Press releases, Publication

The Israeli occupation and usurpation of the land After the invasion of Sur Baher – Beit Safafa – Jabal Abu Ghneim in East Jerusalem … attacks and clashes to invade “Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood”

The National Association for the Defense of Rights and Freedoms NADRF appeals to the international community to intervene to stop the displacement of the residents of the Palestinian neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah and protect the people from the oppression of the Israeli occupation army. For 11 days, the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in occupied Jerusalem is witnessing violent confrontations, clashes by the heavily armed Israeli occupation forces on the residents of the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood. Weapons and those who believe in their legitimate rights to homes and land, which made the residents face eviction orders for the sake of building Israeli settlements as a systematic part of the Judaization of East Jerusalem, and a number of Palestinian activists showed solidarity with them.

The Israeli occupation authorities are still continuing their repeated attacks on the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people, the usurpation of homes and lands to prevent them for the preservation of their Arab Jerusalem identity, and stand in the face of the Zionist plan to Judaize Jerusalem, and not to recognize international charters and agreements that criminalize the actions of the Israeli occupation army, such as forced displacement of families, demolition of homes, and usurpation of land by force. The Israeli authorities are striking against the background of Security Council Resolution No. 2334, a resolution adopted by the Security Council on December 23, 2016, which stipulated the demand that Israel stop settlement in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the illegality of Israel’s establishment of settlements in the occupied land since 1967. It is the first decision, which was passed in the Security Council related to Israel and Palestine since 2008. It was introduced on December 23 through New Zealand, Senegal, Venezuela and Malaysia, and it won the support of 14 members, while only the United States abstained from the vote. The approval of this decision was met with applause in the Council Chamber.

NADRF warns of massacres among the Palestinians, as the number of injuries and wounded has reached 360 so far, according to media accounts and treatment institutions, in addition to the arrest of a number of residents of the Shih neighborhood, surgeons, and activists sympathetic to the case, whose number has not yet been known.

Residents of the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in East Jerusalem, which is located outside the walls of the Old City directly near the famous Damascus Gate, have lived in these homes since the 1950s, while Jewish settlers claim that they bought the lands, legally from two Jewish associations that bought the land more than 100 years ago in the area that includes Many Palestinian homes and residential buildings, in addition to hotels, restaurants, and consulates. The property lawsuits that were brought against him and others in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhoods and Batn Al Hawa neighborhoods are a focal point of plans to increase the number of settlers in East Jerusalem, which Israel occupied during the 1967 setback.

The Israeli Supreme Court was scheduled to be held on 10/5/2021, in a hearing in a long-standing case in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, and to hear the lawyers of the Palestinian families and the settlement association demanding the evacuation of the families, but the court decided, upon the request of Avichai Mandelblit, the Israeli Attorney General, to postpone its hearing for consideration. In the evictions of Palestinians from the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in East Jerusalem, in order to study whether or not to participate in the lawsuit, and the Supreme Court said in a statement that the new date for the hearing will be set within thirty days of its date. In 2020, the same court upheld numerous settler claims based on documents from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, which sparked criticism from the European Union, whose representative in Jerusalem said that dozens of Palestinians are at risk of forcible transfer.

NADRF calls on the United Nations to intervene to stop any arbitrary measure to displace the people of Sheikh Jarrah from their homes and implement a Security Council decision to stop settlement activity on Palestinian lands and protect residents and activists from repeated attacks by the Israeli occupation forces. NADRF also calls on Arab League to quickly hold an emergency summit to support and advance the Palestinian Authority’s request to hold an emergency session in the Security Council and to clarify plans to confront the sufferings that the people of Sheikh Jarrah are facing.

NADRF calls on all international and local civil society organizations to monitor and document Israeli crimes against the right of the Palestinian people and to communicate with the High Commission for Human Rights to press for the rights of Palestinian families in their homes and lands.