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Israeli Occupation Forces Kill Palestinian Teenager, Cause Clashes In Sheikh Jarrah & Face Armed Resistance

On Saturday, Israeli settlers accompanied by extremist Knesset member, Itamar Ben-Gvir, sparked protests in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah. What happened next sends a strong message about the way in which Palestinians are directing their struggle.

Sheikh Jarrah became an international focal point of attention last May, as Israeli settlers were filmed admitting “if I don’t steal it, somebody else will” on camera, whilst ethnically cleansing Palestinians from their homes. Although generally ignored by the international press, the events that transpired in the East Jerusalem neighborhood spread like wildfire on social media and eventually became impossible to ignore.

The Israeli courts have permitted — per the 1950 Absentees Property Law condemned by Human Rights Watch as discriminatory — illegal settler organisations to confiscate Palestinian homes and replace the properties residents with Jewish settlers. However, since May of last year the process of ethnically cleansing Palestinian families from the area has taken place at a much slower pace and avoided major escalations. All this changed on Saturday, when Israeli settlers accompanied by Itamar Ben-Gvir of the Jewish Power party set up a tent in front of the Salem family’s home and agitated local Palestinian residents — this as Israeli soldiers stormed Palestinian households.

Seven Palestinians are under immediate threat of being forced from their homes in Sheikh Jarrah and have taken their case to the Israeli supreme court, which is likely to rule against them. Over 31 Palestinians were injured, including a child, journalist, and medical worker, on Sunday night. Eight arrests, labelled arbitrary by local residents, were made of Palestinians that night. Seven of the arrests were said to have been detained by the Israeli police even as settlers were undergoing attacks. In retaliation, a Palestinian reportedly hit a settler with their car.

Israeli Knesset members Ofer Cassif, Ahmad Tibi, and Osama Saadi — part of the Arab Joint List — all approached the tent setup by Itamar Ben-Gvir, leading to a clash between the two sides. Later in the day Israel police reportedly manhandled an out-of-control Ben-Gvir, resulting in his fainting.

In response to this violence, Hamas spokesperson Mohammed Hamadeh stated that Israel was “playing with fire” and that the situation could quickly blow up in their face. Similarly, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) — the second most powerful armed group in Gaza — also indicated that a response would come. Sheikh Khader Adnan, a PIJ leader, said that it had made it clear through Egyptian mediators of the armed resistance’s seriousness on the matter, adding that “if the occupation takes a greater escalation in Sheikh Jarrah and demolishes homes and harms our people in occupied Jerusalem” there will be a response.

Interestingly, on Sunday night, it was not only East Jerusalem that was a hotspot for violence, also in the town of Al-Silat Al-Harithiya, in Jenin. Israeli occupation forces stormed the area in order to demolish a Palestinian home. In response, youths mobilized to throw stones at the Israeli forces, whilst armed groups open fire on Israeli forces and forced them in one instance to runaway. Later in the night at least 12 injuries were reported, with a 17-year-old Muhammad Abu Salah killed after being shot in the back of the head with live ammunition.

The violence did not stop there, however, as the Jenin Brigades declared that they had released a “shower of bullets” on Israeli jeeps and checkpoints around Jenin in response to the murder of the 17-year-old. Additionally, youths burned an Israeli military watchtower, near the town of Ya’bad, whilst others sprayed bullets at a checkpoint. In Nablus, demonstrators gathered in the centre of the city to demonstrate in solidarity with Jenin. Throughout the night Palestinian armed groups opened fire on multiple military sites and army jeeps, as well as settler outposts, around Jenin, Nablus and Tulkarem. This sends a very clear message that the support for armed struggle and armed struggle itself is very much revived inside of the West Bank, something not seen on this scale for years.

Despite the Palestinian Authority largely preventing the formation of armed groups and attacks against Israeli occupation forces and settlers, and having spent the largest proportion of its budget on “security”, they have failed to prevent armed attacks. Now, following last week’s assassination of three young Palestinian men — part of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs brigades (unofficial armed wing of the Fatah party) — Palestinians feel energized towards armed struggle as a means of defeating Israel.

Last year it was in part the brutal crackdowns on residents of Sheikh Jarrah (by Israeli forces and settlers) that helped spark the 11-day war between Palestinians and Israelis. Umm al-Fahm, a city populated by Palestinian citizens of Israel, is again actively calling for the end of the eviction campaign in Sheikh Jarrah, and this solidarity may well contribute towards outrage elsewhere inside Israel. The Israeli military has also been trying its luck with the Gaza Strip, launching mock raids on Monday and kidnapping 7 Palestinian fisherman, additionally running an incursion into agricultural lands in Gaza’s east with multiple militarized bulldozers. Some Palestinians have alleged that Israel is taking advantage of the tensions between Russia and Ukraine in order to escalate its attacks in the occupied territories, knowing that the international headlines will be fixated on the tensions between NATO and Moscow instead of Palestine-Israel.

Robert Inlakesh
Robert Inlakesh
Robert Inlakesh is a documentary filmmaker, journalist, writer, Middle-East analyst & news correspondent for The Last American Vagabond.
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