Why do settlers want to live where nobody speaks their language and need security to escort them wherever they go?

We were standing the way we stand every week,

near the Ghawi family house, holding banners and chanting.

Perhaps we could soften the heart of the settlers to

return the house to the previous owner

and live where they are wanted and belong.

That is not likely to happen-

far-right settlers aren’t famous for being compassionate towards gentiles.

The plights of the protesters standing in front of their homes are music to their ears-

they are happy to conquer the land from previous owners who are no better than animals in their racist minds.

Sheikh Jarah is a Palestinian neighborhood in East Jerusalem,

a contested and disputed Territory.

The settlers feel calm and comfortable walking

in the streets of Sheikh Jarrah accompanied by soldiers.

The Palestinians are less so.

The settlers claim they feel threatened,

that the Palestinians are destroying their cars and property.

This is an excuse for Itamar Ben Gvir’s goons to raid the neighborhood

and initiate clashes with the residents.

There are checkpoints at the entry to the neighborhood & soldiers demand residents show their IDs upon entry.

Last week 16 years old Janah Qiswani was hit by a sponge-tipped bullet.

This week a fourteen years old girl was arrested for painting her face in Palestinian flag colors. Sheikh Jarah told Salah Diab, human rights defender, that it is slowly becoming the second Hebron Shuhada Street-an apartheid part of town where extremist settlers roam freely, and the Palestinians are afraid to leave their homes.

Read more about how Sheikh Jarrah is becoming a second Shuhada street-

How Israel is turning Sheikh Jarrah into another Hebron

Israeli police have transformed Sheikh Jarrah into a hyper-militarized area designed to quash Palestinian resistance and embolden Jewish settlers.

ByOren ZivJune 10, 2021. initially published in 972 Magazine

Read more: Shuhada street in Hebron- How Israel turned Hebron into a ghost town

initially published on Visualising Palestine website