April 25, 2021
By Stephen Lendman
Time and again, when Palestinians protest legitimately against Jewish state viciousness, Israeli soldiers and other security forces attack them with live fire, rubber-coated steel bullets, toxic tear gas, and other repressive tactics.
For 11 straight nights, Palestinian residents of Israeli Occupied Jerusalem rallied against assaults and other provocations by police, extremist settlers, and likeminded far-right Jewish hooligans.
According to the Palestine News & Information Agency (WAFA) on Saturday:
“The Jerusalem uprising… expanded to reach the West Bank and Gaza.”
Over 100 Palestinians were injured, nearly two dozen hospitalized, the Palestinian Red Crescent reported.
WAFA said Saturday night clashes were “in support of the Jerusalem uprising and against Israeli treatment of Palestinians in the holy city.”
What’s going on began on the first day of Ramadan after “Israeli police cut off wires to loudspeakers at Al-Aqsa Mosque minarets in Jerusalem to prevent the call for prayer that alert people to the start and end of the fast as well as the time for prayers,” adding:
For the past 11 nights, “police harassed Jerusalem residents leaving Al-Aqsa Mosque” — Islam’s third holiest site after Mecca’s Sacred Mosque and the Mosque of the Prophet in Madina.
Two nights ago, extremist “Israeli members of the Lahava terror group that advocates killing Palestinians in Jerusalem and taking over their homes joined the police in attacking the city’s Palestinian residents.”
During the weekend, Arab-hating settlers “attacked Palestinian homes and property in Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, throwing rocks and Molotov cocktails at homes and cars.”
Israeli police and other security forces do nothing to deter them when these incidents happen.
Since the Jerusalem uprising began, “Israeli police (permitted) intrusions” by extremist Jews into the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound.
They’re “allow(ed) to hold rituals in violation of the status quo and the sanctity of the holy site as a Muslim-only worship area, provoking strong reaction from people and countries, such as Jordan, the official custodian over the Muslim and Christian holy places in occupied East Jerusalem,” WAFA explained.
Extremist Jews marched from Jerusalem’s Zion Square to the Old City, chanting: “Death to Arabs.”
In parts of the city, police set up checkpoints, closing off areas to prevent Palestinians from observing traditional Ramadan activities, including prayer at the Al-Aqsa Mosque.
Over the weekend, Israeli warplanes and ground forces terror-bombed and shelled Gaza in response to Strip support for abused Palestinians in Jerusalem.
The city is the epicenter of longstanding struggle.
Israeli Jews consider it their capital, a national and religious center.
For Christians, it’s where Jesus lived and died, and for Muslims, it’s home to the sacred Al-Aqsa Mosque.
In June 1967, Israel illegally occupied the city.
On July 30, 1980, the Knesset introduced the Jerusalem Law, officially annexing it as Israel’s unified capital.
On March 1, 1980, Security Council Resolution 465 declared that “all measures taken by Israel to change the physical character, demographic composition, institutional structure or status of the Palestinian and other Arab territories occupied since 1967, including Jerusalem, or any part thereof, have no legal validity and that Israel’s policy and practices of settling parts of its population and new immigrants in those territories constitute a flagrant (Fourth Geneva) violation.”
These actions also “constitute a serious obstruction to achieving a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in the Middle East.”
On July 4, 2004, the International Court of Justice (ICC) ruled that “Israeli settlements in the Occupied Territory, including East Jerusalem, are illegal and an obstacle to peace and to economic and social development (and) have been established in breach of international law.”
Nothing changed. Like the US and other Western countries, Israel operates exclusively by its own rules.
Illegal settlements continue expanding exponentially on stolen Palestinian land.
Israel wants territory from Jordan’s border to the Mediterranean Sea developed for exclusive Jewish use.
Note: Separately on Saturday, scores of Israeli Peace Now activists rallied against police violence and rights of Arab Jerusalem residents, the group’s head Shaqued Morag, saying:
“We want to send a message both to the (Netanyahu regime) and to our Palestinian neighbors that we won’t stay silent in front of the violence and the incitement and the racism.”
“We will defend the right of everybody to live in Jerusalem peacefully.”
For his part, Netanyahu warned that his regime is “prepared for all scenarios” —suggesting that if protests continue, so will police state violence.
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