The Ethnic Cleansing of East Jerusalem

Over the past couple of weeks, we have made a number of visits to a house in East Jerusalem in which a family is living under the threat of eviction by the Israeli authorities. The Al Kurd family have lived in their house in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood (pictured right) since 1956, but on 16th July 2008 the Israeli Supreme Court issued an order to evict them. This order gives the go ahead for another 27 families living in the neighbourhood to be issued with similar eviction orders.

The Al Kurd’s house is part of a housing project which was built by the Jordanian government with the United Nations Refugee and Works Association (UNRWA), to house 28 Palestinians refugee families who fled their homes after the creation of the Israeli state in 1948 (East Jerusalem and the West Bank fell under the jurisdiction of Jordan following the 1948 Arab/Israeli war). It was agreed that after 3 years living in the houses, the refugees would forgo the food assistance they received from UNRWA in return for the ownership of the homes.

In 1967 Israel invaded and occupied East Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Shortly after the occupation began, 2 groups of Jewish settlers forged documents claiming that the land on which the houses in Sheikh Jarrah were built, belonged to them. With these documents they managed to register the land in their own names with the Israeli Land Registrar.

After continuous calls for the families to be evicted, the 2 settler groups eventually filed law suits against the families in 1982, claiming that they owned the property rights to the houses. The families appointed a lawyer to defend them. Without asking the families, the lawyer reached an agreement with the settlers, in which he recognised their ownership of the land in return for granting the families protection from eviction under Israeli law. As part of the agreement, the families would have to pay rent to the settler associations. Outraged, the families did not accept the agreement and refused to pay rent. They were subsequently issued with eviction orders by the Israeli courts.

For over 20 years, legal proceedings continued. After yet more investigations, the Land Registrar finally accepted that the settlers had registered the land using false documents and their registration was revoked. However, the Registrar refused to confirm that the Palestinian families were entitled to the ownership of the land.

In 2001, the Al Kurd family (pictured) left their home for 1 month to go to Jordan, where the father of the family was to receive medical treatment (he is partially paralysed and suffers from diabetes and heart problems). When they returned, they found that a group of settlers had broken into part of their home and were occupying it. In 2007 the Israeli Supreme Court recognised that the settlers had broken into the home and issued an eviction order but this has never been carried out. (In the picture the door to the right is where the Al Kurd family live while the door to the left is the section of the house that the settlers occupy)

In February 2008, a settler investment company, which the 2 settler groups claimed to have sold the land to, submitted a project to the Israeli municipality of Jerusalem in which they propose to demolish the 28 homes and build 200 settlement units to house new Jewish immigrants.

On 16th July 2008 the Israeli High Court, which did not accept the Land Registrar’s decision to revoke ownership of the land from the settlers and agreed that the settler investment group now owned the land, ordered the eviction of the Al Kurd family who had brought the case against the settlers who were occupying part of their home. Their eviction paves the way for the eviction of the rest families in the neighbourhood.

To reach the Al Kurd family home you have to pass down a few steps from the main road and weave through a small alleyway with houses on the left side and a very small children’s playground on the right. The first house you pass is adorned with Israeli flags – settlers have occupied it. Although all the houses in the neighbourhood were built for Palestinians, a number of them are now occupied by settlers. A temporary wooden hut sits on top of the house and in it, sits an armed security guard. There are no flags on the next house you come to – Palestinians still live in it. The next house is again adorned with Israeli flags – settlers have taken it over.

Then you come to the Al Kurd house. As you walk through a small gate, there is a large patio which is now filled with Palestinians, Israelis and international solidarity activists who sit night and day with the Al Kurd family, waiting for the police and the army to arrive to carry out the eviction order. An impromptu display of posters and banners has been arranged on the walls of the house. However there is one wall of the house that is devoid of any posters, that is because inside this section of the house, live a family of settlers.

The settlers who occupy this part of the house now, are not the same settlers who took over this part of the house in 2001. At the moment they are a young couple with 2 small children who have lived there for a matter of weeks. They belong to an organisation that basically sends people on ‘placements’ to various buildings that settlers have occupied around East Jerusalem and the West Bank. Every 2 or 3 weeks the ‘placements’ end and a new family arrives.

So while one family is defending the home that they have lived in for 42 years, the home in which their 5 children have been born and brought up, the other family is defending a building they have been moved into for the purpose of illegal occupation, they have no attachment to the building or the local community and in fact they will voluntarily leave when they are relieved of their post by the next illegal occupiers.

As we sat with the family, we heard that the settlers continually harass them. Over the years they have played loud music to keep the family awake at night, armed settler security guards have forced their way into the part of the house the family lives in and threatened them, they have brought large groups of settler children to play on the patio, put up posters of Palestinians and encouraged the children to shoot at them with toy guns. Since the court decision in July, an older male settler has come to the house at least once a day, shouting that the family should hurry up and get out of there because he is waiting to move in. One settler occupying a Palestinian home nearby was quoted as saying ‘It’s written in the Bible that we have a right to everywhere in this land, and here we are only minutes from the Western Wall and the Temple Mount.’

There is a feeling here amongst many observers that Israel is trying to ethnically cleanse East Jerusalem. The status of Jerusalem is one of the most contentious issues in negotiations between Palestinians and Israelis. Both see it as the most important site in the whole of Palestine for historical and religious reasons. The UN partition plan of 1947 stated that the city would be divided so that the Arabs had East Jerusalem and the Jews had West Jerusalem. Since the Israeli occupation of East Jerusalem began in 1967, 250,000 illegal Israeli settlers have moved into East Jerusalem. Of the 250,000 Palestinians living in East Jerusalem, 120,000 of them have been isolated from the city by the Apartheid Wall which has been built around their homes.

If the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood is taken over by settlers, it will mean that the largest settlement in the West Bank, Ma'aleh Adumin, and a number of other illegal settlements in East Jerusalem will be connected to the centre of Jerusalem and the Old City, where the most sacred sites for Jews and Muslims are situated. Although not a huge neighbourhood, the removal of Palestinians to make way for Israelis would be a significant step in ensuring that there was no longer an east or west Jerusalem, but one unified city – a perfect capital for the Israeli state.

As well as moving settlers in, the Israelis have done their best to move Palestinians out of East Jerusalem. They have made it virtually impossible for Palestinians to get permits to build homes, meaning that 3 out of every 4 built, are illegal and face demolition. Since 1967, 8000 buildings have been demolished, many of these are buildings with several storeys, housing many families.

Last week the Israelis demolished a 5 story building in the Beit Hanina neighbourhood of East Jerusalem. They claimed that the 5th floor of the building had been built without a permit. The owner offered to demolish the 5th floor himself, but the Israelis refused and instead demolished the whole building. They arrived in the middle of the night, told the families to get out and then blew it up the next day. The Palestinians had no time to remove their belongings, although the Israelis kindly allowed them to return to the rubble to dig out what they could and collect the bill for the cost of the demolition – 300,000 shekels (£43,500).

The cruelty did not stop there. A single mother, who just a couple of months ago had bought an apartment in the building, did not even have time to collect her purse before the building was destroyed. A few days later she discovered that her credit card had been used at a restaurant and to withdraw cash. The only people who had access to the building once she left and before it was destroyed, were soldiers. This means that having destroyed her home, they were cruel enough to steal the little she had left.

According to Jeff Halper who heads the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, ‘Illegal building is simply a pretext for destroying Palestinian families' homes and lives…The demolitions are part of a policy to stop the natural expansion of Palestinian communities in and around Jerusalem, freeing up the maximum amount of land for use by Israeli settlers…The demolitions increase the pressure on Palestinians to move into the West Bank, so that they will lose their residency rights in the city.’

Wherever you travel in the West Bank (and I presume Gaza) the picture of Jerusalem is always held up as a symbol of the Palestinian desire for freedom and independence. Not only is the city home to the third holiest site in Islam but it is of great historical importance to the Palestinian people and they have always regarded East Jerusalem as the eventual capital of an independent Palestinian state. With every demolition and eviction in East Jerusalem, and with every new Israeli settler that moves in, Israel is again changing the facts on the ground so that when negotiations on the status of Jerusalem reach a climax, they can point to the demographics and say that the whole of Jerusalem must belong to Israel.

On 9th November 2008 the Israeli army evicted the Al Kurd family in the middle of the night. The father of the family suffered a heart attack during the eviction and died two weeks later. His wife is currently living in a tent which the army, under the orders of the acting prime minister of Israel, Tzipi Livni, has destroyed several times.

A letter to Ahmed's father

Bassam Aramin's 10 year old daughter was killed after being shot in the head by an Israeli border policeman outside her school in 2007. This week he wrote a letter to the father of 10 year old Ahmed who was killed on Tuesday in Ni'lin. Here is a link to the letter:

http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=31031

Doctors pronounce 17 year old boy clinically dead after being shot by soldiers in Ni'lin

Late last night after getting home from Ahmed’s funeral, we began to hear reports that another boy had been shot by Israeli soldiers in Ni’lin. This morning, doctors have confirmed that 17 year old Yousef Ahmad Younis Amera, who was shot in the head with 2 rubber coated steel bullets from close range, is now clinically dead. They expect him to survive for just a few more hours.

With tensions running high after Ahmed’s funeral yesterday, Israeli soldiers had remained at the entrance to the village. Two hundred boys and young men had gathered on the main street and built barricades to stop the soldiers entering the village. When an Israeli excavator tried to clear the barricades it was met by a hail of stones. In response, 50 Israeli soldiers stormed the village, firing tear gas, sound bombs and rubber bullets at the boys and men who had gathered (when I use the term rubber bullets I should make it clear that they are not just a ball of rubber but a ball of steel coated in a thin layer of rubber).

After the death of Ahmed you would think that the soldiers would refrain from using their weapons or if they really couldn’t help themselves they would at least ensure that their actions did not result in death. By the rules of their own army, Israeli soldiers and border police are only supposed to fire ammunition below the waste. The policeman that stood ten metres away from Ahmed had made the decision to fire at his head. You would think the death of a 10 year old child would be so repulsive that the soldiers would not even contemplate firing above people’s feet yesterday.

But no, in total 3 people were shot in the head last night with rubber coated steel bullets. Yousef was shot twice from close range and in a few hours it seems that he will be dead, like Ahmed, another victim of this brutal occupation.

There was no reason for the Israeli army to be in Ni’lin yesterday. The soldiers knew there would be a reaction to their presence. What group of young men anywhere in the world would not react to soldiers stalking through their village after killing a child? Why could they not just stay away and let the villagers mourn in peace? They knew their would be a confrontation and not one soldier who discharged his weapon yesterday can say he wasn’t aware of the consequences.

So in two days, two boys have lost their lives, shot in the head by highly trained military personnel. These were no accidents, this is Israeli policy. This state cannot continue to mask its activities under the cloak of security. These boys did not pose a threat to the state of Israel, they simply asked not to be imprisoned behind a huge concrete wall, where they and their families would have no hope of a future. Taking land from the people you are occupying and transferring your own population to that land is called ethnic cleansing, it is certainly not security or defence.

The longer I stay here the more upset and desperate I feel at the tragedies the Palestinian people have to suffer day after day, while the international community stands by and does nothing. We may think that the support Israel has from countries such as the US and the UK is too great to break, but we cannot ignore what is going on here. Public opinion matters. We only have to look at the role of boycotts and sanctions in bringing down the apartheid regime in South Africa to know that ordinary people can make a difference. While at Ahmed’s funeral yesterday I could not help but think of Hector Pieterson, the 12 year old boy who was shot and killed by South African police in the 1976 Soweto Uprising. The image of Hector being carried by another student, as his sister watched in despair, is now a symbol of the horrors of Apartheid South Africa. The death of Ahmed and the imminent death of Yousef are as awful and horrible as Hector’s. Let us not look back in thirty, forty or fifty years and see how awful this occupation is, let us realise now and be part of the movement to end it.

(Yousef died on 4th August)

Soldiers Use Tear Gas and Sound Bombs at Ahmed's Funeral

Today we went to the funeral of Ahmed Mussa, the 10 year old boy killed yesterday by an Israeli border policeman. The funeral procession began in Ramallah where hundreds of people, including Ahmed's family, drove in convoy to bring his body home to Ni'lin where thousands of mourners were waiting.

When the convoy reached Ni'lin, there were dozens of soldiers and border police waiting on either side of the entrance to the village. Instead of showing a single shred of human decency, they surrounded the funeral procession, knowing that their presence would provoke a reaction and ensure that Ahmed would not be allowed to die in peace as he had not been allowed to live in peace.

As soon as the first stones were thrown, the soldiers fired tear gas and sound bombs directly into the funeral procession, not stopping as people fell and became trampled in the scramble to escape.

Why did the soldiers have to come to Ni'lin today? Could they not have left the area just for one hour or even stood 100 metres further back and just let it be? Could they not have let Ahmed's family and friends mourn without lining up as if to goad them and gloat that they had murdered him? I simply cannot understand what I see here.

The video below was taken as the soldiers began attacking the funeral procession:



Below is an account of Ahmed's funeral written by a colleague at IWPS:

The murder of Ahmed, Age 10
By Kim www.livefromoccupiedpalestine.blogspot.com

Another child has just been murdered. On Tuesday, July 29, Ahmed Ussam Yusef Mousa, aged 10, was shot dead with asingle shot to the head by Israeli occupation forces. Ahmed was murderedjust before 6pm, when he and a group of youth from Ni'lin village attempted to dismantle a section of barbwire fencing erected on the village's land by the Israeli occupation forces. Ahmed is now the 12 person and seventh child to be killed by the Israeli occupation forces in demonstrations against the apartheid fence. He is one of more than 800 Palestinian children killed by the Zionist state since the beginning of the Al Aqsa Intifada in September 2000.

My IWPS team mate and myself got the news last night as we arrived at the ISM office in Ramallah. Within fifteen minutes we were at the hospital. As we arrived Ahmed's little body was being brought into the hospital. My teammate and myself were "lucky" in that we did not see Ahmed but two of our fellow activists from the ISM did. Both long-term activists and very experienced, both of them spoke of how tiny Ahmed was. We all then left the hospital as we did not want to interfere with the family's grief and came back to the ISM media office to work to try and tell the world of Israel's barbarism.

The initial shock, grief and tears we all felt were held at bay over the next few hours as we worked in the ISM's media office, ringing media persons, outlets, pulling together media releases. As we emailed out the press releases to the media and our various networks around the world, the emails poured in expressing shock, outrage and heartache.

As the night wore on we sat with each other, listened and supported eachother, especially with those of use who had close contacts in Ni'lin and who had witnessed the arrival of Ahmed's body at the hospital. None of us could sleep, although we were all exhausted and we sat in the garden as the early hours of the morning came upon us. Finally at around 3am, the last of us forced ourselves to go to bed, but we all spent a sleepless night thinking about the grief the family must have been experiencing, their shock, horror and disbelief that their little boy was no longer with them.

In the morning, other members of the ISM and IWPS began to arrive in Ramallah, so we could all go to the hospital at 10am to be part of Ahmed's funeral procession and to accompany the family home with his body. At around 10.30am, dozens and dozens of residents from Ni'lin arrived at the hospital and Ahmed's body was brought out and placed in the ambulance. Soon, dozens of cars joined in the funeral procession. For the next 45 minutes we made our way in two Palestinian transit vans through the streets of Ramallah. As we did more cars, trucks and taxis joined us with more andmore people.

By the time we finally left the centre of Ramallah, there were more than 40 cars in the funeral procession. Many of the cars displayed Ahmed's shihad (martyr) poster (in Palestine anyone killed as a result of the occupation, whatever their age, is viewed as a martyr). The poster displayed a handsome little boy, slight of build and tiny. Each time I looked at the poster, I wondered how anyone one could think that this tiny child could be such a threat to the security of their state.

How could this little boy, with such a tiny frame, scare grown men? What could posses any person to think that the appropriate response to a small child such as Ahmed was live ammunition, aimed and fired at his head?

As I looked at his photograph trying to imagine why Ahmed had to die, his funeral procession began to make its way out of Ramallah. As we left the city and began to traverse the hills and pass through the surroundingPalestinian villages, we sat in silence, very little to say to each other, as the chants from the Palestinian mourners continued, remembering Ahmed, God and opposing the occupation and the apartheid wall.

As we weaved our way through one village after another, more cars joined us and others came to stand on the streets to offer their silent condolences and respect for Ahmed and his family. Along with adults, young children lined the streets of the villages we passed through and my heart broke as I watch their little faces, many of them too young to comprehend what the procession was about. But as I watched these small children through the windows of our car, I kept wondering if one day they too would share the same fate as Ahmed. And the sadness and anger in me grew once again.

As we approached Bil'lin village, a young father stood on the side of the road, along with a group of young children, many no doubt his own. They stood silent, bravely, in dignity with Palestinian flags in remembrance ofAhmed. It was at that point, all the composure and restraint I had imposed on myself since we first heard the news of Ahmed left me and tears began to stream down my face.

When we reached Bil'in, many of the village residents were on the streets and many joined the funeral procession. Soon we were nearing the settler highway that we must traverse to get to Ni'lin and we all wondered if we would be able to get in.

Would the Israeli army stop us? Would they use violence? Would they attack the funeral procession as they have done on other occasions?

As our car, which was about half way through the funeral procession, came to the highway, we could see the Israeli occupation forces had blocked the road and stopped Israeli plated cars from continuing. This sight was a relief. Soon we, along with the Palestinians mourners and other internationals poured out of the vehicles on to the highway. However, as we approached the entrance of Ni'lin we could see the Israeli occupation forces had also setup another barricade at the far side of the village entrance.

This was a clearly provocative act on the behalf of the Israeli occupation forces. They could have easily set up the barrier (as the road lead to TelAviv) 50 or 100 or 200 metres or more away. Placing the barrier where they did meant they would be confrontation, as emotions, tempers and anger at the killing and death of Ahmed spilled over.

As Ahmed's tiny body, wrapped in his funeral shroud, was carried above the crowd, the mourners chanted his martyrdom, against the occupation and the wall and for the greatness of God. Soon, smaller groups broke off from theprocession to confront the soldiers, yelling at them angrily. In response the Israeli occupation forces began to throw sound grenades and flashbombs. As myself and one of my IWPS teammates moved closer to the frontline to try and offer some sort of international presence, tear gas began to be fired by the Israeli military. For the next few minutes, we were caught between the military firing on us and the young Palestinian men throwing stones in response to the occupation forces attack on the funeral procession.

As people began to run, we were swept up in the chaos and at one point people tried to crush past a park car, resulting in several young boys being dragged down and trampled. Suddenly, I saw a man dragging the limp body of a young teenage boy and at first my heart went to my mouth, as I thought another child had been shot. As the young boy was dragged to safety, he began to gain consciousness and I breathed a huge sigh of relief.

The march continued towards the balidyier (the municipality office) and then towards the mosque, where tiny Ahmed was carried up the stairs. As prayers were called from the mosque, people sat and stood around in quite vigil forAhmed and his family.

When prayers finished, Ahmed was brought from the mosque and taken once again by funeral procession to the village burial ground. We walked quietly, as again the chants from the villagers and others Palestinians spoke of Ahmed's martyrdom, God and the occupation. As we approached the burial grounds, women stood atop the house near where little Ahmed would be buried. As the funeral procession passed by they performed the zachrohtah, the traditional sound made to wish someone well. In performing this tradition, the women sought to ensure Ahmed's journey to paradise would be happy and joyful.

As the men accompanied Ahmed's body for burial, we decided to remain outsideand listen to the prayers and sermon. As we waited there, two young girls, both under the age of ten came to say hello. As we conversed, they asked me my name, where I lived and other innocent questions. As I responded, in my badly pronounced Arabic, they also began to ask if I liked Noor, the widely popular Turkish soap opera (which is dubbed in Arabic) that is showing at the moment on Palestinian television. I asked them if they liked Mohanad, the male lead, who all the Palestinian girls have fallen in love with and they told me yes. As I practiced my Arabic with them and spoke of the things little girls find interesting and joyful, I thought again of Ahmed who will never have the chance to play his children's games with his friends or his family and of how he would never be able to speak of the television shows he loved. And again the sadness swept over me for Ahmed and for his family, who would miss him so much.

Ten Year Old Boy Shot Dead by Israeli Soldier at Demonstration in Ni'lin

While finishing the post below, news came through that a 10 year old boy called Ahmed Ussam Yusef Mousa, has been killed by an Israeli soldier during a demonstration in Ni'lin. He was shot in the head with live ammunition from close range and died instantly.

Having seen the behaviour of soldiers in Ni'lin over the past couple of weeks it is horrible to say that this tragic and utterly deplorable death does not come as a surprise. This murderous, brutal and illegal occupation must be brought to an end and the Israeli state must be held to account for the appalling crimes it has committed. For Ahmed and his family, like many others, it is already too late. Let it not be too late for the next victim.

From ISM media:

A 10 year old boy called Ahmed Ussam Yusef Mousa was shot dead at approximately 6pm near the Palestinian village of Ni'lin. He was shot once in the head at close range with live ammunition. According to eye witnesses a group of youths attempted to remove coils of razor wire from land belonging to the village. Without warning, they were fired upon and Ahmed was killed.

Israeli newspaper Maariv reported in March that the Israeli authorities have given a new order to border police operating along the apartheid wall surrounding Jerusalem. They can now open fire directly on Palestinians who try to demonstrate near the barrier. But sniping is forbidden if there are Israeli or foreign citizens amongst demonstrators.

According to ISM volunteers inside Ni'lin, confrontations are now taking place between villagers and the Israeli forces; shots have been heard and five people are said to have been wounded. Demonstrations have been held almost every day for the past few weeks as near Nil'in against Israel's Apartheid Wall, declared illegal by the International Court in the Hague in 2004. The wall will deprive the village of almost 2,500 Dunums of agricultural land, and put the existence of the entire community in doubt.The Israeli Army and Border Police have been increasingly ill-disciplined and violent in response to the demonstrations.

At least 11 other Palestinians have died protesting against Israeli's apartheid wall. Their names are:

Mohammad Fadel Hashem Rayan, age 25
Zakaria MaHmud Salem, age 28
Abdal Rahman Abu Eid, age 62
Mohammad Daud Badwan, age 21
Diaa Abdel Karim Abu Eid, age 24
Hussain mahmud Awwad Aliyan, age 17
Islam Hashem Rizik Zhahran, age 14
Alaa Mohammad Abdel Rahman Khalil, age 14
Jamal Jaber Ibrahim Assi, age 15
Odai Mofeed Mahmud Assi, age 14
Mahayub Nimer Assi, age 15.