Sheikh Jarrah action

We began the day with a tour of East Jerusalem, organized by a group called Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD). ICAHD was formed by Jeff Halper, an Israeli Jew. It was formed to prevent the destruction of Palestinian homes.

East Jerusalem has a very high Palestinian population. Many fled there in 1948. Both Jews and Palestinians now live there, but Palestinians are not treated as equals.

The Israeli government does not allow Palestinians in East Jerusalem to have Israeli citizenship. They are accorded the status of "permanent residents" but not citizens. They are barred from voting in national elections and most live in poverty. We drove through an Israeli and a Palestinian neighbourhood, literally just blocks away from each other.

The Israeli neighbourhood had a nice paved road and large houses as well as a beautiful playground for children and an elementary school.

In the Palestinian neighbourhood the road suddenly became gravel. The houses delapitated. No playground. No school.

According to our tour guide, over 78% of Palestinian children in East Jerusalem live under the poverty line. In West Jerusalem (mostly Israeli Jewish), 23% of children live under the poverty line- still shockingly high I think.

A Palestinian child is granted 480 shekels per year for education. An Israeli child is granted 2850 shekels per year.

Many Palestinian neighbourhoods are sorrounded by Jewish neighbourhoods. Before they drive through them, they are often stopped by soldiers at checkpoints. Some have been mistreated.

Palestinians are very rarely given permits to build homes, unlike Israelis. Often homes are build illegally and are then demolished. Our guide described how many of them look like- police with dogs come to force the families out of their homes before they are bulldozed. Sometimes people are given less than an hour to gather up their belongings before the bulldozers move in. After the homes are destroyed, their inhabitants are fined 8000 shekels to pay for cleanup of the rubble.

Many Palestinians are leaving East Jerusalem, unable to handle the pressure. They are encouraged to emigrate. Once they leave, most are not allowed to come back.




Sheikh Jarrah is a neighbourhood in East Jerusalem where Palestinians have settled after fleeing the 1948 war. The government of Israel promised them that if they agreed not to return to their former homes in Israel they would be allowed to live there.

During the past few years, Jewish settlers have began moving into Sheikh Jarrah. Many Palestinians have been given eviction notices and told to leave their homes to make way for the settlers. Families have been thrown out into the streets with no place to go. The goal of many of the settlers is to make Jerusalem more Jewish, and so the Palestinian population there has to be removed. The same is happening in the West Bank.

The actions of the settlers are opposed by many thousands of Israelis. In the afternoon, we went to a protest in Sheikh Jarrah that was organized and led by predominantly Israeli activists. Between 400 and 500 people showed up. The activists chanted "Jews and Arabs together" and "justice for Sheikh Jarrah". CPT joined in. I met Israeli university students, rabbis and orthodox Jews, all who came out to protest this injustice. Many Palestinians and Israelis driving by were honking and flashing us victory signs. Some also gave us the middle finger, but most showed support.

It was amazing to be there with these people and I felt so much pride for them, seeing them standing up against their government's unfair policies and with the Palestinian people. I spoke to some of the activists, many had been arrested by the police and have spent many a night in jail. We were observed by a dozen heavily armed soldiers and police. They stood by and watched but did nothing. That is not always the case.

I think of rallies organized in my city against the war in Afghanistan or to draw attention to poverty in the North End. In most cases, we are lucky if we get 50 people. Yet I have been to enough of these rallies to know that the police rarely ever arrest anyone or try to interfere. We risk little and do little. Israelis risk a lot and yet they continue to speak out and stand in solidarity with the victims of their governments' policies.

I am attaching pictures of the rally in the posts below.

Do protests work? I have been told that since they began, the judge who gives out eviction orders has given out a lot less of them. The struggle continues.