A Friday in Sheikh Jarrah

Police is everywhere these days. Here Israeli police are standing at the entrance of Sheikh Jarrah, East Jerusalem. Sheikh Jarrah is one of the oldest Palestinian neighborhoods of Jerusalem. Historically, it had the reputation of being home to some of the most intellectual Palestinian families. Today, many internationals live there and most embassies and NGOs, including Pro Peace, have their office in Sheikh Jarrah. In the last weeks Sheik Jarrah made international headlines. Earlier this year, the Israeli Court in East Jerusalem had approved the forced expulsion of four Palestinian families in Sheikh Jarrah, in favour of right-wing Israeli settlers, some of whom are already occupying the Palestinian houses.

Eli from Belgium and Mohammed from Sheikh Jarrah are neighbors. Their life hasn’t been the same in the last week. They are able to see and hear protests, police violence, and escalations from their windows and balconies. Often times, Mohammed, as a Palestinian is prevented to enter his own street. As a development worker, Eli is allowed to enter when she shows her diplomatic ID. The police are preventing people who are not residents from entering Eli’s and Mohamed’s street. Luckily, Eli’s house has a back entrance through which we could sneak in to take these photos.

After watching the peaceful demonstrations from their balcony, Eli and Mohammed decide to join. On the way down to the demonstrations, they are stopped by an Israeli settler who asks Eli where she is from and what she is doing here.

He himself is from France. Many of the settlers in Sheikh Jarrah are actually from Europe or the U.S.. They are part of right-wing settler lobbies and travelling to Jerusalem to live in occupied Palestinian houses on a rotating basis.

A little further down the street, some settlers also stay in Sheikh Jarrah permanently with their families. Covered by Israeli flags these houses are easy to spot. The windows are closed by metal bars and several cameras are installed to monitor the neighborhood.

Just across the street, separated through a provisional Police barrier and shaded by a fig tree is the house of the Al-Kurd family. Since years, the Palestinian family of five is living under the threat of being forcefully expelled from their homes.

A group of elderly Palestinian women are sitting under the fig tree infront of the house. Singing and clapping they are also showing their presence….and just like the cameras on the other side, they are closely watching every move across the street.

A little boy who lives in this street is biking up and down as settlers are fixing yet another flag that had just been torn down by the wind. As no one who does not live in the street is allowed to enter, it is very quiet this afternoon. In the weeks before, when restrictions were different, many activists used to come to celebrate the Muslim Eid holiday with the neighboring kids. They painted the houses, hung balloons and had iftar dinners together to show their solidarity and to support the recilliance of the families.

The end of the street is full of police cars at a police barrier. Several Israeli settlers stand between the police cars to watch the peaceful demonstrations from afar.

“I just tried to enter the street from the other side of this barrier”, Mohammed says. “They did not let me. It has been like this for days “. He grew up in Sheikh Jarrah, he has been there all his life. While Eli’s diplomatic card gives her some immunity, Mohammed is stopped and questioned by the police almost every day and cannot move freely in his own neighborhood.

As we exit the street of the AlKurd family's home, a young Israeli settler is approaching the police blockade from the other direction. He is left through without showing an ID or being questioned. Meanwhile, international and local journalists (you can see their shadows on the left) are not allowed to enter the street.

We are approaching the peaceful protest. While it would be easy to think that the protests started due to the current events and media coverage, they have actually been going on for more than a decade.

Every week when we leave our Pro Peace office on a Friday afternoon, we see a handful of Jewish Israeli and Palestinian protesters holding signs that say “No to Occupation” or “Stop lllegal Settlements in Sheikh Jarrah. Today there are not only a handful old-generation peacenics, there are hundreds of people who joined the protest to show solidarity with Palestinian families threatened by forced expullsions.

Next to the protest normal life continues - just as we arrive, bus 274 drives by. It is the bus headed to “the Barrier”, the next checkpoint between Jerusalem and the West Bank.

Many Israeli protesters have come to show their solidarity today. Here, a man is holding a sign that reads “Jewish and Arab men refused to be Enemies”.

A Palestinian resident of Sheikh Jarrah (left) who is one of dozen of Palestinians who are fearing to be expelled from their homes, and a jewish Israel activist (right) stand next to each other and exchange news. From their interaction it seems as if they have known each other for a long time. The Israeli activist holds a sign that reads “Sheikh Jarrah is for Palestinians” in Hebrew.

At the forefront of the protests are a group of women wearing warning vests with the word “Mom” written on them in different languages.

A group of young Palestinian paramedic volunteers are hugging next to the protest.

A female protester holding a hand-drawn sign saying “No to police violence” in Hebrew.

We have arrived at the heart of the protest. A group of boys sit on a cement barrier -  these barriers can be seen all over East Jerusalem and are typically used by the Israeli army in times of clashes. Eli is raising her hand to make a peace sign into the direction of the boys, the smallest one waves and does the same.

The sign the boys are holding is the most wide-spread at the protest. They have been designed and distributed by Pro Peace’s partner organization “Standing together” and read “Against the occupation”.

Meanwhile across the junction from the protest international and local media reporters are recording their clips. In their short break, they join local kids as they are watching a clown who has come to cheer them up from the draining escalations of the last days.

The protesters in Sheikh Jarrah today are extremely diverse: some wear Kippas, some wear headscarfs, some have colourful hair, some are children, some are elderly, some are internationals, some you can tell are Jewish Israeli, some you can tell are Palestinian Jerusalemites and some you could simply not tell their background based on their appearance.

They may all believe in different things and disagree on many political questions. But “No to occupation” is where they all find consensus and unity. Pro Peace stands in solidarity with the families in Sheikh Jarrah who are living in fear of forced expulsion from their houses. Only with an end of the occupation can we achieve a long-lasting end to the suffering, conflict and injustice.