Sheikh Jarrah: The ongoing ethnic cleansing in Palestine and land theft - (Paving the path for 'Greater Israel').

Image of the Irgun, Etzel.

This militant symbol reflects the dream of the new Zionists: Occupying and "reclaiming" the biblical land of Israel, (the 12 tribes, including Palestine and Jordan) by the Zionists (refugees, Jewish immigrants) flowing from European and Arab countries into Palestine. The Zionists used all means and methods (legal or not) to achieve their goals Including: military actions, killings (massacres), assassination, violence, terror and bullying tactics.

* Greater Israel (Hebrew: ??? ????? ??????; Eretz Israel Hashlema) is an expression, with several different biblical and political meanings over time. It is often used, in an irredentist fashion, to refer to the historic or desired borders of Israel. (* Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_Israel)

Practical Zionism and new settlements in Palestine:

Background: Theodor (Binyamin Ze'ev) Herzl an Austrian-Hungarian Jew who founded the modern Zionist movement became the first president of the WZO. The first Zionist Congress took place in Basel, Switzerland, in 1897. Over 200 Jews, journalists took part in the congress...

Degania Alef was the very first Zionist settlements (first kvutza-type agricultural settlement) in Palestine, the small group of East European Jewish-farmers settled in the North side of the Jordan valley at first... * "Degania Aleph is often referred to as the “Mother of the Kvutzot” and was often a model for the establishment of other collective settlements in Israel." (* Source: https://njop.org/the-story-of-degania/)

The kibbutzim in Palestine (Israel) used to host Zionists militants and provide training, weapons, facilities to Hagana Zionist groups.

* "By the 1920s, Labor Zionists in Palestine established the kibbutz movement (a kibbutz is a collective commune, usually with an agricultural economy), the Jewish trade union and cooperative movement, the main Zionist militias (the Haganah and Palmach)"... (* Source: https://lsa.umich.edu/)

"The First Aliyah occurred from 1881 to 1903 and did not go as planned as Zionists ran out of funds. [7] The Rothschild organization rescued the Zionist movement by funding Zionists and by purchasing large settlements and by creating new settlements.[13] At the closure of the first Aliya, the Jews had purchased 350,000 dunams of land."

The modern Zionists built-up their 'new land' (on purchased, or stolen Palestinian land) using various methods. Project 'Homa U'migdal', Kibbutz and Moshav settlements, expanding Arab Jaffa and building Tel-Aviv on the ruin of a few Palestinian villages. The coming Aliya/s (1903-1948), mainly from Europe, Yemen, and later on from Arab and Muslim countries, has boosted the buildup and land grab in Palestine. 

Tower and Stockade (Hebrew: ?????? ???????????, romanized: Homa u'migdal, lit. 'wall and tower') was a settlement method used by Zionist settlers in Mandatory Palestine during the 1936–39 Arab Revolt.

"Jewish exodus from Arab and Muslim countries"

During 1947-1948 the Zionists have massacred many Palestinian in various locations (villages and cities) and expelled some 700,000 Palestinians. Most of those who managed to escape have resettled in refugee camps (in Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, around the West bank, Gaza strip, extra)

Massacres (Zochrot website)

The Palestinian tragedy that was never fully revealed

1947 - 1948 Palestinian exodus, the Nakba:

"The 1948 Palestinian exodus occurred when more than 700,000 Palestinian Arabs – about half of prewar Palestine's Arab population – fled or were expelled from their homes, during the 1948 Palestine war.[1] The exodus was a central component of the fracturing, dispossession and displacement of Palestinian society, known as the Nakba (Arabic: ???????, al-Nakbah, literally "disaster", "catastrophe", or "cataclysm")"

In the past 25 - 30 years Israel has made more efforts (spending large sums of money, investments, infrastructure) in order to ' strengthen Jerusalem'.

As I was in Israel, a few Zionists and 'government loyalists' have explained that: Jerusalem as Israel's capital, must contain a Jewish majority and must be surrounded by Jewish settlements and loyal citizens. 

Ex- Prime minister Ariel Sharon said:

* Jews should live in and around every Arab population centre... Jews should not leave a single place where they don't live and have freedom of movement.

...I believe if we establish these settlements, we will feel sufficiently secure to accept the risks for the sake of peace.

(* Source: Time magazine interview, 5 October 1981)

Parver Plan, Israel's Negev:

The ethnic cleansing of the Negev as a mean to take over and dominate the southern part Palestine (Israel): Expelling and 'relocating' local Bedouins while using excessive force, illegal tactics, military and police violence.

Demolition and Eviction of Bedouin Citizens of Israel in the Naqab (Negev) - The Prawer Plan

Arab Bedouin citizens of Israel, inhabitants of the Naqab (Negev) desert since the seventh century, are the most vulnerable community in Israel. For over 60 years, the indigenous Arab Bedouin have faced a State policy of displacement, home demolitions and dispossession of their ancestral land. Today, 70,000 Arab Bedouin citizens live in 35 villages that, which either predate the establishment of the State in 1948, or were created by Israeli military order in the early 1950s. The State of Israel considers the villages “unrecognized” and the inhabitants “trespassers on State land,” so it denies these citizens access to State infrastructure like water, electricity, sewage, education, health care and roads. The State deliberately withholds basic services from these villages to “encourage” the Arab Bedouin citizens to give up their ancestral land.

Sheikh Jarrah (May 2021):

Palestinians vow to save Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood

Palestinians continue solidarity protests against forced displacement of families from the occupied East Jerusalem.

Israeli forces raided the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood of occupied East Jerusalem for the second night on Tuesday, spraying skunk water, a chemically enhanced type of sewage water, and physically assaulting residents and solidarity protesters.

Several Palestinians were arrested, including Tala Obeid, Omar al-Khatib and Mahmoud Nabil al-Kurd, whose families face displacement from their homes in occupied East Jerusalem. Al-Kurd along with another Palestinian was released on Wednesday morning, but the detention of al-Khatib, a local activist, has been extended.

Possible Israel war crimes in East Jerusalem land right case: UN

European powers also warn continued Israeli settlement expansion will damage prospects for a viable Palestinian state.

The United Nations urged Israel on Friday to call off any forced evictions in Israeli-annexed East Jerusalem warning its actions could amount to “war crimes”.

“We call on Israel to immediately call off all forced evictions,” UN rights office spokesman Rupert Colville told reporters in Geneva.

“We wish to emphasise that East Jerusalem remains part of the occupied Palestinian territory, in which international humanitarian law applies,” Colville said. “The occupying power … cannot confiscate private property in occupied territory.”

Clashes between Palestinians and Israeli forces in Sheikh Jarrah ahead of eviction hearing

UN urges Israel to stop demolitions and evacuations in Sheikh Jarrah in West Bank

LONDON: The UN special coordinator for the Middle East peace process urged Israel to cease demolitions and evictions, in line with its obligations under international humanitarian law.

“The latest developments related to the eviction of Palestine refugee families in Sheikh Jarrah and other neighborhoods in occupied East Jerusalem are also very worrying,” Tor Wennesland said in a statement on Thursday.

Sheikh Jarrah: What is happening and how you can take action now

May 9, 2021 / By Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC)

 Palestine, Israel

Watching apartheid Israel’s bloody crushing of popular Palestinian protests in Sheikh Jarrah calls us to action. We have proven before our collective power in the form of #BDS. Here are 8 actions you can take to fight Israeli impunity and #SaveSheikhJarrah.

Over the last number of weeks and days Palestinian protests to #SaveSheikhJarrah, in occupied East Jerusalem, have grown in size. They have been met with brutal repression by Israeli apartheid security forces, including police officers trained in Israel’s police training academy partially owned by G4S and Allied Universal. 

Indigenous Palestinian residents of Sheikh Jarrah have fought lengthy legal battles in Israeli courts against eviction orders which would see them ethnically cleansed, forcefully evicted from their homes, and replaced with illegal Israeli settlers.

Last week, 7 May 2021, Israeli settlers have submitted their response to the rightful claims of the residents of Sheikh Jarrah to the Israeli court, an apparatus of Israel's apartheid regime. 

The Palestinian families were then given tomorrow, Monday 10 May 2021, to reach an “agreement” with the settlers regarding the right to their homes. Sheikh Jarrah belongs to the Palestinian families. It is part of the occupied Palestinian territory, and therefore any Israeli settler presence in it amounts to a war crime under international law. Israel’s settlement enterprise is an integral part of its apartheid system against all Palestinians.

The Israeli court decision to give a period of time to "both sides'' to seek a compromise and reach an agreement is colonial gaslighting. It is also a tactic used to exhaust the ongoing protests and public pressure to #SaveSheikhJarrah. More protests are scheduled to take place over the coming days, and residents vow to remain steadfast...

Timeline Israel & Palestine 1900-2016

By Daniel F. Rivera, Ph.D.