Explosive conditions in Jerusalem
It is possible that it will be
the month of Ramadan and there will be no reports of violence from Jerusalem.
Once again, Laylat al-Qadr was the scene of clashes between Israeli police and
thousands of Palestinians seeking worship at the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.
More than 500 Palestinians have
been injured in the unrest over the past 10 days. Most are teenagers, but they
include 29 children under the age of 15. Among the hundreds of Palestinians
arrested are at least ten children. Ambulances carrying the wounded were
repeatedly stopped by Israeli police and a temporary medical aid clinic was
damaged.
The uproar is so intense that
even the Biden administration has had to take serious note. A White House
statement called on Israeli officials to "treat the inhabitants of East Jerusalem
with kindness and respect."
The latest feud erupted when a Jerusalem
district court last month ordered six Palestinian refugee families, who have
lived in the ancient East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh
Jarrah for nearly 70 years, to vacate their homes by May 1 to accommodate
Jewish settlers. Seven other families have been given until August 1 to vacate
their homes. As a result of the implementation of this order, 58 Palestinians,
including 17 children, will lose their roofs.
This did not happen all of a
sudden. In 1937, Prime Minister Golda Meir's cabinet decided to phase out 90
percent of the Arab population in occupied Jerusalem and increase the city's
population to 70-30. That is 70% Jews and 30% Palestinian Arabs.
East Jerusalem as Capital of Israel
The Palestinians consider East Jerusalem
to be the capital of the future state, while Israel claims the whole of Jerusalem.
Since the military occupation in 1967, 200,000 Jews have been settled to change
the proportion of Jerusalem's population. Forty thousand Palestinians have been
pushed out through various legal means and their resettlement in the city is
legally prohibited.
Last year, another 4,500 new
homes were built for Jews in East Jerusalem. One hundred and
seventy Palestinian properties, including one hundred and five houses, were
demolished in the old city during the same period, leaving another three
hundred and eighty-five Palestinians homeless.
In mid-April, hardline
nationalist Jewish groups began patrolling the old Jerusalem city and tortured
Palestinians in the presence of police to create a new eviction atmosphere,
paving the way for the next step in a climate of panic.
On May 1, Israeli police escorted Palestinian
families out of six houses in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood and
dumped their belongings, handing them over to Jews who had fled the United
States last year with the intention of settling here permanently. When a
Palestinian girl shouted at a Jewish settler who had entered her own house,
"What right do you have to evict us?" The settler replied, "If I
had not occupied, someone else would have done it." '
Although under international law,
the occupying power cannot be enforced in the military-occupied territories, seven bloods are forgiven on Israel. Even the Supreme Court has recognized
the principle that Jerusalem is not occupied territory but a legal part of
Israel, so state laws will apply here as well.
On the 27th of last month, the
leading human rights organization Human Rights Watch released for the first
time a 213-page detailed report on Israel's phased genocidal policies. The
report concludes that in the last 73 years, Israel has No matter how many
policies are implemented in the name of security, they have less to do with
security and more than trying to besiege an entire nation by adopting racist
practices. According to the report, this policy is based on four pillars.
Characterization, political and social isolation, constant pressure, and
eviction.
Multi-pronged policy against Jerusalem
For the success of this policy,
multi-pronged measures are continuous regarding Jerusalem. In other
words, the process of resettlement should be expedited to change the ground
realities. The old population should be evicted from their homes under the
guise of law. New construction permits should not be issued to Palestinian
Arabs. Their employment should be fully controlled. They should be kept in a
state of insecurity and uncertainty through humiliating treatment at check
posts. When there is a backlash against these policies about Jerusalem,
it should be suppressed through indiscriminate violence, arrests, torture and
killings.
The report says that these
policies are less than the legitimate requirements of Israel's geographical
security and more than a formal violation of human rights. Fundamental rights
cannot be violated under the guise of any security ideology. Apartheid almost
meets the definition of a state.
Human rights reports about Jerusalem
As expected, the United States
simply said in a statement to Human Rights Watch that "the
parties must show restraint." But the report was so sensational that the
BBC and the Guardian, as well as the American Channel C the NN, the New York
Times and the Washington Post were also forced to mention it. However, the US
media, especially Israel, has been cautious about broadcasting or publishing
critical views.
Learn More: History of the Founder of Jerusalem
But the biggest surprise is
Canada's attitude. Canada's reputation is that it not only takes human rights
issues traditionally seriously but also gives a formal opinion. Let it be the
case of Xinjiang's Muslims in China, that in Syria. Human rights violations
or the detention of human rights activists in Saudi Arabia or the military
dictatorship in Burma Human rights violations in Syria or the detention of
human rights activists in Saudi Arabia or the military dictatorship in Burma's
violence against the people or the Indian peasant movement against the Modi
government. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his Secretary of State Marc Garno
never fail to speak their minds.
But the government has been silent
since Human Rights Watch's explosives report on Israel was published. With the
exception of The Canadian Press Wire and The Globe and Mail, the entire media
has sniffed the snake.
Even the soft-spoken United Arab
Emirates and Saudi Arabia have called for an immediate end to the eviction of
Palestinians in Jerusalem. Imran Khan has also said that the Organization of
the Islamic Conference (OIC) should do something. However, the OIC is not even
capable of changing its footprint. In this context, the attitude of Canada and
the European Union is interesting and meaningful. The United States has
rejected Human Rights Watch's analysis that Israel has come very close to the
definition of a racist apartheid state. He has also taken more or less the same
position on this report as the United States.
