبر عن هذا التوجه العام، رغم كل ما شاب المواقف السياسية، هو الشهيد نزار بنات الذي عرّف عن نفسه بأنه سوري فلسطيني.
هذا ما يفسّر دوافع العقل السياسي السوري بالتعاطي مع القضية الفلسطينية، ففضلاً عن كونها قضية حقوقية أخلاقية إنسانية ذات بعد عربي وإنساني، فإنها قضية احتلال لأرض سورية تشكّل بعداً استراتيجياً للتواصل مع مصر وادي النيل وقارة أفريقيا بأكملها، وهي أهم منطقة سوريَّة يقتضي التركيز عليها أكثر من لواء إسكندرون وبقية المناطق المحتلة، كما أنَّها قضية وجودية بسبب طبيعة الكيان التوسعية وأبعاد سياسات الهيمنة والاستعباد التي تشكّل من أجلها ضمن دوائر متعددة، أقربها إليه سوريا ومصر.
ورغم خروج سوريا من معظم الفخاخ التي نصبت لها، وخصوصاً في الفترة الفاصلة بين العامين 2006 و2011، بفضل حرب تموز في جنوب لبنان، التي ساهمت بها بشكل كبير وواسع، واعتبرتها نصراً كبيراً لها، ما دفع الولايات المتحدة إلى نصب فخّ اقتصاديّ، برفع اتهامها المزوّر بقتل رئيس الوزراء اللبناني رفيق الحريري عنها، وتوجيهه إلى “حزب الله”، ودفع دول السّعودية وقطر والإمارات العربية المتحدة وتركيا ومصر إلى الانفتاح على سوريا، ومحاولة تغيير تموضعها الجيوسياسي بين الشرق والغرب بالسياسات الاقتصادية الليبرالية التي يغلب عليها الطّابع الخدمي والنمط الاستهلاكي.
ورغم ما تحقَّق من ذلك، فإنَّ دمشق عندما وُضعت بين خياري الشرق والغرب في مشاريع نقل الغاز القطري إلى تركيا عبر الأراضي السورية، ودعم المقاومة لأجل فلسطين وتسليمها كي يتم ذبحها، فإنها رفضت المساومة، ما تسبّب بتعرّضها لأكبر كارثة في تاريخها، باستخدام نمط الجيل الرابع من الحروب لتدميرها (حروب الوكالة)، والذي أدّى إلى حدوث صدع اجتماعيّ كبير، بفعل النجاح في إثارة الهويات الفرعية لدى طيف واسع لا يُستهان به من السوريين.
تدرك دمشق، أياً كان صاحب القرار فيها، عمق القضية الفلسطينية في وجدان وعقل السوريين الذين اندفعوا للتطوع في حرب 1948، رغم تنوع الهويات الفرعية بأشكالها القومية والدينية والمذهبية والقبلية والعشائرية والمدينية والريفية، وهي تشكّل القاسم المشترك الأكبر القادر على تجاوز هوياتهم الفرعية نحو إبراز هويتهم السورية الجامعة. وقد تجلت خير تجلٍ أثناء حرب تموز، باندفاع كل السوريين لاستقبال اللبنانيين الذين لجأوا إليهم بعد العدوان الإسرائيلي الواسع التدمير للجنوب اللبناني، وهي الآن بأمسِّ الحاجة لرأب الصدع الاجتماعي الكبير والعميق الذي تسبّبت به الحرب الكارثية على سوريا والسوريين.
تأتي أهمية معركة “سيف القدس” الأخيرة التي لا تُقدر قيمة نتائجها الكبرى حتى الآن لسوريا والإقليم، وقد تكون دمشق الرابح الأكبر بعد الفلسطينيين فيها، بأنها كشفت دورها السابق والمستقبلي تجاه فلسطين، واختبرت من جديد مدى قدرة الالتزام بالمواجهة الحقيقية المباشرة مع “إسرائيل” وإيقاظ وجدان أغلب السوريين للعودة إلى سوريّتهم، على الرغم من كوارث الحرب والحصار، وعقوبات “قيصر”، وتغوّل اقتصاد الظلّ وسيطرته على معظم مفاصل الاقتصاد، والانحسار الكبير لدورة الحياة الاقتصادية الطبيعية، وهي الآن تحتاج إلى الخروج من الكارثة بمعالجة 3 مسائل أساسية مترابطة وعاجلة، لا يمكن الفصل في ما بينها، أولها الملف الاقتصادي الذي تتطلَّب معالجته إرادة وإدارة وعقلية جديدة، ورأب الصدع الاجتماعي، واستعادة الدور الإقليمي الحامي لها واللائق بموقعها الجيوسياسي الأخطر.
وقد وفَّر انتصار عملية “سيف القدس” عاملين مهمين للخروج الناجح من الفخ الأخطر، وهما الدور الإقليمي الذي سيعود إليها إلى حد كبير، ودور عامل الرفض لبقاء “إسرائيل” ومقاومتها بإزالة الصدع الاجتماعي.
ويبقى العنصر الأهم والضاغط الذي يتعلَّق بإعادة الدورة الاقتصادية الطبيعية، وفقاً للموارد المتاحة ومساهمة الحلفاء والأصدقاء، وتحجيم اقتصاد الظل إلى الحدود القصوى، وهو ما ينتظره السّوريون بعد السابع عشر من هذا الشهر، كي يتابعوا تحرير ما تبقّى من أراضيهم المحتلّة في الشمال السوري من الاحتلالين التركي والأميركي، فهل تتحقَّق آمالهم بذلك؟
In order to understand the issue of ethnic cleansing carried out by the Zionist entity and its tools in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, in colonized Jerusalem, we must not address it in the Zionist colonial settler context because it lacks scientific credibility. In order to solve this problem, we have to ask and answer the following questions: Who is the real side that legally owns the properties of the “Jewish Quarter” in colonized Jerusalem? Who legally owns the real estate of Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood and the Silwan village? What follows is a serious attempt to answer these two questions.
Who is the Legal Owner of the Real Estate of the “Jewish Quarter”?
As a result of capitalist contradictions and class conflicts that led to the birth and development of nationalist movements in Europe, European Jewish communities suffered arbitrary persecutions, which included a number of massacres against them. These campaigns of arbitrary persecution have prompted large numbers of European Jews to emigrate from Eastern Europe, particularly Tsarist Russia, to Western Europe. Some of these Jews emigrated also to the Ottoman Empire, particularly to the rising city of Jerusalem.
When the persecution of Jews intensified in a number of European countries in 1880,
Youssef ibn Rahamim Miyohas arrived in Jerusalem seeking help. Abed Rabbo son of Khalil son of Ibrahim, a resident of Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, rented him a plot of land in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood for 90 years. Due to the fact that the land was an Islamic trust land, this lease allows Jews to rent land and prohibits the sale of land to them under Ottoman regulations and laws. 1
In his research article entitled “Guests, then Renters, then Settlers”, Abed Al-Raoof Arnaoot, a Palestinian researcher, reported that after Miyohas signed the rent agreement, he brought 62 Jews to the location and divided the rented land into 62 pieces, which enabled each of them to build a small house of tens to hundreds of meters in area. They then lived in these houses. 2
The land was then registered in the name of Abed Rabbo, the person in charge of this Islamic trust. This is proven in the Turkish property ownership documents which are still owned by both the Abed Rabbo family and the Hijazi family. 3
In addition, the credible historical references indicate that “the year 1880 and its aftermath witnessed a remarkable influx of thousands of Jews from Europe to Jerusalem after facing persecutions. The then Ottomanic laws allowed the rental of these lands by Jews, but not their sale. According to Ottoman laws, Islamic trust lands are legally permitted for lease but are not legally allowed to be sold. 4
According to a reputable and highly credible scientific reference, 85 percent of the real estate in the ‘Jewish Quarter’ was owned by Muslim Arabs5 in the Ottoman period. This real estate belonged to the Islamic trusts. As is well known, Islamic trusts are prohibited from selling their real estate and are only allowed to rent it.
In 1968, the Zionist state expropriated for public usage 12 percent of the Old City of occupied East Jerusalem, which included the “Jewish Quarter”. The equivalent of 80 percent of the expropriated area was not Jewish property.6 These expropriated properties were put up for sale only to the Israeli and Jewish publics.
Thus, the credible historical references undoubtedly prove that the territory of the so-called “Jewish Quarter” is mostly the land of the “waqf” Islamic trusts. As is also well known, Islamic trusts are prohibited from selling their property because they are endowed for the benefit of a social purpose or for the benefit of a mosque or a religious place. The land of the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood is leased land owned by Islamic trusts. Mr. Abed Rabbo al-Saadi, who is the custodian of the bulk of the land, confirms that: “In 1880, some Jews emigrated to Jerusalem, they were in a deplorable state, they came to our ancestors and asked them to lease them this land, and because of their situation and persecution in Europe, our ancestors agreed. Our ancestors agreed to lease the land to a Jewish person named Yusuf ibn Rahamim Miyohas.” 7
Here we can come to the firm conclusion that the Jews who inhabited the so-called “Jewish Quarter” during the Ottoman rule rented their homes from Arabs and Islamic trusts, and did not buy them, because Islamic trusts do not sell their property. Legally, the majority of Jews are not owners of the properties they lived in, but remain tenants. Therefore, they are not entitled to claim ownership of this real estate. These properties are owned exclusively, and mostly by Islamic trusts.
How the Guardian of the Property of the Absentees Turned into a Despicable Thief
According to a credible research that was carried out by two Israeli criminologists, Uzi Livia and Ariel Aboksis, the state of Israel reached in total area of 20,770 square kilometers (more than four and a half million dunams) at the end of the Zionist war of aggression, which began on November 30, 1947 and ended on July 30, 1949. Most of this area, was considered to be the property of the absentees, i.e. Palestinian refugees, and constituted 77 percent of the total area of the Zionist entity. The absentees, a Zionist term, were “Arabs who “left”, and there are those who say they were “expelled” and/or “fled”, during the war of independence. Absentees’ property includes real estate, land, workshops, factories, bank accounts and movable property.” 8
After the end of the war, the newly established Zionist State designated a custodian on the property of Palestinian refugees and gave him a temporary role, with established legal arrangement to determine that role. Uzi Livia and Ariel Aboksis explain this role as follows:
… Basically, these laws are based on the principle that in a period of war, the government temporarily uses these properties for the benefit of the war effort. Its role is to preserve the property for the benefit of their owners or for war damage compensation, in order to return it to them when the state of emergency is abolished. Under this concept, the custodian was given only a temporary role. His primary duty was to preserve the property of those absentees in the transitional period. 9
The justification set by the Zionist state for the “temporary” seizure of the property of Palestinian refugees was that,
Because of their status as hostile citizens, that are located outside the country, under arrest or under surveillance, the law does not allow them to use their property as long as hostilities are under way. The moment the owners stop being absent, the custodian must return their property to them. Therefore, he cannot make a permanent and final decision on the property that he holds temporarily. For the same reason, he can rent property for only a short period of time, which does not exceed five years, and is not authorized to sell or transfer this property to others in an irreversible manner. 10
As a result of the limitations imposed by the law, the custodian of the property of the absentees requested, in 1949, that the government expand his powers so that, for example, he can transfer or lease property for a longer period than five years and also provide him with freedom of disposal, in order to allow the property to be placed in the service of the colonial settlement and colonial objectives of the Zionist entity. This required the enactment of a new law. 11
All requests of the custodian regarding the expansion of his powers were accepted, and the Zionist parliament enacted the “Absentee Property Act of 1950”. Under this law, all property owned by refugees, including the property of the Islamic Waqf,12 was transferred to the absolute control of the Zionist state, represented by the Zionist custodian on the property of refugees. Thus, the power of the custodian has been transformed into a government institution that is the richest in the Zionist state. 13
It is worth mentioning that the establishment of peace between the Arabs and the Zionist entity required talks and concessions, especially on the issue of the return of the Palestinian refugees. The Zionists opposed the return or compensation of the refugees and threw the blame for the creation of the refugee problem on the Arab side, and falsely accused the Arab side of rejecting peace. Historical facts prove that those who ethnically cleansed the Palestinians and that those who occupied half of the Palestinian proposed state under the Partition Resolution, were the Zionist side. 14 These facts have been confirmed by the two researchers Uzi Livia and Ariel Aboksis, who wrote that:
Thus, we believe that the first seeds of Israel’s anti-peace stance have been cultivated in Israel’s position on the return of refugees, which Israel has sharply opposed. All sources of living for Arab refugees who previously lived in the State of Israel has been completely obliterated. Their economy has been destroyed, so their re-absorption into Israel will produce a social and financial problem that is much worse than the arrangement of their absorption in every other country. 15
Thus, the Zionist State plundered and acted freely and without restrictions regarding the property of the Palestinian refugees, selling and renting it as it wished. In order to establish a false legal cover for this theft, the Parliament of the Zionist entity enacted the so-called “Absentee Property Act of 1950.” According to this law, the role of the custodian of the property of the absentees has changed from a “custodian” with temporary and limited powers, to a despicable thief armed with a settler colonial law. Here, the Zionist State has pursued, in its policies towards the property of the indigenous population, a settler colonial approach that is very similar to that pursued by all settler colonial states such as: the United States of America, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa during the Apartheid regime, and Algeria under French settler colonialism. When comparing them with each other, one notices the great similarities among them regarding the course of action they adopted towards the lands of the indigenous population. Of course, there are special characteristics for each settler colonial project, and there is a different historical context.
Today, the Zionist colonial entity is using the Absentee Property Act of 1950 to give justification and legal cover to all ethnic cleansing carried out in Sheikh Jarrah, Silwan, Al-Khan al-Ahmar, the Al-Walaji village, Jaffa, Hebron and the Negev region.
The Zionist entity uses all its colonial tools to carry out operations associated with ethnic cleansing such as unjust law, false documents, complicit colonial courts, colonial police and army, herds of armed and violent settlers, and settlement organizations financed with American money from Jews and others. All of them, under the leadership of the extremist colonial government of the Zionist right-wing parties, are carrying out a fierce offensive campaign of ethnic cleansing against the indigenous Palestinian population. The focus of this study will be on the ethnic cleansing campaigns that are taking place in Sheikh Jarrah and Salwan.
Preparing for Ethnic Cleansing in Sheikh Jarrah Neighborhood
Ethnic cleansing in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood began with the settlement organizations of “Benvenisti Endowment”, “Ateret Cohanim”, “the Nahlat Shamoun Limited”, and “El-Aad Society”, filing legal proceedings in Israeli courts against the Palestinian residents of Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood. The first cases began in 1972, in which they claimed that Palestinian-inhabited houses were owned by Yemeni Jews. Lawyers for these organizations provided fake documents to prove their ownership.
In return, the Palestinians submitted their documents from Turkish agreements, and official receipts that clearly show that the land is Arab and owned by Islamic trusts, and that the Jews rented it from their owners and did not own it. The Palestinians have proved that they are the real owners of the land and that the land of the Islamic Trust is not sold, but is rented.
“We have provided all the documents,” said Yahya Abed Rabbo al-Saadi, who was the custodian for the bulk of the land in Sheikh Jarrah: “We presented to the court all the documents which prove Palestinian ownership of the land. These documents were issued to us by the Islamic Shari’a Court in Jerusalem, the Ottoman Archives in Ankara, and the Land Department of Amman…” 16 The Zionist Central Court refused to accept these documents, arguing that the court does not recognize them as valid documents.
For its part, the Jordanian Foreign Ministry sent 14 official documents concerning Sheikh Jarrah’s houses to the Palestinian Authority. These documents show that in 1956, the Jordanian Ministry of Development and the UNRWA refugee agency, concluded an agreement with 28 Palestinian refugee families under which 28 housing units were built in the Al-Jani vineyard to house them. UNRWA’s condition was for Palestinian refugees to relinquish their legal status as refugees. After three years, their ownership will be legally established. 17 For reasons that remain unknown, these families have not been able to register the land in their names. Consequently, these Jordanian documents have been submitted to the Zionist Central Court, which also rejected them.
In 2010, cartographer Khalil Tofakji traveled to Istanbul. At the Ottoman State Archives he found documents which prove that the territory of Sheikh Jarrah is Palestinian and owned by Palestinians, which is contrary to the Zionist claim. These documents have been submitted to the Israeli court. 18
The Zionist Central Court rejected both the Jordanian and Tofakji’s documents and claimed that it did not recognize their credibility. The court then issued an order to adopt the Zionist position which was based on fake documents and false allegations. This has always been the controversial approach of the Israeli courts.
The Role of Zionist Judicial Institutions in Land Cases
The writer Abdelkader Badawi believes that these Zionist judicial institutions have an important role in the settler colonial system and that they provide the Zionist government with a legal cover for the plunder of Palestinian property. No matter how fragile and discredited this cover may be, the oppression and arrogance of the Zionist entity and its instruments, make the settlers’ cases successful through falsification and when unjust judicial decisions are made, the Palestinians have no real power to change them. It is a racist and colonial justice that is devoid of justice, fairness and credibility. The writer further believes that,
It is customary in the Israeli judiciary system to accept the account of Jews and settlers, particularly in matters of land and property, without paying attention to the nature or eligibility of legal justifications, as these institutions have already existed to be, among other objectives and endeavors, an instrument of the settler colonial system to control the land, and to overcome all legal obstacles to this goal. 19
The writer Abdelkader Badawi stated that Zionist settler colonial associations played a big role “… Through its expansionist post-occupation settlement activities, which have never been separated from the activity, in support of successive Israeli governments, as well as, the Israeli judicial system. They constituted a tool of the Israeli settler colonial system of control, expropriation, displacement and expulsion…” 20
These associations have emerged as “… a representative of the settlers, through the legal cases it filed in the Israeli courts requesting the evacuation of the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood from its Palestinian residents…” 21
The Process of Ethnic Cleansing in Sheikh Jarrah
After the occupation of East Jerusalem in 1967, and its illegal annexation of it to Israel by the Zionist entity, “… The residents of The Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood were surprised when two Jewish committees registered, in 1972, the ownership of the Palestinian-owned 18-dunum land, in settler’s name at the Israeli Department of Lands.” 22
Commenting on the Zionist courts and their arbitrary decisions against the Palestinian population in Sheikh Jarrah, Palestinian-American writer Stephen Salaita wrote that,
Palestinians don’t need to respect the institutions of the Zionist state precisely because those institutions negate the Palestinians’ simplest political imperative: existence. Those institutions represent the machinery of colonization. All settler colonies come equipped with a legal apparatus to validate their cruelty. We cannot expect Western pundits and politicians to question the institutional logic so harmful to Palestinians, for their own legitimacy is contingent on the reproduction of state power. 23
Salaita elaborates on his explanation of the logic on which the idea is based that “property is Jewish” and that the Zionist state seeks to restore it and return it to Jewish ownership.
More nonsensically, we’re asked to assign ethnic characteristics to abstractions and inanimate objects. The basis for Israel’s aggression in Sheikh Jarrah (as throughout all of historic Palestine) is repossession of so-called Jewish property. The property, in other words, doesn’t belong to people who happen to be Jewish. The property itself is Jewish—nobody can specify which denomination—and is therefore fit only for a certain kind of inhabitant. The property has some kind of innate disposition. It is apparently capable of worship. It becomes a crass approximation of humanity. Endowing housing units with confessional qualities exemplifies the problem of prioritizing property over sentient life: a dwelling has no utility beyond the project of demographic engineering. Under the Zionist regime, even brick and mortar are sectarian. 24
Both Noura Erikat and Mariam Barghouthi described the atmosphere at today’s Sheikh Jarrah as being “… practically a war zone as armed Israeli settlers, under the protection of Israeli police, terrorize the Palestinian residents. These are the very settlers who are looking to kick out families, including El-Kurd’s.” 25
The Settlers are Cowardly Thieves
I have observed Zionist colonial settlers for a number of years. I have also studied their conduct and explored their ideology. Based on my close observation of their conduct inside Israel proper, as well as inside the colonized territories of the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, East Jerusalem and the Syrian Heights, I can certainly state the following.
All Zionist settlers are armed militia of fascists, psychologically deranged, cowards as individuals, and work with great passion as mercenaries of the Zionist settler colonial regime. They’re armed with guns and their Jewish religiosity is nothing but a fragile cover to hide their obnoxious behavior. They are inhuman, school dropouts and have a psycho-social willingness to earn their living by theft, bullying and extreme violence. They work in small groups that look like flocks of wild hyenas that go after their victims and keep tirelessly attempting to eat their flesh. They lack any human moral system but they seem to possess a capitalist system of robbers’ morality. In contrast to this distorted human situation, the Zionist and settler colonial class system is ready to defend their violent banditry behavior because it is itself an inhuman system that uses extreme colonial violence against the indigenous Palestinian population. In addition, the Zionist settler regime deploys the settlers in its colonial schemes. Consequently, the Zionist colonial system is extremely violent. It cannot live in tranquility and thus is unable to conduct a calm and civilized dialogue with the indigenous Palestinians.
Some settlers admit that they are thieves who steal Palestinian houses, some of whom openly admit it, such as the settler who lives in half of Mona al-Kurd’s house, where he told her, “If I don’t steal, your house it will be stolen by someone else,” said Mona al-Kurd, a young Palestinian woman who accused him of stealing her home in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of occupied East Jerusalem. 26
Other settlers hide their motives by offering bribes with a threat to the owner of the house. Zuhair Rajabi, who lives in Sheikh Jarrah’s neighborhood in a house with his wife and four children, said the settlers “tried to bribe me by paying 1 million shekels [$300,000], provided I will leave my house quietly. When I refused, they threatened to put me in prison. They then sent the Israeli police to my house to try to arrest me, claiming that I physically attacked the man who was suing me.” 27
These two examples could serve as a proof that the settlers do not own these houses and that the Israeli courts are complicit in the plunder of the indigenous Palestinians.
Inhuman Colonial Brutality
The methods of removing Palestinians from their homes are varied, but some are carried out with extreme cruelty and inhumanity, as happened to the Al-Ghawi family.
Nuha Atiyeh, a resident of Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood recalls the following incident. “I watched the doors of our neighbors, the Al-Ghawi family, crash during a black night. The women were evicted by force and were thrown, in their night clothes, outside their house. This scene doesn’t escape my imagination. I remember taking some clothes from my house and giving them to the women.” 28
As a result of dozens of lawsuits filed by the settlers’ committees at the Zionist Central Court in Jerusalem, the Court issued a decision to vacate against 28 Palestinian nuclear families. The total number of people facing expulsion for settlers reached 500, including 111 children. 29/sup>
The Central Zionist Court itself ruled that seven other families would leave their homes from the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood by August 1, 2021. In total, an additional 58 people, including 17 children, are to be forcibly displaced to allow Jewish settlers to occupy their homes. 30 The Zionist Central Court also ruled that four families — Kurd, Skaif, Qasim and Al-Jawaani — must leave their homes for settlers, or reach an agreement with these settler organizations by paying rent and recognizing settlers as landowners. 31
Here we clearly see that there are no limits to settler’s arrogance and no limits to colonial insolence, as aggressors and thieves ask real house owners to pay their rent for their houses to the thieves. Of course, if the real Palestinian house owners had acquiesced to this request, they would have lost their right to property.
Ethnic Cleansing in Silwan
In 2002, the custodian of Absentee Property transferred land from the village of Silwan to the “Benvenesti Development Fund”, whose administration belongs to the settler organization “Ateret Cohanim”. This decision was upheld by the Jerusalem District Court, and the transfer was made without informing the Palestinian residents living on the land since the 1950s, and who have contracts to prove it. 32
The colonial settlement project in the village of Silwan began “in 2004, when two outposts were established in the village. By 2014, there were six outposts ranging from apartments for individuals and entire buildings. “Since then, the “Ateret Cohanim” committee has submitted eviction orders against other Palestinian families. In 2017, Palestinian residents petitioned the Israeli Supreme Court to challenge the evictions, arguing that in accordance with applicable Ottoman law at that time, the property applied only on buildings, which no longer exist, but not on the same land… 33
Similar to what happened in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, on 26 May 2021, the Jerusalem District Court held a hearing on the forced eviction of some 108 Palestinians from 18 families from their homes in the Batan al-Hawa neighborhood of Silwan. The Jewish “Benvenisti Development Fund” claims to own 5.2 dunums of the land of Batan al-Hawa neighborhood. 34
Israeli television channel 12 reported that settlers had placed Israeli flags on 15 houses in Silwan after they were captured by the “Ateret Cohanim”, association and handed over to the settlers’ families. The channel noted that these new houses that were seized joined 22 other houses recently captured by “Ateret Cohanim”. 35
It is worth mentioning that the Zionist state has “… A settlement strategy called the “Holy Basin”, consisting of the construction of housing units for settlers and a series of parks themed after Biblical places and figures around the Old City of Jerusalem. The plan would require the expulsion of Palestinian residents from Silwan neighborhoods and then the evacuation of 87 Palestinians from the Batan al-Hawa neighborhood of Silwan, south of the Al-Aqsa Mosque. This will be done for the “Ateret Cohanim” settlers association.
Since 1995, the Israeli Antiquities Authority has been excavating sites in Silwan with the official support of the Settlers’ Foundation “Ire David” (the city of David), in order to create a new tourist attraction and find evidence of the 3,000-year-old “City of David”. 36
The group, which aims to expand the presence of settlers within the predominantly Palestinian neighborhoods of East Jerusalem around and inside the Old City, sued the residents of Batan al-Hawa, a district of Silwan, claiming that the land belonged to Yemeni Jews during the Ottoman period until 1938, when the residents were transferred to another location by the British Mandate authorities because of political tensions. 37
It is worth mentioning that the Zionist policy of uprooting and ethnic cleansing has been followed in a number of places in Palestinian geography such as the Red Khan, Jaffa, Hebron, the village of Al-Walajeh, and the Palestinian Negev region. These remain tense hotbeds ignited by right-wing leaders who have lost their minds. But this fire will burn their fingers and will increase the determination of the indigenous Palestinian population to unite efforts, escalate the struggle and continue the process of liberation.
The essence of Zionist claims about the property is that it is “Jewish property”, some of which belonged to Jews 3,000 years ago, and some of which belonged to Jews a little more than one hundred years ago. These allegations give no regard to modern laws in determining the legal acquisition of real estate, which have changed radically from the time of the Greeks, the Romans, the Mongols and the Vikings, where the property belonged to the usurper and the occupier, not to the indigenous peoples who lived above these properties.
This Zionist nonsense is sponsored and adopted by the Zionist colonial bodies, and those who defend them from Arab protectorates and vassals, European and American imperialists, and by the Zionist and reactionary Arab media, who are hostile to the rights of the Palestinian Arab people in their homeland especially their right to self-determination.
It is scientifically known that the Jewish Torah does not constitute an official and credible document that is recognized by international law and therefore, can be presented in modern courts as a document of legal ownership. Moreover, God has not been recognized as a feudal landlord who owns the lands of the peoples and can distribute them to whoever he wants and denies them from whoever he wants. Consequently, the British imperialist Lord Balfour does not own Palestine, nor does the extremist right wing President Donald Trump own the colonized land of Palestine or the colonized Syrian Golan Heights, so he has no right to give these lands to the Zionist settler colonialists.
It should be added that many of the historical events and “facts” mentioned in the Torah were partly a form of broad religious fiction and partly came out of the misappropriation of the heritage of Mesopotamian civilizations. The Torah has no solid scientific credibility, and whoever adopts it reflects the fact that he lacks credible legal documents. Therefore, the claims by the Zionist settler colonialists to their right to own Palestinian land and real estate based on the Torah are fragile and null and void because the real owners were and still are the Arab Palestinians, who are the indigenous people of Palestine, which constitutes a part of the greater Syrian motherland.
International Law is not a Tool in the Service of Zionist Settler Colonialism.
International law prohibits the occupying power from imposing its laws on the inhabitants of the area it has occupied because it is a war zone outside the sovereignty of the belligerent state. International law also prohibits the belligerent occupying power from transferring its citizens to live within the area it has occupied. Moreover, the occupying power may not change the laws in force within the occupied zone.
The Al-Haq human rights foundation stated that,
… the legal framework applicable in occupied East Jerusalem is international humanitarian and international human rights law. Israel is specifically prohibited from annexing the occupied territory under Article 47 of the Fourth Geneva Convention. As such, Israel’s application of its domestic law, including the Legal and Administrative Matters Law in 1970, and provisions of Israel Tenancy law are not only wrongful acts in violation of international law, of which there can be no recognition, but acts which third States must collectively work to bring to an end. 38
There are clear obligations under Article 43 of the Hague Regulations, to continue the status quo ante bellum including the preservation of private tenancy rights, which are further protected as private property of the civilian population under Article 46 of the Hague Regulations. In particular, such acts amount to forcible transfer, grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions, and war crimes and crimes against humanity within the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court. 39
American imperialism helps Zionist colonialism, embraces its wars of aggression and provides it with money and weapons. The imperialist West abandoned the Palestinian people, and the son-in-law of the American President, the Zionist Jared Kushner, who financed the right-wing settlement movement in Israel, was given absolute authority to fabricate “A peace process”, aided by the regimes of colonial mercenaries in the Gulf, the most important of which is the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, who just imprisoned his relatives, after he ordered the assassination of the Saudi opposition journalist Jamal Al-Khashoukji.
Expected Results of a Deteriorating Zionist Path
Many indications are that the Zionist settlement entity will continue its Judaization quest in colonized East Jerusalem, but during this insane colonial quest, it has transformed East Jerusalem into the world’s most tense outpost that will become the poorest, most racist and most heinous “capital.” No matter how much the colonial mentality brings about more racist laws and more inhumane practices, the situation that is formed before the eyes of the peoples of the world will make the Zionist entity a rogue, aggressive, hideous and repulsive state.
The deteriorating path chosen by the extreme right-wing leadership of the Zionist entity has generated a severe political crisis that has shown a deep structural imbalance in the level of political leadership, which in turn has produced a turbulent political right, fragmented, and does not benefit, either from elections or from democracy to get out of its acute crisis. This deteriorating path has also produced a Zionist voter with callous consciousness, racial intolerance and ideological blindness. This deteriorated situation has produced more failed leadership than its predecessor. After four parliamentary elections that produced repeated results, the Zionist entity got itself into a fiasco that has no equivalent in the world. It is a lost entity that cannot save itself from the path of deterioration because it is the same path that South Africa followed until the world came to save it from its fiasco by imposing on it a solution that it does not desire.
Here it appears that the Palestinian steadfastness and determination to fight for its patriotic rights, with the assistance of Arab and international solidarity, will lead the Zionist regime to choose a solution similar to that chosen by South Africa. The Palestinian national struggle will not be extinguished, as it is developing and promoted by the united efforts of workers, and progressive elements in the Middle Class. During its development, all the reactionary elements, Palestinian, Arab and international, who together are attempting to preserve the dissonant parts of a rogue state that insists on falling, will disappear forever.
References
Arnaout, Abdul Rauf, “Sheikh Jarrah: Guests, Tenants and Settlers”, Palestinian Studies Foundation, https://www.palestine-studies.org, access to the site on 1-6-2021
Scholch, Alexander, “Jerusalem in 19th Century (1831 – 1917 AD)” in Jerusalem in History, Edited by K.J. Asali. 1989. ISBN0-905906-70-5. Page 234. Quoting Muhammad Adib al-Amiri, “Al Quds al-‘Arabiyya“, Amman, 1971, page 12 and ‘Arif al-‘Arif, “Al-Nakba“, vol 2, Sidon and Beirut, page 490 (90%). As quoted by: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, “Old City” (Jerusalem), https://en.wikipedia.org,1-6-2021.
Livia, Uzi and Aboksis, Ariel, “For the development of the country and for the benefit of its citizens” (in Hebrew), https://web.archive.org, 30-10-2017
2. See Ilan Papi’s Book, Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine https://www.ebay.com, 9-6-2021
Badawi, Abdel Kader, “Nahalat Chamoun”: A private settler’s company and the arm of the Israeli government in the case of the displacement of the people of Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood”, https://www.madarcenter.org,17-5-2021
AL-JAZERA AND NEWS AGENCIES, “Hundreds hurt as Palestinians protest evictions in Jerusalem”, https://www.aljazeera.com, 8-5-2021
Zuhair Sabbagh is a writer on Israeli and Palestinian issues. He has published a number of books and research articles in both English and Arabic. He holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Manchester, United Kingdom. He lives in Nazareth, Palestine
– بعد شهر من انطلاق معركة سيف القدس، شهد خلاله كيان الاحتلال عمليات فك وتركيب سياسيّة عبرت عن نتائج الفشل السياسي والعسكري خلال المعركة، والذهاب الى ارتضاء الوصاية الأميركيّة طلباً للحماية، وتلبية شروطها بإزاحة بنيامين نتنياهو من رئاسة الحكومة، تعود القضايا التي فجّرت المعركة الى الواجهة مجدداً، المستوطنون يمسكون بدفة القرار الميداني في شارع الكيان ويقودون الصف السياسي، وقد حسموا أمرهم بالمضي في عمليات التطهير العرقي داخل الأراضي المحتلة عام 48 وفي القدس تحقيقاً لدولتهم اليهودية. وبالمقابل الجيل الفلسطيني الثالث أو جيل الألفية الثالثة الناهض لمواجهة توحّش المستوطنين وانكشاف كذبة الديمقراطية، والجامع للضفة الغربية والقدس والأراضي المحتلة عام 48، بعدما منح مشاريع التفاوض والرهانات الفصائليّة المتقابلة أكثر من عقدين خسر خلالهما الفلسطينيون مزيداً من الأرض واختلّ خلالهما ميزان السكان أكثر لصالح مزيد من الاستيطان، ومع هذا الجيل وخلفه تقف قوى صاعدة في الفصائل، وخصوصاً في قوى المقاومة، أعادت ترتيب أوراقها على قاعدة بناء قدرات الردع، وحسمت هويتها ضمن محور المقاومة، واستثمرت على انتصاراته في الإقليم، واعادت تصويب البوصلة بعيداً عن لعبة المصالح الفئوية والسلطوية المحلية.
– الصدام يبدو حتمياً، بين المسارين الحاكمين لمستقبل حركة الكيان ومستوطنيه، وحركة الشعب الفلسطيني والقوى الصاعدة فيه، ومأزق الأميركيين يأتي من كونهم لم يستوعبوا حجم التغيير الجاري على الضفتين، فهم لا زالوا ينظرون للقضية الفلسطينية بعين اللحظة التي سبقت زمن دونالد ترامب وبنيامين نتنياهو، عشية نهاية ولاية الرئيس الأميركي الأسبق بيل كلينتون ورئيس حكومة الكيان السابق ايهودا باراك والزعيم الفلسطيني الراحل ياسر عرفات، وفشل مفاوضات عام 2000 في كامب ديفيد، ويتحدّثون عن حل الدولتين كإطار عاجز عن الإجابة على قضية الاستيطان في الضفة، وعاجز عن الإجابة عن تساؤلات أبناء مناطق الـ48 وعاجز عن الإجابة على الأسئلة التي يطرحها مصير القدس، وسقف ما يسعى اليه الأميركيون هو تهدئة للتهدئة، أو تفاوض للتفاوض، لأن المطلوب نزع فتيل التصعيد الذي يخشاه الأميركيون كمدخل لحرب إقليمية تهدّد بها قوى محور المقاومة، دفاعاً عن القدس، كما يخشون قيام كيان الاحتلال بتوريطهم بحرب إقليمية لنسف مفاوضاتهم الهادفة للعودة الى الاتفاق النووي مع إيران، كما هو تماماً حالهم مع نتنياهو.
– الفراغ الاستراتيجي قائم بنظر الفلسطينيين، فالأميركيون لم ينجحوا بترميم ما فقدوه خلال عقدين من حضور ونفوذ ومقدرات في المنطقة، وصعود محور المقاومة فرصة يجب الاستثمار عليها، ومنازلة القدس التي تبدو اليوم حدثاً متوقعاً، لا يمكن أن تنتهي بلا غالب ولا مغلوب، كما حاول نتنياهو تصوير نهاية معركة سيف القدس، بينما يعلم الجميع أن وقف المعركة دون توقف الصواريخ الفلسطينية التي أمطرت مدن الكيان، وفشلت القبة الحديدية بصدّها، ودون حرب بريّة ردعها وجود صواريخ الكورنيت التي ظهرت في الأيام الأولى للمعركة، قد تمّ بطلب نتنياهو تسليماً بالفشل، بعد رفضه لطلبات أميركية وأوروبية متكررة لوقف النار، وهذا الفراغ الإستراتيجي قائم بنظر قادة المستوطنين، الذين يريدون فرض اختبار الخيارات على الحكومة الجديدة التي يترأسها أحد رموز الاستيطان نفتالي بينيت، واستثمار حاجة نتنياهو لإحراج الحكومة وإذلالها في الميدان وتظهير خضوعها لواشنطن، واستعراض القوة بوجهها، ما يجعل مشهد التصعيد الاحتمال الأشد قوة لما سيحدث اليوم.
– الدعوة لمسيرة الأعلام الصهيونية في القدس اليوم ومقابلها الدعوة للنفير الوطني الفلسطيني لنصرة القدس، يضع القدس في واجهة الأحداث العالمية، ولم يغب عن بيان الدعوة للنفير الوطني الذي أصدرته لجنة المتابعة الوطنية للفلسطينيين في الأراضي المحتلة عام 48، دعوة قوى المقاومة في غزة ولبنان للاستنفار تحسباً لمسار الأمور، ما يجعل الأمور مفتوحة على كل الاحتمالات، والباب الوحيد لنجاح محاولات منع التصعيد هو منع المستوطنين من الاقتراب من الأحياء العربية في القدس ومن المسجد الأقصى، وإن حدث ذلك تحقق انتصار كبير بفرض قواعد اشتباك تجعل القدس خطاً أحمر غير قابل للانتهاك، وإن لم يحدث فالمواجهة ستتسع وتكبر ولا أحد يستطيع رسم سقوف مسبقة لها.
The growing divide in the United States between Zionists and supporters of Palestinian rights has led to pronounced tensions in academia. Much has been said about increasing pro-Palestinian student protests as well as the activities of pro-Israel boards of governors, presidents, deans, etc. The latter try to guard their campuses from pro-Palestinian faculty, student clubs, invited speakers and the like.
These tensions have found yet another academic front on which to contest. There are two historical associations in the U.S. for scholars of Middle East studies reflecting opposing attitudes toward Israel and its behavior toward the Palestinians. And this divide presents us with a dichotomy of values at the professional academic level.
The oldest of these is the Middle East Studies Association (MESA). It was founded in 1966 and currently has a membership of more than 2700. It also serves as a “constituent society of thirty-six affiliated organizations.” It puts out a quarterly journal and has an active Committee on Academic Freedom. MESA is a very successful learned society. Its scholars cover all of the Middle East and North Africa. It is dedicated to high standards of scholarship and diversity of interpretation.
By the 2000s the debate within academia over the expansionist nature of Israel and its treatment of conquered Palestinians was heating up. Because most of MESA members have a broad knowledge of the area, a sense of local perspectives, and also know the history of the Arab Israeli conflict, their positions tend to be critical of Israeli behavior and American support for it. And that led to an organizational split.
In 2007 two scholars, Bernard Lewis and Fouad Ajami, decided to start a rival organization, the Association for the Study of the Middle East and Africa (ASMEA). They did so because, according to them, MESA was “dominated by academics who have been critical of Israel and America’s role in the Middle East.”
One might wonder why the position taken by many MESA members upset Lewis and Ajami. After all, debating issues from an historical perspective is, in part, what academics are supposed to do. If MESA was allegedly “dominated” by those critical of Israeli behavior, Lewis and Ajami’s answer was to establish a “politicized” organization “dominated” by Zionists. It made little sense in terms of dialog, but tactically it fit right in with how Zionists—those who uphold the legitimacy of a Jewish state in Palestine—react to criticism.
Over the last quarter century, a common tactic of Zionists has been to withdraw from public debate and, where they can, bring about enforced silence of anyone who is critical of Israel. That, of course, is what those pro-Israeli academic administrators and boards were and are doing. Part of this effort entails labelling those critical of Israel as anti-Semites. This stratagem is generally used to shut down negative assessments in the West. Seeking to expand the scope of this effort, ASMEA’s much lauded founder, Bernard Lewis, who died in May of 2018, sought to defame Islam with the same charge. That approach is carried on by ASMEA. The organization awards a Bernard Lewis Prize, a description of which quotes Lewis, “to an astonishing degree, the ideas, the literature, even the crudest inventions of the Nazis and their predecessors have been internalized and Islamized.” In competition for this award, young Middle East scholars are encouraged by ASMEA to identify Muslim Arab opposition to Israel with anti-Semitism.
Part II—Expressing Values
The two organizations have recently shown where this tension has taken them in terms of human rights. This was occasioned by the recent outbreak Palestinian resistance caused by threats of evictions (ethnic cleansing) of Arab families in Jerusalem, and aggressive Israeli actions at the site of Al-Aqsa Mosque. The latter actions, in particular, triggered rocket attacks from Gaza.
Here is part of a long and detailed MESA statement. The shorter ASMEA statement is given in full:
MESA (21 May 2021) Issued by the organization’s Board of Directors.
“The Board of Directors of the Middle East Studies Association of North America condemns the ongoing and intensified Israeli government assault on the Palestinians of East Jerusalem, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip and those who are Israeli citizens. During May 7–20, 2021, Israeli military attacks on the occupied Gaza Strip damaged at least 51 educational facilities, including 2 kindergartens, 46 schools, 1 university, 1 vocational training center, and 1 Ministry of Education facility—among other vital infrastructure. Israeli air strikes and tank shells directly hit a number of these buildings. The deadly conditions created by the Israeli military attacks in Gaza forced all schools to remain closed for at least five days after the end of the Eid al-Fitr holiday, affecting the lives and access to education of 591,685 students. In addition, Israeli military strikes internally displaced at least 66,000 Palestinians who then sought refuge in 58 schools run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), causing further disruptions to the population’s education–indeed, to their lives. …
“There is little doubt that successive Israeli governments across the political spectrum have carried out a decades-long attack on Palestinian students, teachers, and educational facilities. Indeed, this attack is part of a broader political, administrative, and legal system of racial discrimination and domination—regularly enforced through violence—that has defined the Israeli government’s treatment of the Palestinian people. And, as the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem and the international non-governmental organization Human Rights Watch have found, the Israeli government’s purposeful and systematic privileging of Jewish Israelis while dominating and oppressing the Palestinian people amounts to apartheid.”
ASMEA (25 May 2021) Issued by the organization’s Chairman, Professor Norman Stillman
“The recent wave of violence in the ongoing struggle between Israel and Hamas has left many members of our community of scholars deeply concerned. While we hope and pray no harm befalls any of our members, anywhere, and their loved ones, ASMEA remains committed to our founding principles as an academic association.
“As scholars, we believe in the pursuit of objective truth when studying and teaching the issues and topics affecting the regions of our academic concern. We recognize that these principles can create division and disagreement, but so long as scholarship contributes to the body of knowledge, we welcome and encourage vigorous debate.
“We stand behind and support our members in Israel and deride those more intent on infusing the academic landscape with pointless over-politicization and rank partisanship than restoring balance to the Academy and protecting academic freedom in Middle East and African studies, and related disciplines.”
There are a couple of things to note about these two statements: (1) The MESA statement is issued in support of the Palestinians, and specifically their collective human right to education. It contains assertions about the Israeli violations of that right—assertions that can be fact checked. The statement also references the reports of international organizations concerned with civil and human rights. (2) The ASMEA statement claims objectivity and a willingness to debate, but then proceeds to defame and trivialize those who disagree with their position—“those more intent on infusing the academic landscape with pointless over-politicization and rank partisanship.” Actually, one can characterize this charge as a psychological projection of the statement’s author who, being a Zionist stalwart must be, by definition, both politicized and partisan. The statement also makes no reference to the Palestinian situation under Israeli rule and reduces the struggle to one between Hamas and Israeli—an objectively incorrect and thus untrue assertion. This reductionist gambit is used by almost all contemporary supporters of Israel.
Part III—Crossing the Rubicon
There is a Rubicon (a fundamental crossing point) that all Jewish intellectuals are now confronting. Whether or not one crosses this line reveals the nature of their values. To cross it is to take the side of human rights and the rule of law. To refuse to cross is to take the side of state power—in this case, to align with the power of a proven apartheid state.
To add context to this choice, consider the case of Eva Illouz, a professor of sociology at Hebrew University. On 14 April 2014, she wrote an essay for the Israeli newspaper Haaretz entitled, “Is It Possible to be a Jewish Intellectual?” In this piece she sets forth two opposing positions: one is the Zionist/Israeli demand for the primacy of “ahavat Israel,” or the “love of the Jewish nation and people”–-the claim that all Jews have a “duty of the heart” to be loyal to the “Jewish nation.” The other position is that of the lone intellectual (here her model is the philosopher Hannah Arendt), whose obligation is to maintain the “disinterested intelligence” necessary to “speak truth to power.”
Illouz explains that Zionists have a “suspicion of critique” and use “the memorialization of the Shoah” (the Holocaust) and “ahavat Israel” to mute it. “The imperative of solidarity brings with it the injunction to not oppose or express publicly disagreement with official Jewish bodies.” It is within this context that she can ask if it is still possible to be a Jewish intellectual. Illouz’s conclusion is that it has become exceedingly difficult to be so because the demands for Jewish solidarity are particularly “brutal.” And then she makes her choice and, if you will, crosses the Rubicon. “In the face of the ongoing, unrelenting injustices toward Palestinians and Arabs living in Israel, his/her moral duty is to let go, achingly, of that solidarity.”
It is not difficult to recognize that ASMEA stands at the bank of this Rubicon and refuses to cross. The organization’s values do not reflect any devotion to universal principles such as human rights and the rule of law, much less “objective truth.” Their leadership, at least, has no interest in critiquing the use of power but rather is dedicated to protecting and enhancing the interests of a specific power. The values exalted here are the parochial codes those intellectuals (among others) use to rationalize service to a state even when it turns criminal. The independent-minded, outspoken intellectuals, such as Eva Illouz, demanding broader moral integrity and responsibility from their contemporaries, are rarities.
Part IV—Conclusion
Any speculation about which side of the Rubicon line “History” favors is really silly. Historical prediction, like the weather, is a short-range affair. However, one might sense a present shift in sentiment in the U.S. and the Western world generally. It is an apparent shift in favor of the Palestinians and against apartheid Israel. One might even hazard a guess that the shift will continue to grow. Why so? The reason is straightforward and quite simple. It should continue to grow just as long as Israel does not stop. That is, as long as it continues to evolve as a racist state—simultaneously destroying human rights and international law.
Meet Nafisa Khuwais, the 68-year-old lady from Jerusalem who is banned from al-Aqsa Mosque yet she continues to drive worshippers to the holy site every day using her Tuk tuk
The editor-in-chief of the Lebanese daily Al-Akhbar, Ibrahim Al-Amin, said during an interview with Al-Manar TV Channel that Hezbollah, IRGC, and Hamas established a chamber of military operations in Beirut during the recent Israeli aggression on Gaza.
Al-Amin added that officers from Hezbollah, IRGC, and Hamas coordinated the military confrontation in Gaza, adding that the Commander of IRGC’s Al-Quds Force, General Esmail Qaani, visited Lebanon twice to attend the chamber meetings.
Hezbollah transmitted weaponry and ammunition to Gaza and moved a number of Palestinian Resistance officers out of the Strip during the aggression, according to Al-Amin.
The Islamic Resistance also provided the Palestinian factions with the needed data about the movements of the Israeli occupation military, which frustrated the enemy’s plot to ambush the Palestinian fighters near Gaza border, adding that drones were employed to reach this goal.
Had ‘Israel’ expanded its aggression, the entire axis of resistance would have confronted it.”
On May 10, 2021, the Palestinian resistance waged its battle against the Israeli enemy in response to the Zionist attacks on Al-Aqsa Mosue and plots to expel the Palestinians from Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in occupied Al-Quds, firing thousands of missiles at the Zionist settlements in most of the Palestinian cities and inflicting heavy losses upon the Zionists. The Zionist enemy insisted on its violations and launched an aggression on Gaza, killing 232 of its civilians and injuring around 1900 others. After an 11-day confrontation, the Palestinian resistance managed to defeat the Zionist aggression and provide Al-Quds City and its sanctities with a considerable protection from the Israeli attacks and violations.
The phantom of Haj Imad Mughniyeh roaming through the liberated South, the last days of the liberation, the defense capabilities accumulated by the resistance, and the immediate hope for the liberation of Palestine; all of these are the core themes of which the member of Hezbollah’s Central Council, Sheikh Nabil Qaouk, has talked about to “Al-Ahed News” on the occasion of the anniversary of the Resistance and Liberation Day.
“Strengthening the Lebanese protection system is an ongoing day-to-day action, since the resistance doesn’t ease or rest and breaking the deterrence equation has become impossible,” Sheikh Qaouk affirms, stressing that the axis of resistance is integrated and coherent, and is now stronger and tougher than ever before. Gaza’s interference of its resistance and its missiles as a way of defending al-Quds is a historic achievement and a surprise to the ‘Israeli’ enemy and what happened confirms that the liberation of Palestine as a whole and that the end of the occupation is no longer a dream, a motto, or a wish.
Regarding the great jihadi leader Haj Imad Mughniyeh, Sheikh Qaouk reveals that “In preparation for the Victory Festival in Bint Jbeil, Haj Radwan said that the victory is incomplete without the release of prisoners and that he is currently preparing for an abduction that will ensure the liberation of all prisoners and detainees, as victory is only complete with their return.” Indeed, on Wednesday 24/5/2000, he went on a tour across the area overlooking the Shebaa farms for this exact purpose. He planned the operation all by himself and supervised its maneuver.
The full text of the interview with Sheikh Nabil Qaouk reads as follows:
-Twenty-one years have passed after the liberation of southern Lebanon; How far have the resistance’s capabilities to protect and deter the enemy gone?
With every new dawn, the capabilities of the resistance are enhancing in both quantity and quality and the deterrence equation with the enemy becomes stronger. Therefore, it leads to greater protection and preservation of Lebanon’s territory, people and sovereignty. Strengthening Lebanon’s protection system is an ongoing day-to-day action, since the resistance doesn’t ease or rest and breaking the deterrence equation has become impossible. It was the liberation in 2000 that brought the nation into the dawn of victories. It is true that May represents the “Nakba”, however, the resistance strategy made May a symbol of victory from Lebanon to Palestine and throughout the nation.
-How does the unified Axis of Resistance face challenges?
The Axis of Resistance is integrated and coherent. It seeks common goals and is based on a strategy to confront the aggressive ‘Israeli’-American project against Palestine, the region and its peoples. It is the centerpiece of those who have refused to surrender to the enemy, humiliate their peoples and undermine their causes, existence and identity.
This Axis, today, has become stronger, tougher and more coherent than ever.
The unity of this axis is reflected in its positions, its performance and its triumph of its causes and components, thereby it moves like a single unit, so whenever someone is down, the whole group comes to the rescue.
With every victory against the ‘Israeli’ enemy, we recall the spirit of Haj Qassem Soleimani, who has strengthened and developed the resistance’s strategy and besieged the enemy with missiles from everywhere.
-What is the importance of entering the Gaza Strip today along with the popular Intifada in the West Bank and al-Quds and standing by the Maqdessis [people of al-Quds]?
The interference of Gaza’s resistance and missiles as a way of defending al-Quds is a historic achievement and a surprise to the ‘Israeli’ enemy. Gaza’s resistance has dropped all attempts of division and partition that the enemy has worked on ever since the occupation. Today, from Gaza to al-Quds, along with the West Bank to the 48-lands, the Palestinians have said their one unified word, “Palestine will always be united from the river to the sea,” and all attempts to “domestication” and “Israelization” fell after decades of consolidating these attempts. Gaza’s involvement in the confrontation contributed to this historic achievement, which has exposed the enemy’s weakness and its illusion of power, and has enhanced the possibility of the entity’s downfall and the demise of its occupation.
What happened confirms that the liberation of Palestine as a whole and the end of the occupation is no longer a dream, a motto, or a wish. It’s rather a reality that materializes and appears at every resistance day. The strategic victory in the Battle of the “Al-Quds Sword” proves the fact that al-Quds is closer to liberation. The victory in the Battle of the “Al-Quds Sword” renewed the life of the Palestinian cause and tore Trump’s decisions apart.
-How does Hezbollah express its help and support for the Palestinians and the resistance today? At what level do they carry out their coordination and communication?
Hezbollah was and will always be the first supporter of Palestine and will never change. This is our source of pride and dignity and it is fully in line with our vision and strategy. Palestine and its liberation are at the center of our resistance’s project and objectives. The Palestinian resistance has defined the type and form of support that will help it in the battle, in which Hezbollah was proactive in providing assistance determined by the Palestinian resistance. Coordination and communication with the Palestinian resistance is a continuous and lasting process at various levels. The resistance in Lebanon is in one ditch, and with the Palestinian resistance in one confrontation, along with being in one battle against ‘Israel.’
*Haj Imad
– There are details related to the jihadi leader Haj Imad Mughniyeh during the days of liberation: How did he move between villages? Was the idea to capture ‘Israeli’ soldiers at the time a way to get prisoners out of occupation prisons? Why was the decision to quickly destroy all the ‘Israeli’ sites after the enemy was defeated?
Haj Imad used to travel as one of the people returning to their villages. On Monday 22/5/2000 he got in the middle of a crowd of people and took the Majdel Selm-Tallousa road on foot until he reached Hula, a village on the border of Palestine. And there he stood by the fence and, for the first time, inhaled the Palestinian air. It was the most beautiful moment of his life.
Haj Imad Mughniyeh worked to pursue the enemy from village to another on the basis that the withdrawal would be under fire to highlight the enemy’s defeat.
In preparation for the Victory Festival in Bint Jbeil, Haj Radwan said that the victory is incomplete without the release of prisoners and that he is currently preparing for an abduction that will ensure the liberation of all prisoners and detainees, for victory is only complete with their return. And indeed, on Wednesday 24/5/2000, he toured the area overlooking the Shebaa Farms in order to achieve this purpose, planning the operation himself and overseeing its maneuver.
Haj Imad didn’t trust the enemy as the defeat was imposed on it. And Haj Imad feared at the time that the enemy could return quickly to these sites, so he destroyed them to impede any attempt of their return, and in order not to have fortified sites adjacent to the border in the future, which the enemy could benefit from in any future war.
Every night we used to meet Haj Imad and the leaders of the resistance operation, until after midnight, to set the measures that must be taken on the next day. And before entering Ein Ebel, Debl, and Rmaysh, the procedures were strict and the resistance members were told not to enter these three villages armed. Haj Imad used to personally follow up on this report in order to ensure that there was no fear and panic among the inhabitants of these villages; since instilling fear of the resistance among the people is an ‘Israeli’ goal that ‘Israel’ has been pursuing.
He personally drove his car to Ein Ebel, where a number of men from Ain Ebel followed him with their cars. Haj Imad’s companions were worried about these men and intended to talk them, but Haj Imad refused and ordered to leave them so that they can be reassured and return to their families so they can reassure them as well, and that is what happened.
During the exit of Haj Imad from Ain Ebel and at the Bint Jbeil Junction, he saw a car filled with armed men, and feared that they would enter Ain Ebel with their weapons and cause tension in the village. So he stepped out of the car and ordered them to leave. He then asked the military intelligence officers, who were there, to prevent these men from entering the village.
Haj Imad roamed the border inch by inch from Naqoura to Jabal Al-Sheikh, as he checked all points and stepped out of his car in several places; which took a long time. And we had a congregational prayer in the presence of Haj Imad directly at the border strip with occupied Palestine.
– How did the Secretary-General of Hezbollah follow up on the details of the last days?
Moment by moment, the Secretary-General of Hezbollah, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, was following the events and communicating with all factions. And after watching TV, the Secretary-General asked why there were more than one color for Hezbollah’s flag and he requested that all flags should be unified in yellow.
21 Palestinians killed, including a woman and 2 children
87 Palestinians wounded, including 17 women and 38 children.
9 houses and civilian facilities directly bombed
IOF partially re-opens Beit Hanoun and Karm Abu Salem crossings only for the humanitarian cases and humanitarian aid.
IOF’s gunboats open fire in 3 separate shooting incidents at the fishing boats off the central Gaza Strip shore
West Bank:
2 Palestinians killed, including a child, and a third one succumbed to his wounds
47 Palestinians, including 3 children and a woman, wounded
In 198 IOF incursions into the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem: 167 civilians arrested, including 11 children and a young girl.
In settlers’ attacks in Hebron and Salfit: cave burnt and farmers, their lands and houses assaulted
IOF established 58 temporary military checkpoints in the West Bank and arrested 10 Palestinian civilians on said checkpoints
Summary
Israeli occupation forces (IOF) continued to commit crimes and multi-layered violations against Palestinian civilians and their properties across the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt.) In the last day of its wide-scale military operation on the Gaza Strip, IOF continued their airstrikes in one of the worst aggressions and manifestations of organized state terror. More Palestinians have fallen victims (dead and wounded.) Despite a ceasefire was reached on Friday dawn, IOF continued to close the Beit Hanoun “Erez” and Karm Abu Salem Crossings and only partially reopened for conditional and exceptional cases. Moreover, IOF continued its crimes in the West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem, including incursions, raids, and arrests, all over the cities and villages. Israeli settlers also continued their crimes against the Palestinian civilians and their properties. This week, the settlers committed further murders and crimes of excessive use of force; during which, civilians suffocated due to teargas inhalation and injuries were reported due to settlers’ beating and abuses.
IOF shooting and violation of right to bodily integrity:
In the Gaza Strip, before the ceasefire was reached on Friday 21 May 2021, IOF’s bombardment in the last day of its aggression killed 4 Palestinians, including a woman, and 16 bodies were retrieved from under the rubble, including 2 children. Moreover, 78 others were wounded, including 17 women and 38 children, while 9 houses and several facilities were targeted. Two days after the ceasefire, a Palestinian succumbed to his serious wounds in Khan Younis. Thus, the death toll of the aggression has risen to 253, including 66 children and 39 women, while the number of injuries has amounted to 1461, including 286 women and 433 children.
In the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem, IOF killed 2 Palestinians, including a child, while Montaser Jawabrah succumbed to his wounds he sustained on 18 May 2021 in Jenin. IOF shooting also wounded 47 others, including 3 children and a woman.
IOF incursions and arrests of Palestinian civilians: IOF carried out 198 incursions into the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem. Those incursions included raids of civilian houses and shootings, enticing fear among civilians, and attacking many of them. During this week’s incursions, 167 Palestinians were arrested, including 11 children and a young girl.
Settler-attacks:
Hebron: a cave was burnt in eastern Yatta; civilians’ houses were attacked with stones in al-Hussein Valley area; and olive seedlings were damaged and uprooted in Ar-Rihya village.
East Jerusalem: Raid of al-Aqsa Mosque yards
Salfit: farmers and their vehicles were assaulted amid settlers’ shooting and firing of sound bombs and teargas canisters at them.
Israeli closure policy and restrictions on freedom of movement:
Al though a ceasefire was reached on Friday, 21 May 2021, the Israeli authorities continued to close Kerm Abu Salem and Beit Hanoun “Erez” Crossings and the sea, banning entry of goods, food supplies or fuel, tightening the closure that has been imposed on the Gaza Strip since 2006.
On Tuesday, 25 May 2021, IOF reopened the Kerm Abu Salem Crossing only for the entry of humanitarian supplies and Beit Hanoun “Erez” crossing only for the travel of patients and internationals. They reopened the Gaza Sea for fishermen up to 6 nautical miles out of the 15 miles that were allowed before the latest aggression. This came to perpetuate Israel’s collective punishment policy against the Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip.
In the West Bank, the Israeli authorities continued to divide it into small isolated cantons while many roads are still completely closed. In addition to the permanent checkpoints, IOF establish temporary checkpoints that hinder civilians’ movement and arrest many of them.
Shooting, Suppression of Protests and other Violations of the Right to Life and Bodily Integrity
Israeli Offensive on the Gaza Strip:
On the 11th day of IOF’s aggression on the Gaza Strip, Israeli warplanes carried out dozens of airstrikes while the gunboats and artillery continued to shell heavily, targeting more houses and civilian facilities. The bombardment continued until a ceasefire, brokered by Egypt, entered into force at 02:00 on Friday, 21 May 2021.
The bombardment on the last day of aggression killed 4 Palestinians, including a woman, and 16 bodies were retrieved, including 2 children. Moreover, 78 others were wounded, including 17 women and 38 children, while 9 houses and several facilities were targeted. Two days after the ceasefire, a Palestinian succumbed to his serious wounds in Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip.
Thursday, 20 May 2021
Northern Gaza Strip:
Airstrikes resulted in the murder of 3 Palestinians and the injury of 59 others, including 26 children and 14 women. Also, 2 houses were completely destroyed, while other houses, shops, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) headquarter, and infrastructure sustained partial damage.
At approximately 02:35, Israeli warplanes launched 2 missiles on the main street connecting Block (7) with Block (9) in front of Safi Shops for Construction Materials in Jabalia refugee camp. As a result, 7 Palestinians were wounded, including 3 women and 1 child while many facilities, houses and infrastructure sustained damage.
At approximately 04: Israeli warplanes launched 2 missiles at the end of al-Saftawi Street, western Jabalia, causing damage to the infrastructure of the street, including electricity, communication and water networks. Moreover, many nearby houses and shops sustained damage in the area, but no casualties were reported.
At approximately 12:00, Israeli warplanes targeted a group of civilians in Beit Lahia, killing Hesham Shaher Mohammed al-Shurafa (26) and wounding another Palestinians (moderate wounds).
At approximately 12:30, Israeli warplanes launched two missiles at al-Areiny family home in Tal al-Za’tar, completely destroying the two-floor house.
At approximately 15:55, Israeli warplanes launched one missile at WAEL Hassan Salim Rajab’s house in Beit Lahia, completely destroying the two-story house.
At approximately 16:40, Israeli warplanes launched a missile at a white Skoda Citgo car while driving down a sub-street of al-Saftawy neighborhood, western Jabalia. The airstrike killed Maisra Abdul-Shakour Mosbah al-Ar’eer (22) and Omar Ahmed Mohammed Jendya (24) and destroyed the car.
At approximately 17:00, an artillery munition on Ali Khalil Ali Abu-Jarad’s (69) house in Izbat Beit Hanoun, wounding 6 Palestinians, including the houseowner who was classified in critical state.
On Thursday morning and evening, Israeli gunboats and artillery fired several shells at eastern and northern areas in northern Gaza Strip. As a result, many houses sustained partial damage.
Gaza City:
Two houses were completely destroyed due to the Israeli bombing. Also, 2 other houses, 3 factories and many shops sustained severe damage. Moreover, medical crews found the dead body of a girl under the rubble of her family home, while the death of another child was announced after finding his body under the rubble of his family house.
At approximately 06:00, Israeli warplanes launched a missile at the fifth floor in a residential building in Gaza City, wounding 5 children.
At approximately 08:00, IOF warplanes launched three missiles at Abdul-qader Abdul-Aziz al-Kojok (76) in Sheikh ‘Ejleen, completely destroying the 4-floor apartment building (600 sqm). The building had 8 apartments and housed 4 families, including 20 children and 4 women.
At approximately 13:00, IOF warplanes launched two missiles at the northern side of the first floor of al-Raed (1) apartment building at the center of Gaza city, completely destroying the apartment and 4 commercial shops. Also, neighboring houses sustained significant damage.
At approximately 14:00, Israeli warplanes bombed and completely destroyed Kuhail building in eastern Gaza city. The 4-floor building had 4 commercial stores that were destroyed: al-Badrasawi for Children Clothing; Kuhail Home Appliances; Badri men’s clothing and Jenina Children Clothing.
At approximately 16:45, Israeli warplanes fired two missiles at Nael Zeyad al-Abed Abu-Ouda in Shati refugee camp, causing significant damages to the 4-floor 270sqm building. The building had 3 apartments and was home to 3 families, including 15 children and 9 women.
On Friday, medical crews found the body of 3-year old Meriam Mohammed Ouda al-Telbany under the rubles of her family home, which was bombed by Israeli warplanes on 11 May 2021. The Forensic Medicine Department stated that the child’s body had decomposed.
Also, it was found that 10-year old Yehya Mohammed Sobhi al-Hadidi was killed with his family during the IOF airstrike on Abu-Hatab family home in Shati refugee camp on 15 May 2021. The child was buried with his mother and his three siblings but his name was not documented at al-Shifa Medical Complex.
During PCHR team’s field visit to Palestine Industrial Estates Development & Management Co. Ltd. (PIEDCO) in eastern Gaza, the team documented that 3 other factories -than previously recorded- were destroyed in the area. As such, the total number of factories attacked by IOF artillery reached 12. At the moment this press release was published, fire is raging in the area as IOF hindered the access of the Civil Defense crews.
Central Gaza Strip:
Israeli warplane launched 4 missiles at a house belonging to Darwish ‘Abdul Karim ‘Ammar in al-Bureij refugee camp, causing damage to the house. The house shelters 7 families of 36 members, including 17 children and 7 women.
At approximately 12:30, for several hours, IOF intensified the artillery shelling in eastern Central Gaza governorate. Shells fell on several houses (Halawa, Abu-Ayyad, and Hamdan family homes) in eastern Buraij, causing partial damages.
Khan Yunis:
Airstrikes resulted in the murder of a woman and the injury of 14 Palestinians, including 3 women and 7 children. As 3 houses and gas filling station sustained severe damage.
At approximately 00:10, Israeli warplanes launched a missile at a house belonging to Mohammed and Mo’nes Muhareb, east of Ma’an area. As a result, the huge missile fell on the house and did not explode, only penetrating the house of their neighbor, Ramzi Abu Hadayed. As a result, a person and his 3 kids were wounded while the 2 houses sustained wide destruction. In the morning, the Explosive Engineers arrived and took the missile out of the house.
At approximately 05:10, Israeli warplanes launched a missile at a house belonging to Mohammed Khaled al-Khawaldah. As a result, the 120-sqm house in al-Satar al-Gharbi neighborhood sustained wide destruction while a nearby house belonging to Na’elah Rabi’a al-Khuzondar sustained severe damage, killing Huda Salah Rabi’a al-Khozondar (36) and wounding her husband and her 2 and a half year-old baby girl, Malak. Also, 7 others were wounded in al-Khawaldah’s house and a nearby house, including 2 women and 2 children; one of the persons wounded had his leg amputated.
At approximately 06:30, Israeli warplanes fired a missile at Mohammed Ahmed al-Ghemari’s house in Khan Yunis, and compeletely destroyed it. Before destroying al-Ghemari’s tin-plate house, an Israeli drone fired a missile at the house (200sqms), which sheltered 4 families of 20 members, including 10 children and 5 women. The airstrikes caused severe damage to nearby houses. It should be noted that the Israeli Intelligence Services called one of the residents orderding him to vacate the area.
At approximately 11:30, an artillery munition targeted a gas filling station in al-Satar al-Gharbi area, setting it on fire. The fire was put out after a laborious effort by the Civil Defense Crews as IOF continued to bomb the area.
At approximately 15:30, IOF drone launched a missile on Mousa Sobhi al-Hindey’s house in Khan Younis. The drone-strike was followed by two missiles by a military aircraft, one detonated and caused extensive damage to the 3-floor house and nearby houses; the other did not detonate. The bombing was preceded by a call from the IOF to one of the residents that ordered them to evacuate the 200sqm house that sheltered a family of 7.
At approximately 16:00, IOF fired several artillery munitions that hit and destroyed Ghassan Barham Salem al-Jarf’s house, a greenhouse, and Khaled Fayez Ali Arafat’s water well in ‘Abasan al Jadida.
At approximately 19:05, Israeli warplanes launched a missile on an agricultural land in al-Satar al-Gharbi area wounding a Palestinian woman.
On Friday, 21 May 2021, the bodies of 15 Palestinian members of armed-groups arrived to Naser Hospital after their bodies were retrieved from two locations that were bombed by IOF in the past few days, while the bodies of 4 other Palestinian members of armed-groups are still under the rubble. On Monday, 24 May 2021, the bodies of those members were retrieved.
At approximately 15:00 on Monday, 24 May 2021, medical sources declared the death of Osama Ashraf Mohammed Abu Ridah (22), from Khuzaʽa village in eastern Khan Yunis, succumbing to serious wounds he sustained on Tuesday, 18 May 2021, after a drone fired a missile near his house. Osama sustained shrapnel wounds in his head and received treatment at Naser Medical Complex until his death was declared.
Rafah:
Airstrikes launched on Thursday destroyed a house completely and caused severe damage to a pharmacy, a main electrical line, many houses and infrastructure.
At approximately 03:30, Israeli warplanes launched 2 missiles at a truck belonging to ‘Emad Mes’ed Salim Sha’ath in al-Naser village and completely destroyed it.
At approximately 12:20, IOF artillery fired munitions on eastern Rafah, destroyed a main electrical line and setting agricultural lands on fire.
At approximately 14:00, Israeli warplanes launched three missiles on Hussein Amir Hussein al-Mughair’s house in al-Shaboura refugee camp, completely destroying the 3-floor house. Four Palestinians sustained wounds in the attack, including a child and a journalist. The house was home to four families (21 persons), and was targeted with two drone-launched missiles two days ago.
Other Israeli Attacks on Gaza Strip:
At approximately 18:20 on Saturday, 22 May 2021, Israeli gunboats stationed off Deir al-Balah city in central Gaza Strip, chased Palestinian fishing boats sailing within less than 3 nautical miles, opened fire at them and pumped wastewater at them; no casualties were reported. The IOF shooting at the fishing boats recurred in the next two days.
Murder and Shooting Incidents in the West Bank, Including occupied East Jerusalem
At approximately 06:30 on Thursday, 20 May 2021, IOF moved into Jab’ village, south of Jenin. Meanwhile, a group of Palestinian young men gathered and threw stones and empty bottles at IOF’s vehicles. IOF immediately fired live and rubber bullets, sound bombs and teargas canisters at the protestors. As a result, 3 of them, including a 15-year-old child, were shot with live bullets. Also, many protestors suffocated due to teargas inhalation and received treatment on the spot. The wounded protestors were taken to Dr. Khalil Suliman Governmental Hospital in Jenin for treatment. Also, IOF arrested Jehad Khaled Mohammed Fashafsha (23) and withdraw later.
At approximately 10:00, medical sources at al-Razi Hospital in Jenin announced the death of Montaser Mahmoud Zidan Jawabrah (28), from Um Dar village, southwest of the city, succumbing to wounds he sustained on 18 May 2021, during clashes erupted in Tura village, southwest of Jenin. It should be noted that Jawabrah was injured in his head and admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) until his death was declared.
At approximately 10:15, IOF moved into Araqah village, west of Jenin. In the meantime, a group of Palestinians gathered and threw stones at IOF’s vehicles. IOF immediately fired live and rubber bullets, sound bombs and teargas canisters at the protestors. As a result, a 15-year-old child was shot with a live bullet in his right thigh and taken to Dr. Khalil Suliman Governmental Hospital for treatment. Also, many protestors suffocated due to teargas inhalation.
On Thursday, 20 May 2021, hundreds of Bethlehem residents organized a peaceful protest in front of a metal-detector gate placed at the annexation wall established on the northern side of Bethlehem, calling for ending the Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip. The protestors raised Palestinian flags and chanted slogans. During which, IOF patrols came from one of the wall gates and fired live and rubber bullets and teargas canisters at the protestors. After that, separate clashes erupted near the military checkpoint (300) and continued for several hours. As a result, 7 protestors were shot with Two-Two and rubber bullets, while other protestors suffocated due to teargas inhalation. In the same context, clashes broke out at the western entrance to Beit Fajjar and al-Khader villages, south of the city. During which, IOF fired a barrage of rubber bullets and teargas canisters at the protestors. As a result, dozens of them suffocated due to teargas inhalation.
At approximately 16:00, a large number of Israeli soldiers moved into Deir Nidham village, northwest of Ramallah, and established a military checkpoint at the village’s entrance. They checked Palestinians’ IDs, causing a traffic jam while a number of Palestinian young men gathered and threw stones and Molotov cocktails at IOF and their vehicles. IOF immediately suppressed the protestors and fired rubber bullets and tear gas canisters at them. As a result, many of them suffocated due to teargas inhalation. IOF also closed the village’s entrance with cement cubes and sand berms, and it is so far closed, forcing the villagers take bypass and dirt roads to reach their workplaces outside the village.
Following the Friday prayer, 21 May 2021, several peaceful protests took off in various neighborhoods in the West Bank in in solidarity with Gaza and Jerusalem. The protestors chanted slogans and raised Palestinian flags. IOF suppressed the protest and separate clashes broke out. As a result, many protestors were shot with live and rubber bullets while others suffocated due to teargas inhalation. The Following are the most prominent protests:
A protest took off from Bita village municipality towards Subeih Mount, where a settlement outpost is established in the southeastern side of Nablus. IOF suppressed the protestors, wounding a 35-year-old male with a live bullet in his right leg and a 24-year-old male with a rubber bullet in his head. Both of them were taken to Rafidia Hospital for treatment.
A protest took off from Beit Dajan village council towards lands under the threat of confiscation, northeast of Nablus. As a result, many protestors suffocated due to the IOF’s suppression.
A protest took off near Huwara checkpoint, east of Nablus. IOF suppressed the protestors. As a result, a 20-year-old male was shot with a live bullet in his left foot and a 22-year-old male was shot with a live bullet in his right leg. Both of them were taken to Rafidia Hospital for treatment.
A protest took off in front of Tubas village municipality towards Tayasser military checkpoint, east of the city. As a result, many protestors suffocated due to the IOF’s suppression.
Kafr Qaddum weekly protest, which was organized near the northern entrance to the village, east of Qalqilya. As a result, 4 protestors were injured.
A peaceful protest took off from the Dome of the Rock yard in al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem’s Old City. IOF suppressed the protestors, wounding 23 of them and arresting 17 others. IOF also assaulted, beat and pushed press crews. The Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) stated that they treated 21 persons during clashes erupted in the al-Aqsa Mosque; 2 of them were hit with sound bombs in Bab al-‘Amoud and Bab al-Sahera. Lawyer Feras al-Jebrainy said that many Palestinians were arrested from al-Aqsa Mosque’s yards and at its gates. The arrestees were identified as Fares ‘Odallah, Harbi al-Razim, Samer al-Bakri, Mohanad al-Bakri, ‘Abdullah al-Bakri, Mohammed al-Salaimay, Ahmed Borqan, Malek Abu Hadwan, Ihab Najajrah, Mousa Jabour, Yousef Taha, Majd Abu Hadwan, ‘Izz Abu Kaf, Nour Abu Kaf, ‘Alaa Abu Kaf, ‘Ali Abu Sarhan, and Mohammed Faroukh.
A peaceful protest took off from ‘Azza refugee camp, north of Bethlehem, towards Rachel’s Tomb, north of Bethlehem. Two protestors were shot with Two-Two bullets, while others suffocated due to teargas inhalation.
At approximately 17:00 on Saturday, 22 May 2021, IOF suppressed a peaceful protest organized by Sheikh Jarrah residents in north of occupied East Jerusalem, calling for lifting the closure imposed on the neighborhood for 14 days and ending settlers’ attacks on the residents. Mona al-Kurd, spokesperson of Sheikh Jarrah residents and one of the neighborhood’s residents whose houses are under the threat of forced displacement as well as the organizer of the Save Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood campaign, called on social media for a peaceful protest at the entrance to the neighborhood. At approximately 17:00, dozens of Palestinians headed to the neighborhood, andchanted slogans condemning the closure of the neighborhood and IOF violations against its residents. During which, IOF assaulted the protestors, forcibly dispersed them and fired sound bombs at them. As a result, Lina Mi’ari was hit with a sound bomb in her head and taken to the hospital for treatment.
At approximately 18:00 on Sunday, 23 May 2021, IOF stationed near the annexation wall established in Far’un village, east of Tulkarm, fired live and rubber bullets and teargas canisters at Palestinian workers, who attempted to enter Israel for work. As a result, a 29-year-old male was shot with a live bullet in his left leg.
At approximately 13:30 on Monday, 24 May 2021, IOF opened fire at Zuhdi Mohanad Zuhdi al-Taweel (17), claiming that he attempted to carry out a stabbing attack near the railway station at the central intersection in French Hill area adjacent to Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, north of occupied East Jerusalem’s Old City. As a result, al-Taweel was shot with several live bullets and left bleeding to death in the scene.
According to PCHR’s investigations and eyewitnesses’ testimonies, IOF stationed at the central intersection, adjacent to the National Headquarters of the Israeli Police, which is also close to the Israeli Border Guard Headquarter in the French Hill area adjacent to Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, opened fire at Zuhdi al-Taweel, who was carrying his school bag, under the pretext that he stabbed two Israelis, including a soldier, in the railway station. Al-Taweel fell on the ground and was critically injured; however, IOF continued shooting at him. They handcuffed him, tore his clothes, searched him and his school bag, took his fingerprints, and left him bleeding to death.
Spokesperson of the Israeli police said in a statement that: at approximately 13:30, a young man arrived at the railway station and stabbed with a knife he had 2 persons, so police officers immediately opened fire at him and neutralized him.” It should be noted that al-Taweel was a high school student from Kafr ‘Aqab neighborhood, north of occupied East Jerusalem.
At approximately 15:00 on Monday, 24 May 2021, IOF moved into Al-Janiya village, west of Ramallah, and stationed at the eastern entrance. IOF closed the village’s entrance with cement cubes, under the pretext that the village entrance is close to “Talmon” settlement, which is established on part of the village’s lands. Meanwhile, the settlement guard opened fire at Nadeem Samer ‘Abed al-Majeed Mazloum (15), wounding him with a live bullet in his left shoulder. Nadeem was injured when he was between the residential houses watching what was going on. He was then taken to Palestine Medical Complex for treatment. Clashes then broke out in the area, but no casualties were reported.
On Tuesday dawn, 25 May 2021, in a new crime of extra-judicial execution committed by the Israeli occupation forces (IOF), a special Israeli force directly opened fire directly at a Palestinian male while he was in his car in Um al-Sharayet neighborhood in Ramallah, killing him immediately. The Israeli force looked at his face after killing him and withdrew later. According to investigations conducted by the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR), at approximately 04:30 on Tuesday, 25 May 2021, a special Israeli force sneaked into Um al-Sharayet neighborhood from the southern side of al-Bireh city, north of Ramallah, via a Caddy civilian car and parked on a street in the neighborhood. At approximately 04:38, the special Israeli force approached a MG car with a yellow registration plate that was parked on the street, a Palestinian man was inside. Afterwards, three unmasked members of the special force in black clothing stepped out of their vehicle and fired several live bullets at the car, which was parked in the area; the bullets smashed its rear window and damaged its front door. The Palestinian man attempted to open the car door to step out, but he fell on the ground. The members of the special force surrounded him, looked at his face and then fled. Afterwards, a number of Palestinians gathered and took the wounded man to the Palestine Medical Complex, where medicall sources announced his death. The victim was Ahmed Jamil al-Fahd (26), from Am’ari camp near Um al-Sharayet neighborhood, who was shot with 4 live bullets in his left shoulder, chest and lower limbs, which killed him immediately.
At approximately 10:30 on Wednesday, 25 May 2021, IOF suppressed a peaceful protest organized by the residents of Baten al-Hawa neighborhood in Silwan village, south of occupied East Jerusalem’s Old City, and other Palestinians who stand in solidarity with them in front of the Israeli District Court on Salah al-Deen Street in central Jerusalem. The protest was organized against the Israeli orders issued to evacuate the houses of Baten al-Hawa residents and seize them in favor of settlement associations. It should be noted that the Israeli District Court held a session on Wednesday morning to consider appeals submitted by Baten al-Hawa residents who are under threat of forced displacement. Before holding the session, dozens of the neighborhood residents and other Palestinians gathered in front of the court and raised banners demanding the international and local community to intervene immediately in order to stop the displacement of 70 Palestinians from the neighborhood. Afterwards, IOF deployed in the area and placed iron barriers at all entrances leading to the court to prevent Palestinians from reaching the area. IOF suppressed the protestors and beat them up. They also arrested Sultan Sarhan 916) after punching his face and beating him with riffles’ butts.
Yazeed Qa’war, lawyer of Baten al-Hawa families, said that during the court session that was held in the morning, he pleaded on behalf of hundreds of persons and dozens of families whose houses are under the threat of eviction in Baten al-Hawa neighborhood. He added that he submitted two appeals to cancel the eviction orders issued against two families. He also clarified that the legal claims made by the lawyers are strong and the court will seek the opinion of the legal advisor in the coming days.
It should be noted that 7 families in Baten al-Hawa neighborhood submitted appeals after eviction orders were issued against their houses, while dozens of other families are waiting to consider their cases.
At least 51 families comprised of 720 persons, from Baten al-Hawa neighborhood, are facing the same fate of the residents of al-Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, which is under the threat of forced displacement in favor of settlement associations. It should be noted that Atarit Cohenim Association seeks to seize 5 dunums of lands and 200 square meters from al-Wusta neighborhood in Baten al-Hawa, under the pretext that its ownership is for Jewish from Yemen. In September 2015, Atarit Cohenim Association distributed eviction orders to Baten al-Hawa residents who challenged these orders. Many judicial orders were issued by Israeli District and Magistrate Courts supporting the ownership claims made by Atarit Cohenim Association.
It should be noted that Baten al-Hawa neighborhood is adjacent to al-Bustan neighborhood in Silwan village, and its eviction is a prelude to demolish al-Bustan and other nearby neighborhoods that surround al-Aqsa Mosque. Also, Silwan village is the nearest village to Jerusalem’s Old City walls and gates from the southern and eastern sides. About 55 thousand people are living there. Israel divided Silwan village into many neighborhoods, including Wadi al-Helwa, which is the most targeted neighborhood by settlers, in addition to al-Bustan neighborhood that Israeli authorities seek to remove in order to establish the Talmudic parks.
Incursions and arrests:
Thursday, 20 May 2021:
At approximately 00:00, IOF moved into Um al-Rokba area in al-Khader village, south of Bethlehem. They raided and searched Abed Zeyad Arafa’s (16) house and arrested him.
At approximately 00:15, IOF moved into Qabalan village, southeast of Nablus. They raided and searched Ja’far Marwan Aqraa’s (21) house and arrested him.
At approximately 01:00, IOF moved into Fureidis village, east of Bethlehem. They raided and searched Nour al-Dein Mahmoud al-‘Ammour’s (17) house and arrested him.
Around the same time, IOF moved into Bidu village, northwest of the occupied East Jerusalem. They raided and searched Tareq Fadel al-Sheikh’s (46) house and arrested him.
At approximately 01:30, IOF moved into Shu’afat neighborhood, north of the occupied East Jerusalem’s Old City. They raided and searched several houses and arrested (5) civilians. The arrestees were identified as Islam Haitham Da’bs, Ibrahim Mahmoud, Omar al-Safa, Abd al-Qoddous Issa and Mohammed Khudair.
At approximately 02:00, IOF moved into Beit ‘Anan village, northwest of the occupied East Jerusalem. They raided and searched Mohammed Baker Rabea’s (27) house and arrested him.
Around the same time, IOF reinforced by 3 military vehicles moved into Yatta, south of Hebron. They raided and searched 3 houses and arrested 3 civilians namely Mohammed Ibrahim Huraizat (40), Fadi Ayed al-‘Ammour (30) and Mohammed Bassem al-‘Ammour (38).
At approximately 02:30, IOF reinforced with several military vehicles moved into Surif, west of Hebron. They raided and searched Islam Arafat al-Hidmi’s (29) house and arrested him.
Around the same time, IOF reinforced with several military vehicles moved into Dura, southwest of Hebron governorate, and stationed in Kuseise area. They raided and searched the house of the former Minister of Endowments, Nayef Mohammed Mahmoud al-Rajoub (64), and arrested him.
At approximately 02:50, IOF moved into Nablus. They raided and searched several houses and arrested Mohannad Mo’een Tabanja (24), from Khillat al-Amud neighborhood, southwest of the city, and Ahmed Yousef Awwad (47), from al-Makhfiya neighborhood, west of the village.
Around the same time, IOF moved into Iraq al-Ta’eh village, adjacent to Amman Street, southeast of Nablus. They raided and searched Yazan Musbah Yousef Jaber’s (40) house and arrested him.
At approximately 03:00, IOF moved into al-Wad neighborhood, one of the occupied East Jerusalem’s Old City’s neighborhoods. They raided and searched Mohammed Salman Abu Sbeih’s (17) house and arrested him.
Around the same time, IOF reinforced with 3 military vehicles moved into Beit Ummar, north of Hebron. They raided and searched Ali Sami ‘Adi’s (28) house and arrested him.
At approximately 03:50, IOF reinforced by several military vehicles moved into Irqan Awad area, west of Dura, southwest of Hebron. They raided and searched Yousef Abdul Aziz Qazzaz’s (48) house, assualted his wife and daughter, and arrested him.
Yousef Qazzaz’s wife said to PCHR’s fieldworker that:
“We woke up to presence of Israeli soldiers in our bedroom, so I started shouting at them for how did they enter our house in this way. The Israeli officer said that he does not need a permission to storm any house. The soldiers took my husband to the living room until I wore my clothes and followed them. One of the soldiers ordered me to give him my cell phone but I refused, so he pushed me hard to the wall. Immediately my 14-year-old daughter, Jana, intervened and attempted to defend me, but one of the soldiers hit her with his riffle’s butt on her left shoulder and then took my husband to where their military vehicles stationed. When I checked the house I found that the soldiers messed up my bedroom and scattered some contents in store at the stairs”.
At approximately 04:00, IOF moved into Silwan, south of the occupied East Jerusalem’s Old City. They raided and searched 2 houses belonging to Ashraf al-Rajabi and Mohammed Awad, and arrested them.
At approximately 10:00, IOF arrested Zakariya Hazina (29), from the occupied East Jerusalem’s Old City, while present in his workplace in West Jerusalem.
At approximately 14:00, IOF arrested Siraj Mahmoud Abu Sbeitan (22), from al-Tur neighborhood, east of the occupied East Jerusalem’s Old City, while heading to his place of work in the occupied city.
At approximately 17:00, IOF moved into al-Wad neighborhood, one of the occupied East Jerusalem’s Old City’s neighborhoods. They raided and searched Yousef Emad al-Ghoul’s (23) house and arrested him.
IOF carried out (4) incursions in Ya’bad and Zibda, southwest of Jenin; Beit Kahil and Shuyukh in Hebron. No arrests were reported.
Friday, 21 May 2021:
At approximately 01:00, IOF moved into al-Eizariya village, east of the occupied East Jerusalem. They raided and searched 2 houses belonging to Mohammed Qatamira and Nasim Qatamira, and arrested them.
At approximately 01:30, IOF reinforced with several military vehicles moved into Samu village, south of Hebron. They raided and searched Ayman Ahmed Abu Awwad’s (39) house and arrested him.
Around the same time, IOF reinforced by several military vehicles moved into the southern area of Hebron. They raided and searched Eisa Najeh al-Sleiby’s (34) house and arrested him.
At approximately 03:15, IOF moved into al- Ma’ajin neighborhood, west of Nablus. They raided and searched the house of the spokesperson of “Jerusalem is Our Destinatغ” electoral list, Alaa Ahmed Hmeidan (47), and arrested him.
At approximately 05:35, IOF moved into the industrial area of al-Bireh, north of Ramallah governorate. They raided and searched Saji Ali Abed’s (23) house and arrested him.
At approximately 06:20, IOF moved into Jaba’, south of Jenin. They raided and searched Izz al-Dein Farhat Fashafisha’s (24) house and arrested him.
At approximately 10:00, IOF arrested Marwan Mohammed Abu Fara (39), when he was at the Israeli Intelligence Services’ office in “Gush Etzion” settlement upon a summons sent to him in order to refer to the Israeli Intelligence for an Interview with the Shin Bet.
At approximately 14:00, IOF arrested Majd al-Dein Abu Adwan (24), while present inside his vehicle in al-Thuri neighborhood, south of the occupied East Jerusalem. IOF took him out of his vehicle, severely beaten and took him to one of the detention centers in the city.
At approximately 23:00, IOF moved into Jalajel village, east of Hebron. They raided and searched Wafa’ Abdul Rahman Baradi’y’s house, who was killed by the Israeli settlers at the entrance to “Kiryat Arba’” settlement, east of Hebron, claiming that she had a gun with her and attempted to shoot on 18 May 2021. IOF held her family in one room and searched the house. They arrested her brother, Ramzi Abdul Rahman al-Baradi’y and later withdrew.
IOF carried out (7) incursions in Tell and Aqraba, southeast of Nablus; Nazlat Zayd, southwest of Jenin; Hebron, Yatta, Beit Ummar and Fawwar refugee camp in Hebron governorate. No arrests were reported.
Saturday, 22 May 2021:
At approximately 00:30, IOF severely beaten and arrested (4) civilians who were in Bab al-Amoud area in the occupied East Jerusalem, and took them to one of the detention centers in the city. The arrestees were identified as Mohammed Akram al-Basti (22), Ahmed al-Basti (22), Ehab Akram al-Basti (26) and Tamer Amjad al-Basti (23).
At approximately 02:00, IOF moved into al-Issawiya village, northeast of the occupied East Jerusalem. They raided and searched Mahmoud Ashraf Obaid’s (18) house and arrested him.
Around the same time, IOF moved into Tammun, southeast of Tubas. They raided and searched several houses and arrested Basel Mustafa Bisharat (22), and Izz al-Dein Bani Owda (23).
At approximately 02:30, IOF moved into ‘Aqqaba village, southwest of Tubas. They raided and searched several houses and arrested Harith Belal Abu Arra (18).
At approximately 03:30, IOF moved into Awarta village, southeast of Nablus. They raided and searched Abdul Salam Mustafa Oud’s (54) house and arrested him.
At approximately 10:00, IOF arrested 2 civilians from Silwan, south of the occupied East Jerusalem’s Old City, when they were in al-Aqsa Mosque’s yards in the occupied East Jerusalem’s Old City, and took them to one of the detention centers in the city. The arrestees were identified as Sufian Nidal al-Natsheh (19) and Hamza Zuhair al-Rajabi (19).
At approximately 12:45, IOF stationed at Huwara military checkpoint, southeast of Nablus, arrested Ali Hashem Dwaikat (21), from Beita village. IOF took him to an unknown destination.
At approximately 14:00, IOF stationed at checkpoint (65) established on the entrance to the closed Shuhada Street in Hebron arrested Ma’moun Hasan al-Natsheh (16) while crossing the checkpoint.
IOF carried out an incursion in Ya’bad village, southwest of Jenin. No arrests were reported.
Sunday, 23 May 2021:
At approximately 01:00, IOF moved into al-Tur neighborhood, east of the occupied East Jerusalem’s Old City. They raided and searched Khalil Kamal Abu al-Hawa’s (19) house and arrested him.
At approximately 02:00, IOF moved into Beit Hanina, north of occupied East Jerusalem. They raided and searched Shady Sa’d al-Mtawar’s (44) house, the Secretary of Fatah movement in Jerusalem, and arrested him.
Around the same time, IOF moved into Balata al-Balad village, east of Nablus. They raided and searched several houses and arrested Ibrahim Mohammed Dwaikat (20).
Around the same time, IOF moved into Askar village, adjacent to Amman Street, southeast of Nablus. They raided and searched Bara’ Ramzi Dwaikat’s (22) house and arrested him.
At approximately 02:15, IOF moved into Azzun village, east of Qalqilya. They raided and searched Mustafa Ahmed Mansour’s (17) house and arrested him.
At approximately 02:30, IOF moved into Qabatia, southeast of Jenin. They raided and searched Saif al-Dein Abdul Rahman Nazzal’s (36) house and arrested him.
Around the same time, IOF moved into Ya’bad, southwest of Jenin. They raided and searched Tareq Mohammed Qabha’s (22) house and arrested him.
At approximately 03:00, IOF moved into Wadi al-Joz neighborhood, east of occupied East Jerusalem’s Old City. They raided and searched two houses belonging to the activists Fadi Abdullah Mtawar (46) and Nour Saleem al-Shalabi (23), and arrested them.
At approximately 03:30, IOF moved into Kafr Dan village, west of Jenin. They raided and searched Fo’ad Nayef Kamamji’s (56) house and arrested him along with his sons, Sha’s (22), Emad (32), Majd (27) and Muharram (31), to pressurize his son, Ahed (26), to surrender himself.
At approximately 09:00, IOF stationed at Za’tara military checkpoint, southeast of Nablus, arrested Mohammed Ali Hamajna (22), from Jenin refugee camp, west of Jenin. IOF took him to an unknown destination.
At approximately 10:00, IOF moved into al-Tur neighborhood, east of the occupied East Jerusalem’s Old City. They raided and searched several houses and arrested (3) children; Mustafa Ahmed Abu al-Hawa (17), Mustafa Ashayer (17) and Ra’ed Hazem al-Sayyad (16). Meanwhile, IOF handed Ameer Hazem Abu al-Hawa (19) and Dawoud Mahmoud Abu al-Hawa (19) summonses to refer to the Israeli Intelligence Services.
At approximately 10:30, IOF moved into Shufa village, east of Tulkarm. They raided and searched 2 houses belonging to Fathi Ma’zouz Mousa (22), and his brother, Mohammed (20), and arrested them.
At approximately 10:55, IOF arrested Abdul Rahman Kmeil (22), from Qabatiya village in Jenin, while passing through a temporary military checkpoint established on the entrance of Jit village, northeast of Qalqilya.
At approximately 11:00, IOF and police reinforced with several military vehicles moved into al-Tuwani village, east of Yatta. They raided and searched 2 houses belonging to al-Rab’i family, assaulted the residents and confiscated their cell phones. As a result, Deema Mohammed Fadel Rab’i (6) sustained bruises and was taken to Hebron Governmental Hospital. Also, IOF arrested Fadel Mohammed Rab’i, Belal Fadel Ahmed Rab’i and Mafdi Ahmed Rab’i.
At approximately 16:00, IOF moved into Ras al-Amud neighborhood, east of the occupied East Jerusalem’s Old City. They raided and searched Mohammed al-Bazlamit’s (17) house and arrested him.
At approximately 22:00, IOF moved into al-Tur neighborhood, east of the occupied East Jerusalem’s Old City. They raided and searched 2 houses belonging to Nour Abu Jom’a and Anas Abu Sami, and arrested them.
IOF carried out (5) incursions in Bayt Ula, Tarqumiyah, Beit Ummar, Fawwar refugee camp and Karma villages in Hebron. No arrests were reported.
Monday, 24 May 2021:
At approximately 01:00, IOF moved into several neighborhoods in the occupied East Jerusalem’s Old City. They raided and searched several houses and arrested (5) civilians, including a child. The arrestees are: Waheed Marwan al-Bakri (25), Mohammed Jawdat al-Shawish (26), Ibrahim Abu Sneina (22), Mohammed Isma’el Hushiyah (17) and Wadea Hushiyah (18).
Around the same time, IOF moved into al-Walaja village, northwest of Bethlehem. They raided and searched several houses and arrested (4) civilians; Mohammed Isma’el Mousa al-A’raj, Fadi Mahmoud Rabah, Mohammed Nabil Abu al-Teen, and his brother, Mahmoud.
At approximately 01:30, IOF reinforced with several military vehicles moved into al-Tabqa village, south of Dura, southwest of Hebron. They raided and searched 2 houses and handed Adel Musaiaf al-Atrash (41) a summons to refer to the Israeli Intelligence Services in “Gush Etzion” settlement, south of Bethlehem.
At approximately 02:00, IOF reinforced by several military vehicles moved into Beit Kahil, north of Hebron. They raided and searched Sa’eed Maher Asafra’s (26) house and arrested him.
Around the same time, IOF moved into Beit Ummar village, north of Hebron. They raided and searched Mohammed Yousef Khudair Awad’s (22) house and arrested him.
At approximately 02:00, IOF moved into Ras al-Amud neighborhood, east of the occupied East Jerusalem’s Old City. They raided and searched several houses and arrested Mohammed Majeed al-Zughul (19) and Ahmed Younis al-Ghoul (22), and handed Mohammed Ali al-Ghoul (17) a summons to refer to the Israeli Intelligence Services in Mascovia investigation center in West Jerusalem.
Around the same time, IOF moved into Bait Fajar village, south of Bethlehem. They raided and searched several houses and arrested (3) civilians; Khattab Ibrahim Thawabtah (24), Sa’oud Faisal Thawabtah (30) and Mahmoud Ibrahim Balou (25).
Around the same time, IOF moved into Qabalan village, southeast of Nablus. They raided and searched several houses and arrested Naser Khaled Abu Zeina (20).
At approximately 02:30, IOF moved into Isawiya village, southeast the occupied East Jerusalem. They raided and searched 2 houses belonging to Faris Ra’fat Dari (23) and Oday Ahmed Dari (24), and arrested them.
At approximately 03:00, IOF moved into Shu’afat neighborhood, north of the occupied East Jerusalem’s Old City. They raided and searched several houses and arrested (4) civilians. The arrestees are: Naser Khader Abu Khudair (25), Adam Khader Abu Khudair (21), Mohammed Mansour Abu Khudair (22) and Ahmed Hasan Abu Khudair (21).
At approximately 03:30, IOF moved into Silwan, south of the occupied East Jerusalem. They raided and searched 2 houses belonging to ‘Arrabi Sadeq Ghaith (19) and Khaled Waleed Shwaiky (20), and arrested them.
At approximately 04:00, IOF moved into Kobar village, north of Ramallah. They raided and searched Mus’ab Saher al-Barghouthi’s (27) house and arrested him.
Around the same time, IOF moved into Dura al-Kari’a village, north of Ramallah. They raided and searched Ahmed Ra’fat Yaseen’s (22) house and arrested him.
Around the same time, IOF moved into Jericho. They raided and searched Husam Isma’el Abu Dahouk’s (23) house and arrested him.
At approximately 04:30, IOF stationed at Bab Huta, one of the Aqsa Mosque’s gates in the occupied East Jerusalem’s Old City arrested Ehab Mohammed Iskafi (18), while entering the mosque. IOF took him to one of the detention centers in the city.
At approximately 07:00, IOF severely beaten and arrested Nidal Hamad Abu Diab (46) and his son, Mohammed (24), from Jerusalem’s Old City, while heading to their workplace in the city. IOF took them to unknown destinations.
At approximately 08:00, IOF moved into the occupied East Jerusalem’s Old City. They raided and searched Malek Basem Asaliya’s (20) house and handed him a summons to refer to the Israeli Intelligence Services at the Moscovia interrogation center in West Jerusalem.
At approximately 10:00, IOF moved into Jabel al-Mukaber village, southeast of the occupied East Jerusalem’s Old City. They raided and searched Mohammed Ahmed Mashahera’s (27) house and arrested him.
At approximately 11:00, IOF moved into Bab Huta neighborhood, one of the occupied East Jerusalem’s Old City’s neighborhoods. They raided and searched 2 houses belonging to Husam Ghunaim (21) and Bashar al-‘Ajlouni (19), and arrested them.
Around the same time, IOF severely beaten and arrested Mo’ath Adel al-Kaswani (20) after stopping his vehicle on Salah al-Dein street in the occupied East Jerusalem. IOF took him to one of the detention centers in the city.
At approximately 12:00, IOF moved into al-Tur neighborhood, east of the occupied East Jerusalem’s Old City. They raided and searched Ali Waleed al-Sayyad’s (22) house and arrested him.
At approximately 15:00, IOF arrested (5) civilians while present near Jabal al-Madaris in Hizma, northeast of the occupied East Jerusalem. The arrestees are: Mohammed Ahmed Abu Khalil, Hussain Owad Sbeih, Mahmoud Owda Sbeih, Adam Hasan Abu Khalil and Mahran Mahmoud Owda Sbeih.
At approximately 16:00, IOF moved into Shaikh Jarrah neighborhood, north of the occupied East Jerusalem. They raided and searched Mohannad Issa Abu Ta’a’s (48) house and arrested him along with his son, Issa (20).
At approximately 17:00, IOF moved into Beit Hanina neighborhood, north of the occupied East Jerusalem. They raided and searched Basam Mazen al-Keswani’s (10) house, enticing fear among the children, and arrested him, as IOF claimed that al-Keswani was throwing stones at a settlement outpost in the city. A recorded video went viral on social media, showing a 5-year-old girl, Ruba, crying and pleading the Israeli soldiers to release her cousin, Basam, by saying “We will never do this again, leave him, I am scared that you will take him and he never comes back to play with me… when his father come, you will release him right?”
At approximately 19:00, IOF stationed at Mevo Dotan military checkpoint, southwest of Jenin, arrested Islam Isam Abu al-Hija (23), from al-Yamun, west of Jenin. IOF took him to an unknown destination.
IOF carried out (5) incursions in Sa’ir, Aroub refugee camp, Hasaka area and Kharsa villages in Hebron; and Tell village in Nablus. No arrests were reported.
Tuesday, 25 May 2021:
At approximately 00:30, IOF moved into al-Tur neighborhood, east of the occupied East Jerusalem’s Old City. They raided and searched Mohammed Hatem Abu al-Hawa’s (19) house and arrested him.
At approximately 02:00, IOF reinforced by several military vehicles moved into the southern entrance to Hebron. They raided and searched Osaid Zuhair Zaheda’s (29) house and arrested him.
At approximately 02:00, IOF moved into Bait Duqu village, northwest of the occupied East Jerusalem. They raided and searched Mohammed Mustafa Dawoud’s (25) house and arrested him.
At approximately 02:30, IOF moved into Nablus. They raided and searched the house of a candidate on the “Jerusalem is Our Destination” electoral list, Yaser Ibrahim Badrasawi (52), on al-Quds Street, and arrested him.
At approximately 05:00, IOF moved into Jaba’ village, south of Jenin. They raided and searched Ammar Ibrahim Hamamra’s (27) house and arrested him. Also, at approximately 09:30, IOF stationed at Za’tara military checkpoint, southeast of Nablus, arrested his brother, Murad (35), and took him to an unknown destination.
At approximately 10:00, IOF arrested Mahdi Hatem Abu Asab (18), when he was in Bab al-Amoud area in occupied East Jerusalem, and took him to one of the detention centers in the city.
At approximately 14:00, IOF arrested Mahmoud al-Jundi (29) while walking on al-Wad Street in the occupied East Jerusalem’s Old City. IOF took him to an unknown destination.
At approximately 16:00, IOF reinforced by several military vehicles moved into al-Tuwani village, east of Yatta, south of Hebron governorate. They raided and searched Osama Fadel Rab’i’s (28) house and arrested him.
At approximately 16:00, IOF arrested Khaled Rab’i (32), from Shu’afat refugee camp, northeast of the occupied East Jerusalem, while present at his workplace in the occupied city. IOF took him to an unknown destination.
At approximately 18:00, IOF moved into Bab Huta neighborhood, one of the occupied Jerusalem’s Old City’s neighborhoods. They raided and searched Wisam Mohammed Thalji Sidir’s (28) house and arrested him. It should be noted that IOF severely beat him that required to refer him to the hospital to receive treatment while handcuffed and under arrest.
At approximately 20:00, IOF moved into Issawiya village, northeast of the occupied East Jerusalem. They raided and searched Rasheed Mohammed Darwish’s (19) house and arrested him.
At approximately 22:00, IOF moved into Shu’afat refugee camp, northeast the occupied East Jerusalem. They raided and searched Mohammed al-‘Ammouri’s (24) house and arrested him.
At approximately 22:00, IOF moved into Bir al-Basha village, south of Jenin. They raided and searched Saddam Basem Ghawadra’s (30) house and arrested him.
At approximately 22:30, IOF stationed at a temporary military checkpoint established at the entrance to “Ofra” settlement, east of Ramallah, arrested 4 civilians while crossing the checkpoint, and released them later. The arrestees were: Muntaser Abdul Raheem Abdul Baset (19), Obada Zain Hmaid (20), Mohammed al-Qadi (20) and Omar Wael Hmeid (19), from al-Mazra’a al-Sharqiya village, east of the city.
IOF carried out (5) incursions in Beit Ummar, Sa’ir, Tarqumiyah and Dhahiriya villages in Hebron; and Asira al-Qibliya village, southeast of Nablus. No arrests were reported.
Wednesday, 25 May 2021:
At approximately 01:30, IOF reinforced by several military vehicles moved into Abu Katila neighborhood in Hebron. They raided and searched Lo’ay Ali al-Hashlamoun’s (39) house, but no arrests were reported.
At approximately 03:30, IOF reinforced with several military vehicles moved into al-Harayiq area in Hebron. They raided and searched Tareq Anwar D’ais’s (40) house, but no arrests were reported.
At approximately 04:00, IOF reinforced with several military vehicles moved into the southern area of Hebron. They raided and searched 3 houses belonging to Maher Ali Barqan, Taher Mahmoud Barqan and Awni Ayed Abu Hadid, but no arrests were reported.
At approximately 04:25, IOF moved into Tayasir village, east of Tubas. They raided and searched Zahi Ahmed Abu Ali’s (47) house and arrested him.
IOF carried out (3) incursions in al-Hadab and Nuba villages in Hebron; and Tubas. No arrests were reported.
III. Settlement Expansion and settler violence in the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem
Settler attacks on Palestinian civilians and their property
On Sunday dawn, 23 May 2021, a group pf settlers from “Havat Ma’on” settlement outpost established on the Palestinian lands of eastern Yatta, south of Hebron, moved into Kherbet Sarourah and burnt a cave used by Palestinian and international activists to protect farmers and shepherds from the settlers’ attacks. It should be noted that the cave was repaired and furnished by the activists 2 years ago. The Settlers also burnt a field of winter crops belonging to al-Hreini family in al-Samrah area.
On Sunday morning, 23 May 2021, a group of settlers stormed al-Aqsa Mosque yards in occupied East Jerusalem’s Old City via al-Magharbah Gate, under the IOF’s intensive protection and amid intense tension prevailing the mosque and its surrounding only 2 days after the cease fire was declared in the Gaza Strip and cease of such raids over the past 3 weeks.
Jewish extremist groups called for raiding al-Aqsa Mosque on Sunday, 23 May 2021, via posts and ads published on social media; thus, IOF intensified its measures and presence of its members in the vicinity of al-Aqsa Mosque and at its gates. Moreover, they banned the entry of crowds of muslim worshippers into the mosque in order to perform the dawn prayer and pushed and beat them up. IOF then allowed them to enter on one condition that they hand their ID cards at the gates to the police officers. When the settlers raided the mosque at 7:00, tension broke out in its yards and IOF forcibly kept the worshipers away from the al-Qibli Mosque and beat them up. They banned them from chanting slogans or saying Allahu Akbar or even using their cameras or phones. They beat one of the worshippers and confiscated his cell phone after he documented the setters’ raid. During the 2 tours, which 250 settlers participated in and continued until 14:30 instead of their usual time at 13:30, IOF arrested 9 Palestinians, including a girl and 4 Islamic Endowments officers in al-Aqsa Mosque, its surrounding and at the gates. The arrestees were identified as: Fadi ‘Ali ‘Alian, al-Aqsa Mosque’s guard, ‘Issa al-Dabbagh and Basem Zughayer, the Reconstruction Committee’s officers; ‘Ali Wazouz, an officer at the Manuscripts Department; Ashwaq Rasem ‘Abdul Wahad, ‘Issa ‘Arabat, Anas Mohammed Abu al-Hummus; Mahmoud al-Shakhshir; ‘Omer Fawzi Muheisen.
It should be noted that IOF held the ID cards of 30 civilians, who tried to confront the settlers’ raids into al-Aqsa Mosque and referred them to al-Qashlah police station after refusing to hand their ID cards. Lawyer Sanaa’ al-Dweik said in this regard that the Israeli authorities handed 13 Palestinians decisions to ban their entry into al-Aqsa Mosque for a week after the Israeli police and intelligence officers held their ID cards before entering al-Aqsa Mosque. They were then handed summonses for interrogation. After interrogating and detaining them for hours at al-Qashlah detention center in Bab al-Khalil in East Jerusalem, they were released on condition that they would be banned entry into al-Aqsa Mosque for a week and would attend again for interrogation in case the entry ban decision would be extended.
At approximately 15:40 on Sunday, a group of settlers along with 60 cows moved into Qana Valley area in Deir Istiya village, north of Salfit. After the farmers attempted to prevent the settlers from raiding their planted lands, settlers heavily fired rubber-coated bullets, sound bombs and teargas canisters at the farmers. As a result, 6 of the farmers suffocated and were taken to Darwish Nazzal Hospital in Qalqiliya. The settlers broke windows of 5 vehicles belonging to civilians who ariived at the area after calls via loudspeakers to protect the farmers. The settlers’ attack continued for 5 consecutive hours, including completely closing the area, detaining the farmers and assaulting the vehicles, which belong to Sa’id ‘Ali Sa’id Yadan, Bilal Khader Mansour, Nafez Khader Mansour and Mohammed Hasan Mansour.
At approximately 23:00 on Sunday, a group of settlers from “Kiryat Arbaa” settlement, east of Hebron, threw stones at houses belonging to Abu S’eifan Family in al-Hussein Valley area next to the settlement. No casualties were reported.
On Monday morning, 24 May 2021, a group of settlers from “Beit Hagai” settlement damaged 30 olive seedlings, planted 5 years ago, and uprooted 100 one-year-old olive seedlings in Ar-Rihiya village, south of Hebron. Those seedlings belonged to Mohammed ‘Issa Halayqah (62).
Closure policy and restrictions on freedom of movement of persons and goods:
The Gaza Strip:
Although a ceasefire was reached on Friday, 21 May 2021, the Israeli authorities continued to close Kerm Abu Salem and Beit Hanoun “Erez” Crossings and the sea, banning entry of goods, food supplies or fuel, tightening the closure that has been imposed on the Gaza Strip since 2006.
On Tuesday, 25 May 2021, IOF reopened the Kerm Abu Salem Crossing for the entry of humanitarian supplies, including medical equipment, food, medicines, fuel for private sector, and continued to ban exportation of Gaza Strip’s goods. IOF also partially reopened the Beit Hanoun “Erez” crossing to allow the travel of patients to receive life-saving treatment along with intentional workers and foreign journalists.
The Gaza Strip still suffers the worst closure in the history of the Israeli occupation of the oPt as it has entered the 14th consecutive year, without any improvement to the movement of persons and goods, humanitarian conditions and bearing catastrophic consequences on all aspects of life.
The West bank:
In addition to 108 permanent checkpoints and closed roads, this week witnessed the establishment of more temporary checkpoints that restrict the movement of goods and individuals. IOF established 58 temporary checkpoints, where they searched Palestinians’ vehicles, checked their IDs and arrested 10 of them. IOF tightened their measures against individuals’ movement at military permanent checkpoints and closed some of them many times for hours.
Jerusalem:
On Thursday, 20 May 2021, IOF established 3 checkpoints at the northern entrance to al-Ram village, at the entrance to Biddu village and near the Qalendia village bridge, north of occupied East Jerusalem.
On Tuesday afternoon, 25 May 2021, IOF closed Qalendia Checkpoint and banned movement but later reopened it.
Bethlehem:
On Thursday 20 May 2021, IOF established a checkpoint at the western entrance to Beit Fajjar village, south of Bethlehem, and was re-established next day and on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday.
On Saturday, 22 May 2021, IOF established 2 checkpoints at the southern entrance to Gibeah village and at the main entrance to Marah Rabah village, south of Bethlehem.
Ramallah:
On Thursday, 20 May 2021, IOF established a checkpoint near ‘Atara Village Bridge.
On Friday, 21 May 2021, IOF established 3 checkpoints at the entrances to Deir Abu Mash’al and Umm Safa villages in addition to near ‘Attara Village Bridge.
On Saturday, 22 May 2021, IOF established 3 checkpoints at the entrances to Deir Ibzi and Shuqba villages in addition to near ‘Attara Village Bridge.
On Sunday, 23 May 2021, IOF established 3 checkpoints at the entrances to Beitin, Sinjil and Abu Mash’al villages.
On Monday, 24 May 2021, IOF established 2 checkpoints at the entrances to Ras Karkar village- ‘Ein Ayoub area and Sinjil village.
On Wednesday, 26 May 2021, IOF closed the electric detector established at the western entrance to ‘Aboud village, northwest of Ramallah.
Jericho:
On Thursday, 20 May 2021, IOF established 2 checkpoints at the southern entrance to Jericho and in al-Khan al-Ahmar area (on the main road between Jericho and occupied Jerusalem.)
On Friday, 21 May 2021, IOF established a checkpoint at the southern entrance to Jericho.
On Saturday, 22 May 2021, IOF established at al-Hamra checkpoint, north of Jericho tightened its military measures and hindered civilians” movement at the checkpoint by including searching their vehicles and checking their ID cards.
On Sunday, 23 May 2021, IOF established a checkpoint at the northern entrance to Jericho.
Nablus:
On Friday, 21 May 2021, IOF established a checkpoint at the intersection of Einabus village, southeast of the city.
On Saturday, 22 May 2021, IOF established a checkpoint at the entrance to Madama village, southeast of Nablu. IOF also closed with sand berms and cement cubes the entrance to Beita village, southeast of the city.
On Sunday, 23 May 2021, IOF established a checkpint at the intersection of “Shafi Shimron” settlement, northwest of the city.
On Monday, 24 May 2021, IOF established 2 checkpoints at the intersection of “Shafi Shimron” settlement, at the entrance to Aqraba village, southeast of Nablus.
On Tuesday, 25 May 2021, IOF established 2 checkpoints at the intersection of “Shafi Shimron” settlement, at the entrance to Awarta village, southeast of Nablus.
Hebron:
On Thursday, 20 May 2021, IOF established 4 checkpoints at the entrances to Idhna, as-Samu and Ash-Shuyukh villages, and at the southern entrance to Hebron.
On Friday, 21 May 2021, IOF established 4 checkpoints at the entrances to Beit Ummar and Beit Awwa villages, at the western entrance to Hebron, and at the southern entrance to Halhul city.
On Saturday, 22 May 2021, IOF established 5 checkpoints at the entrances to Idhna, ad-Dhahiriya, Beit Awwa, and al-Jalajel villages, at the entrance to Al-Arroub refugee camp.
On Monday, 22 May 2021, IOF established 5 checkpoints at the entrances to Beit Sa’ir, eastern Dura, southern Halhoul, and Idhna villages.
On Tuesday, 25 May 2021, IOF established 2 checkpoints at the entrances to Idhna village and al-‘Aroub refugee camp.
On Wednesday, 26 May 2021, IOF established 3 checkpoints at the entrances to al-Fawwar refugee camp, southern Hebron and Sa’ir village.
Qalqilya:
At approximately 10:55 on Tuesday, 24 May 2021, IOF established 2 checkpoints under Azzun village’s bridge and at the eastern entrance to the city.
Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah delivered a speech Tuesday on the anniversary of the Resistance and Liberation Day in which he congratulated the Palestinian resistance for its great victory.
“We are now celebrating two great victories, the 25th of May 2000 in Lebanon and the 21st of May 2021 in Gaza,” Sayyed Nasrallah initiated, saluting the bravery of the Palestinian resistance in the latest battle.
His eminence considered that “the liberation that the Lebanese people attained in 2000 was dedicated to Palestine because it is where our goal lies, and this victory shifted the strategic path of the Palestinian cause and the conflict with the enemy.”
As he remembered the martyrs who fell on this path and reminded of the great role that Hajj Qassem Suleimani played in supporting the resistance, Sayyed Nasrallah praised the “historic stance” of the Palestinian resistance in standing up for Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood violations, assuring that “the displacement taking place in Sheikh Jarrah is not a normal development considering the symbolism of this neighborhood. It is a step forward in Judaizing Al-Quds”.
“The Palestinian resistance took a firm and historic decision after witnessing the violations that the occupation practiced in Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, and the cause of this battle was the arrogance and stupidity of the enemy as well as its miscalculations and underestimation of the resistance,” he said, adding that “despite all that is taking place in Palestine, some Arab countries are still normalizing and working on improving the Israeli entity’s image”.
Sayyed Nasrallah pointed out that “the Israelis assumed that the Judaization procedures in Al-Quds will only be faced with statements and denunciations. They didn’t expect that the resistance will take this historic decision.”
“Gaza surprised the friend and enemy with its threat in defense of Al-Quds… This historic development in “Al-Quds Sword” must be highly appreciated as Gaza has engaged in this battle not to protect itself or its own people but to protect Al-Quds,” he added.
Hezbollah SG asserted that “The Gazan people were ready to defend and sacrifice themselves for Al-Quds, Al-Aqsa mosque and the nation’s sanctities,” addressing the Israeli enemy “you should be aware that violating Al-Quds and Al-Aqsa mosque in unlike any other violation you practice.”
“The enemy’s leadership must repeat its calculations after the war on Gaza… and any violation to Al-Aqsa or Islamic sanctities in general must not be faced by the resistance in Gaza only. The equation must be a regional war for Al-Quds,” his eminence warned, stressing that “when Islamic and Christian sanctities face threats there won’t be any red lines.”
“In the latest battle the whole world felt it was standing in front of a united Palestinian people that moved in one direction toward one goal. Al-Quds Sword revived the Palestinian cause around the world and imposed it on social media. It revived the culture and spirit of resistance as an only path to liberate the land,” he further stated.
Moreover, Sayyed Nasrallah considered that “Al-Quds Sword” battle hit hard the normalization path as well as the normalizing countries and their media.
“After this battle we can say that the “deal of the century” had fallen bringing out the unity of the Palestinian people inside the occupied territories and reminding the world of Israel’s ugly face being an apartheid which kills innocent people and commits massacres. It further re-pointed the conflict compass towards the real enemy,” he said.
Listing the great achievements of “Al-Quds Sword” battle, Sayyed Nasrallah also stated that “it paralyzed the security of the Zionist entity and disfigured its image as a safe entity for businesses and investors. It imposed a confrontation between the occupation and the Palestinians inside the lands of 1948, which Israel considered an existential threat. The Israeli entity failed to prevent the launch of missiles in their announced timing, which is considered a data and intelligence failure,” adding to the list that Israel had failed to destroy the unlaunched missile supply in Gaza.
His eminence reassured that “the latest battle revived historic Palestine from the sea to the river and reflected a rise of faith in the choice of resistance.”
He further considered that “the last 10 years were the hardest on our region, but the steadfastness of the resistance axis in the region has been a major defense and uplift for the victory of Palestine.”
In this context, his eminence clarified that “Israel is unlike any other state because it is an “established state” not a “normally existing one”, this is why security is basic for its existence… because when the Israeli people feel insecure in the entire Palestinian land, the simplest thing for them to do is pack and leave.”
“If the Iron Dome was a success Netanyahu would have bragged about it and marketed it everywhere,” he added.
On Lebanon, Hezbollah SG considered that the resistance has never been any stronger in terms of power, number, expertise, readiness, preparation, faith, courage and morale.
As he warned the occupation of any miscalculation in Lebanon, he considered that “Lebanon is strong with its presidency and with the equation it enforced that is “army, people and resistance”.
His eminence further re-offered his condolences to the family of Mohammad Tahhan, the 21-year-old Lebanese protestor who was killed by the Israeli Army on the southern Lebanese borders, warning the Israeli enemy that “his name was added to the list… we will be patient but we will not disregard this bloodshed”.
In conclusion, Sayyed Nasrallah assured that Al-Quds is closer and the end of the Israeli entity is closer, saluting the stance of the Yemeni people in solidarity with Palestine.
“It brings tears to my eyes when I see the solidarity of the Yemeni people and their leader Sayyed Abdul Malak Al-Huthi who addressed the Palestinians saying “we are ready to share our bread with you”.”
Sayyed Nasrallah asked “do you even have bread to share with the Palestinian people?”
President Biden was not much interested in what is going on in Jerusalem, and the crimes committed against its people and the worshipers among them in the first two qiblah, and the third of the Two Holy Mosques, the prophet Muhammad, may God bless him and grant him peace. None of his assistants reported the news as it was, and none of his advisors mentioned it. To the horrors of the Israeli occupation, and the consequences of these atrocities.
And the situation remained like this until the vice-chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee in Congress raised his voice to criticize what Israel is doing and committing in Jerusalem. Then Biden raised his ears to hear well what was being said and discovered that a terrible thing was going on in Jerusalem, and that Israel was committing a big mistake that could lead to scourge, so the communications began. American official sources said that from that moment, until the ceasefire, American officials contacted Israeli officials as they had never done before. President Biden set his goal of a ceasefire and left his employees arranging that, and he extended the deadline, and gave Israel more. From time to time he was confident that Israel would not be affected and would eliminate “terrorism,” as he put it.
An American official says that the number of telephone calls reached 80, which is an unusual number, and this number of calls were not included in the habit of making this number of calls on one topic, but the reason is that a crisis was growing due to Netanyahu’s position rejecting the cease-fire …Biden realized after he gathered his advisers and senior officers that Israel was heading towards a ground war, and that this would greatly weaken Israel, and he would throw on Washington’s shoulders the establishment of an air bridge to support Israel in a ground war against a people in Gaza, even if the target was terrorist organizations, and Biden ordered an end to the war. To save Israel and save America from being plunged into a war on the land of Palestine at a time when Biden withdraws his forces from Afghanistan despite the violent clashes between the Taliban and the “American” Afghan government. Biden is certain that things have changed even inside Congress and the United States. Mass demonstrations have taken place in support of the Palestinians, and condemnation In Israel, even if the New York demonstration represented the reality when the supporters of Palestine clashed with their demonstration of supporters of Israel with their demonstration.
Netanyahu thanked Biden and Biden announced that he had spoken with Netanyahu (and what Biden was reported came in two installments) in front of the President of South Korea. Biden announced that he supports Israel, and will not give up America’s commitment to its security because, but he also said that he will not change the military support program for Israel, and both of these matters Addressed to a number of members of Congress from his “party” Democrats, who demanded Biden to stop an arms deal to Israel due to its destruction of towers and residential homes, and although he did not speak about what he meant by the two-state solution, he confirmed his support for this solution, and that it is the only one, but he immediately added that this must be done. It means that Mahmoud Abbas remains president of the Authority, and he separated in his words between Gaza and the West Bank !!
As for Jerusalem, he mentioned it in his talk about the necessity of coexistence with equality and democracy, and peace between the Arabs of Israel and the Jews, including the Arabs of Jerusalem, meaning that despite his words and his contacts with President Mahmoud Abbas he insisted on considering Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and ruled by Israel, and this is what he does not accept. Abu Mazen .
From the above, it appears that there are parties trying to hide the crimes of Israel, and one of the officials who conveyed to Biden the news of the destruction of the towers of evacuation and al-Jawhara said that the video did not reach them from the CIA or the US State Department, but rather from activists on social media platforms, and that the scene was horrific. The Chairman of the Associated Press is conducting an international investigation, and President Biden asked to raise this matter, as it is a direct attack on an American institution whose offices were known to Israel in that tower. There are parties working for Israel in the White House, and there is a president who supports Zionism, and we should only expect some reviews. Like paying the United Nations to send urgent aid, as for allocating funds to rebuild Gaza, this is a matter that Biden will have upon his terms upon implementation, and among these conditions is not to hand over any money to Hamas, but rather to Abu Mazen, and Washington will ask all countries that have announced collection campaigns to return the building not to hand over the money. Hamas, but these expected actions will not be the title of the battle.As we received information, President Mahmoud Abbas demanded firmly to stop the attacks in Jerusalem, to cancel the siege of Sheikh Jarrah, and to immediately start comprehensive negotiations to end the occupation. Here is the entrance to the Palestinian side and to keep the situation going.
So that we do not fall into any dilemma or disagreement, we see that the decisions of Fatah youth to continue to confront the attacks of the occupation army in Jerusalem, and the settlers in the West Bank, is the right way, meaning that the cease-fire in Gaza is not valid in the West Bank. Within two days the West Bank has given casualties of the wounded. It parallels the wounded for five days in Gaza, and gave martyrs parallels, and the issue is not a comparison, but an indication of the momentum of the West Bank, the distribution of sites and they are the occupation soldiers, and the absence of weapons in the hands of the citizens, and a day may come when the security men will join the people, but even this will not fulfill the required defense In self-defense, our defense of ourselves is by guarding our land and our families, expelling settlers, besieging them, clashing with them, and controlling their sites.
Netanyahu will make the mistake of escalation, because that will place the burden of responsibility on a long border line between Jordan and the occupying enemy.
Beirut-Hezbollah Secretary General His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah delivered on Tuesday a speech marking the “the Resistance and liberation Day”.
At the beginning of his speech, His Eminence revealed that he has been sick for the past 2 weeks.
He further congratulated the Lebanese people on May 25th liberation that was made with Allah’s grace and support. “May’s liberation was not a result of the sacrifices of a sole party or faction of the resistance, but the result of the accumulative years of sacrifices by many Lebanese people and resistance factions,” The Resistance Leader stressed.
In parallel, Sayyed Nasrallah underlined that “May 2000 victory founded the era of victories, and on that day the resistance granted its victory to the entire Palestine because the goal is there.”
“The results of the 2000 victory were strategic, in a manner that the “Israeli” enemy leaders warned of its repercussion,” he stated, noting that “The May 2000 victory has put the enemy and the friend, as well as the Palestinian Cause and the struggle in front of a different strategic track.”
Regarding Gaza victory, His Eminence announced that “From now on, we started to celebrate two great victories in May, the 25th, of the year 2000, and the 21st in 2021 marking Gaza’s victory.”
“The “Israeli” enemy wanted to isolate the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, and it has set Occupied Al-Quds and the holy sites in the circle of great threat,” he said, noting that “In light of all what was happening in Palestine, some Arab countries chose the track of normalization to polish the image of the “Israeli” entity.”
According to the Hezbollah Secretary General, “Gaza surprised the friend and enemy in its decision to implement its threat in responding to “Israeli” practices in Al-Quds.”
“Al-Quds’ becoming in a spot of a dangerous threat has pushed the resistance for a historic, decisive, and new stance,” Sayyed Nasrallah explained.
On this level, he went on to say, “The historic development in ‘Al-Quds Sword operation’ was that Gaza entered the battle to protect Al-Quds and its people, not to protect Gaza.”
“Gaza’s move was a historic and qualitative one in the history of the struggle with the enemy, and it should be highly appreciate,” His Eminence added, noting that “The people and the resistance of Gaza were ready to defend and make sacrifices to protect Al-Quds and Al-Aqsa Mosque.”
His Eminence also mentioned that “The reason behind the recent battle was the foolishness of the ‘Israel’s’ leadership, its arrogance, underestimating the resistance, and miscalculations.”
“‘Al-Quds Sword operation’ reflected something the Zionists should understand. It is to revise their estimations and calculations,” he confirmed, denouncing the fact that “In light of all what was happening in Palestine, some Arab countries chose the track of normalization to polish the image of the ‘Israeli’ entity.”
To the “Israelis” and their leadership, the Resistance Leader sent a sounding message: “You should learn that attacking Al-Quds and Al-Aqsa Mosque is different from any other aggression you carry out.”
In this context, Sayyed Nasrallah said: “When the matter is related to Al-Quds and its Muslim and Christian holy sites, it will not remain limited to the resistance in Palestine.”
“Gaza has established a new equation ‘Al-Aqsa Mosque and Al-Quds vs. an armed resistance’,” His Eminence revealed, adding that “When the ‘Israeli’ entity recognizes that it is in front of the equation that says ‘Al-Quds vs. a regional war’, then it will know that any step it will take will result in its elimination.”
In addition, he underscored that “The ‘Sword of Al-Quds’ operation dealt a blow to the course of normalization and all those who have normalized the ties, and after this battle, the ‘Deal of the Century’ fell and vanished.
“‘Al-Quds Sword’ reconsidered the Palestinian Cause in the world and imposed it on media outlets,” Hezbollah Secretary General emphasized, noting that “One of the ‘Al-Quds Sword Operation’ results is reviving the culture and spirit of resistance as the sole way to return the occupied land.”
On this aspect, he stressed that “Al-Quds Sword Operation dealt a heavy blow to the track of normalization, the normalizing countries and their media outlet,” adding that “Among the most important results of ‘Al-Quds Sword Operation’ is that it redirected the compass in the region against the real enemy.”
Moreover, Sayyed Nasrallah clarified that another result of ‘Al-Quds Sword Operation” is that exposed the true and ugly face of “Israel”, especially as an apartheid regime.”
“One result of ‘Al-Quds Sword Operation’ was that Gaza Strip has entered the entire Palestinian equation, which is a major development in the battle,” he stated, pointing out that “When the ‘Israeli’ feels insecure in all of Palestine, the least he can do is leave.”
On the military level, His Eminence highlighted that “‘Al-Quds Sword Operation’ revealed the resistance’s different missile capabilities in terms of quality, quantity and range.”
“One of the most important achievements of ‘Al-Quds Sword Op’ was the movement of Palestinians inside 1948 lands, which terrified the ‘Israeli’,” he said, listing another result of Gaza victory: Another failure is that ‘Israel’ has scored at its intelligence level particularly in preventing the rockets and unveiling its launching sites. Among the results is the “Israeli” failure in getting through the real inventory of missiles that have not been launched yet.”
Shedding light on another “Israeli” failure, Sayyed Nasrallah underlined that “The most important manifestation of ‘Israeli’ defeat in the battle is the failure to wage a ground invasion.”
“When the ‘so-called strongest army’ in the region refrains from engaging in a ground operation, this is a strategic failure,” His Eminence emphasized.
Moving to the Lebanese front, Sayyed Nasrallah repeated that “The resistance in Lebanon is at its best situation. Never a day has passed that the resistance was as strong as it is now in quantity, quality, type and readiness.”
To the “Israelis”, the Resistance leader sent a clear message: “Do not to commit any foolishness and don’t make any wrong calculations regarding Lebanon… The rules of engagement still stand. Do not miscalculate and do not bet on the difficult situations in Lebanon, because this will not matter when the equation is preserving Lebanon’s security and dignity.”
Meanwhile, he announced that Hezbollah has added to its “account with the ‘Israeli’ enemy the blood of martyr Mohammad Tahhan on the way towards Al-Quds.”
Commenting on the internal Lebanese crisis, Sayyed Nasrallah urged PM-designate Saad Hariri to form a government in agreement with President Michel Aoun: “Let the PM-designate hold several meetings with the President until a result is reached. This is the only realistic solution.”
“The governmental crisis is a domestic one,” he said, noting that “There is one of two paths to form the government. Either Aoun and Hariri reach an agreement or House Speaker Berri helps them to do that.”
His Eminence also declared that “Hezbollah is ready to help Speaker Nabih Berri in his efforts.”
Back to the Resistance, its leader assured that “The steadfastness of the resistance axis in different countries was the main supporter of the resistance in Palestine as it was the protector of the victory.”
“Everything happening shows that Al-Quds is closer,” he unveiled, praising the fact that “Yemen’s interaction despite the blockade imposed on it at all levels constitutes a great force for the axis of resistance.”
Sayyed Nasrallah addressed the Yemeni Ansarullah leader Sayyed Abdul Malik Al-Houthi in reference to his remarks in support of the Palestinian people: You are a besieged nation, do you have bread to share it with the Palestinian people?”
يثير عدد من المهتمين بمستقبل القضية الفلسطينية قلقهم من محاولات الالتفاف التي سيتعرّض لها النضال الفلسطيني في الفترة المقبلة، سواء من باب الرهانات على احتواء حركة حماس عبر إغراءات السلطة والإعمار في غزة أو عبر الثنائي التركيّ القطريّ، أو من خلال السعي لتفعيل الدور المصري والسعودي على خط السلطة الفلسطينية وتنشيط التنسيق الأمني مقابل تفعيل مسار التفاوض، فيما يثير آخرون مخاوف من نوع آخر تتصل بالكيفية التي ستتمكّن عبرها قوى المقاومة من فرض احترام معادلتها «إن عدتم عدنا» لتثبيت حرمة المسجد الأقصى وحماية سكان الشيخ جراح، لكن جوهر هذه الأسئلة سوف ينحصر بنقطة مفصليّة، هي ما إذا كان الكيان سينجح بفعل الضغوط والإغراءات معاً بتخطي التطرف المتوحش لمستوطنيه والتقدم نحو السياسة. وفي هذه الحالة ستسجل المقاومة نصرها بفرض المعادلة التي بدأت حربها على أساسها، ويبدو عندها أن كل شيء سيلي هو مدين لما أظهرته المقاومة من قوة ويزيد المقاومة توهجاً واستعداداً لفرض المزيد بالمزيد من القوة، لتصير الإشكالية المترتبة أشد حضوراً ما سيلقاه خيار التفاوض من جرعة إنعاش بعدما كان يلفظ أنفاسه، فتصير المقاومة أمام تحدّ من نوع جديد، يتمثل بكيفية إدارة تعاملها مع الملف السياسي، وتحت أي شعار، حل الدولتين، أم التحرير الشامل، أم ماذا؟
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أظهرت جولة الحرب النوعيّة، إضافة لما أظهرته من عناصر قوة للمقاومة وعناصر ضعف للكيان، حجم المفاجأة بنوعية الحراك وحجمه الذي تفجّر في الضفة والأراضي المحتلة عام 48، ومعهما النهضة العربية والدولية الواسعة حول فلسطين. وجديد هذا النهوض داخل فلسطين ومن حولها عربياً وعالمياً، دخول جيل الشباب الميدان بقوة، وهو جيل الألفية الجديدة الذي شارك بالملايين عبر العالم وبعشرات الآلاف داخل فلسطين، ومن دون مقدّمات تشير الى حجم التحول الجاري في وسط هذا الجيل، وتكشف هذه الظاهرة حجم تأثير وسائل التواصل الاجتماعي وحسن استثمارها من جهة، والعناصر المحرّكة لهذا الجيل وعوامل انخراطه في الشأن العام، بحيث يتوقف على فهم هذه المحركات قدرة المقاومة على الاحتفاظ بحضور هذا النهوض شريكاً في المعارك المقبلة، كضمانة للفوز بها مثلما كانت هذه الشراكة إحدى ركائز الفوز بهذه الجولة، وهنا لا بد من الانتباه إلى ميزة رئيسية تميز هذا الجيل، في فلسطين وخارجها، وهي ميزة الابتعاد عن السياسة بشكلها التقليدي ودخولها إليها بكل قوة ضمن شرط يرتبط بتجسّدها كقضية دفاع عن الإنسان والحقوق الطبيعية للإنسان، والأمر مشروط هنا بصدقية ووضوح الحق، وإمكانية الفرز الواضح على أساس أبيض وأسود، من دون تفرّعات وتعقيدات والتباسات.
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من هذين البعدين، بُعد الملف السياسي الذي بدأت بوادر تحريكه تحت عنوان حلّ الدولتين، وبعد الحركة الشبابية المرتبطة بعنوان الحق الإنساني البائن، تنطرح أولاً خطورة التضحية مرة أخرى فلسطينيي الأراضي المحتلة عام 48، الذين لا مكان لهم في صيغة حلّ الدولتين وقد كانوا القوة الرئيسية التي نهضت على أكتافها مهمة حماية القدس والمسجد الأقصى ومشهد الانتفاضة التي أربكت الاحتلال في عمق الكيان ربما أكثر من الصواريخ، بما شهدته حيفا وعكا واللد وسواها، ومن خلالها تنطرح خطورة الانزلاق الى محاولة مزاوجة ملفّقة بين حل الدولتين ومستقبل فلسطينيي الأراضي المحتلة عام 48، بالحديث عن الحقوق المدنيّة في ظل الاحتلال، تحت شعار يبدو جاذباً اسمه إنهاء التمييز العنصري وإلغاء دولة الأبارتيد، وهو يُخفي إنهاء قضية الهوية التي تمثل جوهر الصراع في أي مقاربة لفلسطينيي الـ 48، والتي يشكل عنوانها الاحتلال الاستيطاني، الذي تمثل العنصرية أحد وجوهه ليس إلا، وهنا تنطرح قضية طلب الحماية الدولية، التي سيقاتل الكيان يكل قواه لمنعها من التداول، والتي يصعب أن تبصر النور، لكنها تبدو في الظاهر سقفاً دون الدعوة لحل الدولتين، لكنها في العمق مشروع لتفكيك الكيان، وحشد للشارع الدولي تحت شعار قابل للتسويق في ظل حجم الإجرام والعنصرية والتوحّش وما ظهر منها خلال الأيام العشرة للحرب، وبالتوازي معها قضية حق العودة للفلسطينيين الى بلدهم، كحق إنساني طبيعي، واعتبار البحث بأي حل سياسي للقضية الفلسطينية يجب ان يكون لاحقاً لتلبية هذين الحقين، الحق بالحماية الدولية والحق بالعودة الى الديار، يتلوهما البحث بحق تقرير المصير، قبل أي حديث عن حق إقامة الدولة والحديث عن طبيعتها وحدودها.
– A number of those interested in the future of the Palestinian issue are concerned about the attempts to circumvent the Palestinian struggle in the coming times, whether in the interest of the bets on containing Hamas with temptation of authority and reconstruction of Gaza, the Turkish-Qatari bilateral endeavor, or by seeking to activate the Egyptian and Saudi role in the Palestinian Authority line thus initiating security coordination in exchange of activating the negotiation process. There are some others who raise concerns of another kind related to how the resistance forces will be able to impose respect for the equation “If you come back we will” to establish the sanctity of the Al-Aqsa Mosque and protect the residents of Sheikh Jarrah. But the essence of these questions will be limited and dependent on whether the Zionist entity will succeed by pressure and temptation tactics or by overcoming the brutal extremism of its settlers and advancing towards a political solution. If that is the case, the resistance will record its victory by imposing the equation on which it began its war. And then it seems what will follow shall be indebted to the strength shown by the resistance and only increase its glow and willingness to exert more force, so that the problem becomes more powerful in its presence than the option of negotiating a dose of resuscitation after it has breathed its last. The resistance is facing a challenge of a new kind. Namely how to manage its dealings in the context of politics, and under what slogan. A two-state solution, comprehensive liberation, or what?
– The qualitative round of war shed light on the force of resistance and the weakness of the entity, while the magnitude of surprise regarding the quality and the size of the movement that exploded in the West Bank and the occupied territories, together highlighted the renaissance of Palestine among the Arab and international audiences. This new advancement within and around Palestine, the revival of the Palestine issue on the Arab and international radars, and the strong entry of the millennial generation into the picture supporting the cause in their millions around the world and in tens of thousands inside Palestine. All of this is reflective of the magnitude of the transformation taking place as a new generation carries forward the legacy.
This phenomenon reveals the magnitude of the influence of social media as a good investment. On one hand as the driving force for this generation, and on the other as a tool of its engagement in public affairs. It must be understood the resistance would want to retain the impact of this advancement as a partner in upcoming battles, as a guarantee to victory, because this very partnership was one of the pillars of the first round win. Here it is necessary to pay attention to a major advantage that distinguishes this generation, in Palestine and abroad. The advantage of moving away from politics in its traditional form yet entering it with full force and manifesting the issue as that of human life and fundamental human rights, which must be addressed with sincerity, perceived with the clarity of truth, screened categorically on a black and white basis, without branching, complexities or ambiguities.
– These two dimensions, one political and moved under the slogan of a two-state solution, the other a youth movement associated with the cause of human rights, point to the danger posed by the rising willingness among Palestinians of the occupied territories to sacrifice once again, for they see no place in a two state solution. The Palestinian youth was the main force on whose shoulders the task of protecting Jerusalem and the Al-Aqsa Mosque rested, and they were the ones to face the brunt of the intifada, but they managed to deeply confuse the occupying entity, perhaps even more than the rockets, as witnessed in Haifa, Acre, Lod and other cities. The danger of slipping into a fabricated marriage attempt between the two-state solution and the future of the Palestinians in the occupied territories, under the pretext of civil rights and the slogan of “End racial discrimination and the abolition of the Apartheid State”, hides the bottom line issue of identity which is at the heart of the conflict.
Any approach to the Palestinians, under the settlement occupation with racism at its core, presents only one of aspects of the picture. There is also the issue of the request for international protection, which will fight the Zionist entity by preventing it from trading. It may not look like this would see the light of the day, but it does appear like a roof for those without a roof.
The call for a two-state solution, could be in essence a project to dismantle the entity, by mobilizing the global street power under a marketable slogan that speaks of the scale of criminality, racism and brutality, tells about what transpired during the 10 days of the war, and voices the issue of the Palestinian’s right of return to their land as a fundamental human right.
The consideration and search for any political solution to the Palestinian issue must agree to these two rights before any talk of the right to establish the State and about its nature and borders: the right to international protection and the right to return home, followed by the right to self-determination.
This political violence cannot last forever, and resistance to supporting Zionism is also growing in the West. Peace and justice are the only acceptable solutions for Palestine, and this must mean the end of the Zionist regime.
It’s not a coincidence that the great Imam Khomeini (blessed be His name) referenced Al-Quds Day in the last Friday of Ramadan. We are used to seeing the Palestinian cause in terms of mourning. So much Palestinian blood was shed by the Zionist occupiers, so much damage was done on Palestinian land, so devastating was Zionist occupation in the Palestinian capital, Al-Quds. These Zionist crimes must of course never be forgotten, the same as we will always remember the Nakba and never accept the existence of the Zionist occupation entity. The mood of Ramadan, its sacred atmosphere, perfectly fosters this absolutely necessary historical reflection.
But we must also think about the Al-Quds Day in terms of hope. Above all hope and future happiness! The great Imam Khomeini with His unparalleled acumen surely saw this as the inevitable event of the future: the return of the liberated Al-Quds to its role as the Palestinian capital, the city of the faithful. To a role that Jerusalem has never lost in our souls. This is what makes each Al-Quds Day event so profound and important, combining the memory of the tragic past, the awareness of the crimes still happening before our eyes, with the certainty of the irreversible victory that will be enjoyed by Palestine and all its friends.
Cut Off The Cancer
Of course, for now we are all in situation of a body attacked by a cancer.A cancer cell is a killer that pretends to belong to the body it kills. This is what the Zionist occupation regime is doing. It has no rights or any grounds for the occupation of Palestine other than its own crimes and the support of the American and British centres serving the Zionists. For centuries, the Jewish population in the Middle East lived in harmony and peace with their Arab neighbours, and thanks to the rule of Islam, they could develop freely, unlike in full-blooded and intolerant Western Europe. And it was from Europe that the invasion of foreigners, attackers of unknown origin, who declared themselves rulers of this land and the World as a whole fell on Palestine! On the basis of a sick, criminal Zionist ideology and invented genealogy children of Eastern European stallholders and Western European doctrinaires, they all turned out to be terrorists attacking a peaceful, friendly Palestine. They came out of the sea like the Jinns, and like the Jinns, they should be thrown back into the sea.
Over the years the Zionists enslaved not only all of Palestine, but also tried to impose their tyranny on their neighbours, especially Lebanon. With the help of their American servants, the Zionists also tried to create “Greater Israel” in Syria and Iraq, and in cooperation with the Saudi traitors of Islam, they tried to impose their power on the entire Middle East. This sect is no different in Europe, where, using especially the myth of the “Holocaust“, it imprints on European nations its ideological and financial dictatorship. Indeed, Zionism is a cancer, not only for Palestine and the Middle East, but for the whole World. And for the sake of all mankind, it must be cut down!
Path Of The Martyrs
The Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the great Ayatollah Ali Hosseini Khamenei, was the only one to present a viable and rational program for settling the Palestinian question via voting by all the true inhabitants of this land and their descendants. No other government, no state, including the European one, has devoted itself to such a profound and sensitive focus on the tragedy of Palestine. And this despite the fact that the crimes of the Zionists are not a secret in Europe. On the contrary, in many European countries, for example in Scotland, where I live, the social support movements for the victims of Zionist terror are more than strong. Governments, however, prefer to turn a blind eye, frightened by the myth of the “Holocaust” as well as under the pressure of the American Zionist chain dog, which, especially under Donald Trump, brutally forced the unconditionally pro-Zionist political line on its dependent states. And as we can see now, there is no big difference as far as Joe Biden’s administration concerned.
However, this political violence cannot last forever, and resistance to supporting Zionism is also growing in the West. Peace and justice are the only acceptable solutions for Palestine, and this must mean the end of the Zionist regime. Eventually, it will be forced to bow to the increased pressure of heroic Palestinian resistance, economic boycott from the rest of the World, and above all the unshakable will of Islam, led by the Islamic Republic of Iran and its Supreme Leader.
The road to a free Palestine is marked by the graves of the martyrs, and we all know that General Soleimani is one of the greatest of them. No one has ever caused so many losses to Zionism in his whole life, while saving so many believers and, in fact, helping the whole World. It is no coincidence that the Great General was targeted by the Zionist criminals and the American murderers acting on their behalf. However, the blood of the martyrs is the seed of faith. Faith in the final victory, in pushing the Zionists into the sea, in a free Palestine and in the Middle East without the imperialist troops and their Saudi henchmen.
At the same time, however, we must also remember that Zionism is not defenceless. On the contrary, the Zionist regime is held hostage by millions of Palestinians, the entire Middle East is hostage as it is threatened by Zionist nuclear weapons. It is of course possible to destroy the Zionist occupation by military means, but the cost would be enormous. Therefore, Zionism is actively fought wherever it is manifestly aggressive, just as General Soleimani did. However, we must overcome the Zionist occupation from within, by strengthening Palestinian potential and by intensifying the external blockade. Zionists are greedy people, thinking only about profits. Let’s deprive these bandits and thieves of the profits from the exploitation of Palestine and they will run away, rob Mars, work up a trillion-dollar debt to Jupiter or whatever the Zionists come up with. And this victory is inevitable, thanks to the example of General Soleimani and everyday heroes.
We Are Not With Palestine… Enough
In whole Europe we can see now thousands of people attending meetings of solidarity with Palestine. It is an important and touching experience. I have helped to organise some of them, but every time I have one, I share a strong message with the attendance:
We should not say and write “We are with Palestine” because we are… not there.
We were not banished from our homes during Nakba. We did not live in Sabra and Shatila. We were not kids shot at during the Intifada. Water was not shut off from our houses in the Autonomy. No one shot us when we were sailing towards the ships in Gaza. We are not where the Zionists are murdering Palestine.
And let’s not lie to ourselves that we can really do something for Palestine, that we change something by putting away on the shelf of a supermarket oranges fertilized with the blood of children from the West Bank. Because there will always be some other news of the day eventually. Because someday we have a whim to go on a trip to Eilat. Because the governments we vote for will talk us down again into making another deal with the Zionists.
Let’s not say we are with Palestine until we are truly consistent. As long as the chain of economic and political blockade around “Israel” is tighter than the barbed wire strangling the Autonomy. Until real sanctions against the Zionists hit Tel Aviv more accurately than their missiles hit Gaza.
The World conducts so many wars on our behalf, but against ourselves. This one, the one for the liberation of Palestine, let’s help lead it in our own well-understood interest. Not only for a moment, when we are once again saddened by another murdered Palestinian children, but for the final victory.
Published date: 22 May 2021 16:07 UTC | Last update: 7 hours 49 mins ago
Holding Palestinian flags and placards in the pouring rain, tens of thousands of people on Saturday descended on the streets of central London to protest against Israeli attacks in Gaza and the rest of historic Palestine.
Gathering on London’s Embankment, protesters marched past the Parliament buildings and through Oxford Street as they chanted “Free Palestine” and demanded an end to Israel’s occupation. Israel-Palestine: The girl who showed the world the suffering of Gaza’s children
Some protesters lit flares showing the colours of the Palestinian flag as they gathered in the capital’s iconic Trafalgar Square, chanting “Palestine will be free”.
Organisers, including the Palestine Solidarity Campaign and Friends of Al-Aqsa, estimated that at least 180,000 people attended the London demonstration, making it the largest pro-Palestine protest in British history.
Protests also took place in other UK cities, including Birmingham and Liverpool, as calls mounted for Britain to impose sanctions on Israel for its actions.
Ceasefire holds
The protests came after Hamas and Israel agreed to a ceasefire on a Friday that saw an end to Israel’s daily bombardment of Gaza that killed at least 248 Palestinians, including 66 children, since the 10 May.
Despite the ceasefire, Israeli forces stormed the al-Aqsa Mosque on Friday after prayers ended in the afternoon, when hundreds of Palestinians had gathered to celebrate the ceasefire. Israel-Palestine: Ceasefire holding as aid arrives in bomb-shattered Gaza
Israeli forces continue to bar Palestinian protesters from entering the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood of Jerusalem, where residents face possible expulsion from their homes.
However, pro-Israeli protesters continue to be let into the Sheikh Jarrah area, according to human rights observers.
The ceasefire between Israel and Hamas held in Gaza on Saturday as humanitarian aid began to enter the besieged enclave and as thousands of displaced Palestinians returned to their homes.
Convoys of lorries carrying aid began passing into Gaza through the Karem Abu Salem crossing after it was reopened by Israel, bringing much-needed medicine, food and fuel.
The UN’s Central Emergency Response Fund said it had released $18.5m for humanitarian efforts.
From the outset, some clarification regarding the language used to depict the ongoing violence in occupied Palestine, and also throughout Israel. This is not a ‘conflict’. Neither is it a ‘dispute’ nor ‘sectarian violence’ nor even a war in the traditional sense.
It is not a conflict, because Israel is an occupying power and the Palestinian people are an occupied nation. It is not a dispute, because freedom, justice and human rights cannot be treated as if a mere political disagreement. The Palestinian people’s inalienable rights are enshrined in international and humanitarian law and the illegality of Israeli violations of human rights in Palestine is recognized by the United Nations itself.
If it is a war, then it is a unilateral Israeli war, which is met with humble, but real and determined Palestinian resistance.
Actually, it is a Palestinian uprising, an Intifada unprecedented in the history of the Palestinian struggle, both in its nature and outreach.
For the first time in many years, we see the Palestinian people united, from Jerusalem Al Quds, to Gaza, to the West Bank and, even more critically, to the Palestinian communities, towns and villages inside historic Palestine – today’s Israel.
This unity matters the most, is far more consequential than some agreement between Palestinian factions. It eclipses Fatah and Hamas and all the rest, because without a united people there can be no meaningful resistance, no vision for liberation, no struggle for justice to be won.
Right-wing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could never have anticipated that a routine act of ethnic cleansing in East Jerusalem’s neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah could lead to a Palestinian uprising, uniting all sectors of Palestinian society in an unprecedented show of unity.
The Palestinian people have decided to move past all the political divisions and the factional squabbles. Instead, they are coining new terminologies, centered on resistance, liberation and international solidarity. Consequently, they are challenging factionalism, along with any attempt at making Israeli occupation and apartheid normal. Equally important, a strong Palestinian voice is now piercing through the international silence, compelling the world to hear a single chant for freedom.
The leaders of this new movement are Palestinian youth who have been denied participation in any form of democratic representation, who are constantly marginalized and oppressed by their own leadership and by the relentless Israeli military occupation. They were born into a world of exile, destitution and apartheid, led to believe that they are inferior, of a lesser race. Their right to self-determination and every other right were postponed indefinitely. They grew up helplessly watching their homes being demolished, their land being robbed and their parents being humiliated.
Finally, they are rising.
Without prior coordination and with no political manifesto, this new Palestinian generation is now making its voice heard, sending an unmistakable, resounding message to Israel and its right-wing chauvinistic society, that the Palestinian people are not passive victims; that the ethnic cleansing of Sheikh Jarrah and the rest of occupied East Jerusalem, the protracted siege on Gaza, the ongoing military occupation, the construction of illegal Jewish settlements, the racism and the apartheid will no longer go unnoticed; though tired, poor, dispossessed, besieged and abandoned, Palestinians will continue to safeguard their own rights, their sacred places and the very sanctity of their own people.
Yes, the ongoing violence was instigated by Israeli provocations in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in East Jerusalem. However, the story was never about the ethnic cleansing of Sheikh Jarrah alone. The beleaguered neighborhood is but a microcosm of the larger Palestinian struggle.
Netanyahu may have hoped to use Sheikh Jarrah as a way of mobilizing his right-wing constituency around him, intending to form an emergency government or increasing his chances of winning yet a fifth election. His rash behavior, initially compelled by entirely selfish reasons, has ignited a popular rebellion among Palestinians, exposing Israel for the violent, racist and apartheid state that it is and always has been.
Palestinian unity and popular resistance have proven successful in other ways, too. Never before have we seen this groundswell of support for Palestinian freedom, not only from millions of ordinary individuals across the globe, but also from celebrities – movie stars, footballers, mainstream intellectuals and political activists, even models and social media influencers. The hashtags #SaveSheikhJarrah and #FreePalestine, among numerous others, are now interlinked and have been trending on all social media platforms for weeks. Israel’s constant attempts at presenting itself as a perpetual victim of some imaginary horde of Arabs and Muslims are no longer paying dividends. The world can finally see, read and hear of Palestine’s tragic reality and the need to bring this tragedy to an immediate end.
None of this would be possible were it not for the fact that all Palestinians have legitimate reasons and are speaking in unison. In their spontaneous reaction and genuine, communal solidarity, all Palestinians are united, from Sheikh Jarrah, to all of Jerusalem, to Gaza, Nablus, Ramallah, Al-Bireh and even Palestinian towns inside Israel – Al-Lud, Umm Al-Fahm, Kufr Qana and elsewhere. In Palestine’s new popular revolution, factions, geography and any political division are irrelevant. Religion is not a source of divisiveness but of spiritual and national unity.
The ongoing Israeli atrocities in Gaza are continuing, with a mounting death toll. This devastation will continue for as long as the world treats the devastating siege of the impoverished, tiny Strip as if irrelevant. People in Gaza were dying long before the Israeli airstrikes began blowing up their homes and neighborhoods. They were dying from the ack of medicine, polluted water, the lack of electricity and the dilapidated infrastructure.
We must save Sheikh Jarrah, but we must also save Gaza; we must demand an end to the Israeli military occupation of Palestine and, with it, the system of racial discrimination and apartheid. International human rights groups are now precise and decisive in their depiction of this racist regime, with Human Rights Watch – and Israel’s own rights group, B’tselem, joining the call for the dismantlement of apartheid in all of Palestine.
Speak up. Speak out. The Palestinians have risen. It is time to rally behind them.
– Ramzy Baroud is a journalist and the Editor of The Palestine Chronicle. He is the author of five books. His latest is “These Chains Will Be Broken: Palestinian Stories of Struggle and Defiance in Israeli Prisons” (Clarity Press). Dr. Baroud is a Non-resident Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Islam and Global Affairs (CIGA) and also at the Afro-Middle East Center (AMEC). His website is www.ramzybaroud.net
UPROOTED PALESTINIANS: SALAM ALQUDS ALAYKUM 