Sheikh Jarrah: Ethnic Cleansing in Jerusalem

In May 2021, a video went viral showing Muna Al-Kurd, a young Palestinian from Sheikh Jarrah, confronting a settler who invaded and occupied part of her home.

The video was captured in the front yard of the family home, raising global attention to the case of the Al-Kurd family and the ongoing forced displacement of Palestinians in occupied Jerusalem.

In 2000, the family built a house extension.

Shortly afterwards, the occupation’s municipality declared it illegal and did not allow the family to move in.

Since 2009, however, it has turned a blind eye to various groups of Jewish settlers who invade this extension and occupy it.

Now the Al-Kurds are at risk of being forcibly expelled from the rest of their house, where they have lived since 1956.

The Al-Kurd family is one of 28 Palestinian families in Sheikh Jarrah that are facing—or have already been subjected to—forced displacement following occupation and harassment by Jewish settlers.

All these families are refugees having been forcibly displaced from different parts of historic Palestine during the Nakba.

The street where the families live has become a site of solidarity where residents and activists gather to protest and resist imminent expulsions.

These gatherings are regularly suppressed by the Israeli occupation forces with arrests, beatings, stun grenades, and skunk water.

On several occasions, the occupation forces have blocked the street to prevent protesters from reaching the families’ homes.

However, the wave of solidarity spread beyond this street in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood.

In May 2021 it ignited protests in other parts of the city, especially around the Al-Aqsa and Bab al-Amoud (Damascus Gate) areas.

And from there to different cities across historic Palestine, including Lydd, Jaffa, Haifa and Gaza.

The suppression of this national uprising culminated in the May 2021 bombardment of Gaza.