East Jerusalem, Webinar on Elections, Dr Leila Farsakh

March 2021 Newsletter * Ongoing ethnic cleansing in East Jerusalem * ICAHD UK April webinar on elections in Israel and Palestine * Interview with Dr Leila Farsakh, Palestinian academic * Recording of webinar Critical Young Israelis Speak About the Future * NSPCC campaign continues * Dates for your diary

Ongoing Ethnic Cleansing in East Jerusalem Photo: ICAHD – Israeli Jewish settlers take over Palestinian home in Sheikh Jarra

One hundred homes in the Palestinian community Al-Bustan, next to Silwan are slated for demolition that will displace 1550 Palestinians while in the community of Sheikh Jarrah, four households, comprising 27 people, have been told that they will be evicted from their homes by 2 May, with another three families due to be evicted by August, but this is only the start of clearing all of the Palestinian families from this community to be replaced by settlers.

For many years ICAHD has spoken about Israel’s plans to change the demography of Jerusalem, changing the current ratio of 60:40 Jews to Palestinians to 70:30 (or less) Jews to Palestinians. Israel uses a Kafkaesque system of zoning and planning to accomplish this goal, along with other tactics such as the withdrawal of residency permits required to live in East Jerusalem. This was explained in our February webinar where Meir Margalit, one of ICAHD’s Co-founders, and former member of the Jerusalem municipality laid out the municipality’s institutional discriminatory policies where power structures exist and human needs are not met due to its system of domination and oppression of the Palestinian residents of Jerusalem - Webinar recording here .

Al-Bustan is located just below the Old City’s Western Wall and Al Aqsa Mosque. For years, the Jerusalem Municipality has sought to clear this privately-owned Palestinian land to construct a “biblical” tourism park to be named “The King’s Garden” that will connect it to what Israelis say is the original City of David (not all archaeologists verify this). Ten years ago, the demolitions in Al-Bustan were stopped because of pressure from the international diplomatic community which led to the Municipality agreeing to negotiate a housing solution with the Palestinian residents. Since 2011 Palestinians in Al-Bustan have spent $500,000 on legal fees and the creation of a new masterplan for the area that was drawn up by Knesset Member Yousef Jabreen. But now the Jerusalem Municipality has said that it is not sticking to its commitment, points out that these homes never had planning permission (but Israel rarely grants planning permission to Palestinians) and it has asked the Local Affairs Court to reactivate demolition orders. A court ruling is expected in April.

Community leader Fakhri Abu Diab explains the situation here .

Sheikh Jarrah is a Palestinian neighbourhood that overlooks the Al Aqsa mosque from the north. In 1956 an agreement was signed between the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) and Jordan which governed it at the time. A housing scheme was provided for 28 Palestinian families who had been made refugees in 1948, enabling them to move to Sheikh Jarrah where they would join dozens of other Palestinian families already living there. An agreement between the United Nations and Jordan stipulated that the families would receive the houses in return for renouncing their refugee status with the UN refugee agency. The Israeli government doesn’t recognize the agreement nor any of the documents which are held by the Palestinians and prefers to accept forged documents presented by religious Jewish settlers who claim that Jews lived there in the early 20^th century. Four Palestinian families lost their homes in Sheikh Jarrah (in 2008 and 2009) and the settler’s goal is to remove the remaining 24 families, displacing several hundred individuals.

During our February webinar about East Jerusalem, Palestinian lawyer and academic Munir Nuseibah also spoke, and he explained that Israeli law is deemed above international law. Palestinians who appeal to the Israeli Supreme Court concerning demolitions and evictions have never won. At best some delays or other small wins have been achieved. Only international pressure on Israel will be able to stop Israel from continuing with these violations of the Fourth Geneva Convention which are embedded in its settler colonial policies as it displaces the indigenous Palestinian population with Jewish settlers. * Please keep writing to your political representatives. Update them on Israel’s ongoing ethnic cleansing of East Jerusalem. General guidance is provided hereand a sample letter here . * Watch out for more news about the Sumarin family from Silwan who are due to appear before the Israeli Supreme Court on 5^th April, as they contest the eviction of their home in the attempt by the Jewish National Fund to take over the ownership. * ICAHD UK was amongst the more than 500 organisations that signed a letter to the UN Human Rights Council stating that condemnation is not enough. The root cause must be addressed with Israel’s impunity brought to an end with justice achieved. See the letter here .

The Palestine Authority has called for legislative elections on 22 May, for the President of the PA on 31 July and the Palestinian National Council of the PLO on 31 August. However recent changes in electoral laws makes it virtually impossible for young Palestinians to participate in candidate selection or to stand for election thus the monopoly of the ruling factions in the West Bank and Gaza will continue. In a society where the average age is 21, the majority, if not all leadership positions are held by those with an average age of 70.

In addition, with Israel’s matrix of control that it has established over all of historic Palestine and with its settler colonial policies, Israel ensures that Palestinians living both in the state of Israeli and within the Occupied Palestine Territory do no have equal rights. Palestinians are not able to shape their lives under either system.

Arguments will be made why any meaningful political change is impossible under the current dysfunctional systems.

My father’s mother was from Saffuriyya, which was located near Nazareth and before ’48, it was actually as big as Nazareth. My grandmother was the daughter of a sheikh who believed that education was important, so my grandmother learned to read and write at a school in Saffuriya run by the nuns. The school is one of the only buildings that wasn’t demolished in that locality during the Nakba. It is now run as an orphanage so that is what your study tours saw during their visit.

My grandmother was from a big family. She got married when she was 13 and moved to Birzeit with her husband; she was the second wife. However, she would return to Saffuriya for visits to her family, but of course, after ’48, there was nothing to return to. Her family were made refugees and went to live in Lebanon and Syria. Later, some of her brothers “escaped” and went to live in Nazareth which has an area that refugees from Saffuriya live in. My father remembers a few visits to Saffuriya when he was young and then after ’67 he, my grandmother and others from the family were finally able to connect with the family who were living in Nazareth after their many years of separation. Read the full article here .

Don’t miss your opportunity to watch Objector, the documentary about Atalya Ben Abba’s refusal to join the Israeli army. Registration is essential to get free access to the film and to attend the event with Atalya and others on 4^th April. Music for the documentary was composed by Uri Agnon, another of our speakers at our March webinar. Register here .

News of this campaign may be found here. It is important that people keep writing to the NSPCC and guidance can be found here about how to respond to the standard arguments that have been received back from the NSPCC because they must be challenged.

The NSPCC's reputation is tarnished by association with JCB.

Saturday, 3 April at 4.00pm UK - Stop the JNF Webinar: Khalil Alamour: 'The Role of the JNF in the Ethnic Cleansing of the Naqab' . Register for this webinar via this link .

Sunday, 4 April at 5.30pm UK - Jewish Network for Palestine: 'Objector' - View this new film followed by conversation with Israeli and Palestinian Leaders. Register for this webinar here .

Wednesday, 21 April at 5.00pm UK - ICAHD UK Webinar: Jeff Halper and Salem Barahmeh: 'The Undemocratic Elections in Israel and Palestine'. Register for this webinar here .

Saturday, 2 October - ICAHD UK Annual Conference, London. Details to follow. Many thanks for your ongoing support. If you're not already a member of ICAHD UK, please consider joining us to enable our campaign to spread at this critical time in history. From all at ICAHD UK. https://www.facebook.com/pages/Israeli-Committee-Against-House-Demolitions-UK/366423593418140 Facebook https://www.twitter.com/ICAHDUK/ Twitter http://icahduk.org Website mailto:info@icahduk.org Email