On Saturday afternoon in East Jerusalem, Palestinians in Sheikh Jarrah were singing, painting murals, and flying balloons when Israeli forces attacked.
Occupation forces attack women in Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood (video by @tarekbakri on Instagram) pic.twitter.com/zceXVpi3ws
— Fer𓂆s 🇵🇸 (@feraasemad) May 15, 2021
The troops moved in to the peaceful scene armed with heavy weaponry and began to beat and assault the vigil.
The soldiers also attacked a Palestinian mother and her child who were in their car nearby, reaching into the driver’s seat and pulling out the mother as her shocked child sat in the passenger seat, shocked at the sight of what the soldiers were doing to her mother.
Israeli occupation soldiers assault Palestinian women inside her car and terrorize her kids, in Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in Jerusalem.#Gaza_Under_Attack#HearGaza pic.twitter.com/39hxJvH8gb
— Palestine | فلسطين (@alianm9) May 15, 2021
Sheikh Jarrah is the neighborhood in East Jerusalem where the current flare-up began.
At least 28 families, (about 550 indigenous Palestinians) live in Sheikh Jarrah and are facing eviction and displacement from their homes they inhabited more than 48 years ago.
Despite allegations by the illegal Israeli colonialist settlers of ownership of the Palestinian homes, the government of Jordan provided Israel with official deeds proving their ownership of the properties.
However, Israel’s government and colonialist groups, are ongoing with their attempts to control more Palestinian lands, for the benefit of its illegal colonialist activities, especially to link the neighborhood with other nearby colonies.
Israel is planning to build and establish more than 540 colonialist units in the area, and is currently building 54 units, in addition to the ongoing efforts to link them with the Police Command in Sheikh Jarrah and the French Hill settlement in addition to the Hebrew University, as part of the so-called “Jerusalem Belt” colonialist plan linking the colonies with different Palestinian areas in al-‘Isawiya, Rad al-‘Amoud, Wadi ar-Rababa and many other areas, and aim at connecting East Jerusalem with West Jerusalem with this belt of illegal colonies after displacing the indigenous Palestinians.
The Israeli colonialist plan, which is intended to be implemented in phases through many years, was put forth by the government, the Jerusalem City council, the Israel Antiquities Authority and various colonialist organizations in Israel and other counties, and has a budget of 537 Billion Israeli Shekels.
