Thread by @theIMEU

THREAD: Updates in Sheikh Jarrah

Israel’s Attorney General essentially just paved the way for ethnic cleansing by declining to intervene in the Sheikh Jarrah case, giving Israeli settlers a green-light to forcibly displace Palestinians in the Jerusalem neighborhood.

The Attorney General could have stepped in and regarded the case as a public policy issue, but instead is refusing to get involved, implicitly accepting the argument that what’s happening in Jerusalem is a “real estate issue” instead of ethnic cleansing and apartheid.

Because of the Attorney General’s lack of action, three Palestinian families in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah could face forced displacement soon.

In total, at least 65 Sheikh Jarrah families are being targeted by settlers, who want to take over their homes as a way to fragment Palestinian neighborhoods and consolidate Israeli apartheid in Jerusalem.

In the past few decades, settlers have succeeded in displacing 10 Palestinian families in Sheikh Jarrah.

Palestinians protesting settler-instigated ethnic cleansing are now facing severe repression. Over the weekend, Israeli forces arrested Palestinian journalist Givara Budeiri, banned her from going to Sheikh Jarrah for 15 days and broke her hand.

Israeli forces also detained Muna and Mohammed el-Kurd, Palestinian twins in Sheikh Jarrah facing forced displacement.

With reporting and social media dispatches, Budeiri and the el-Kurd twins have brought global attention to Israel’s ethnic cleansing push in Sheikh Jarrah. Now Israel is trying to shut them up so settlers can take over Sheikh Jarrah homes without encountering resistance.