SJ1

Articles focusing primarily on the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in East Jerusalem.

Protest against settler-friendly JNF expands, raises existential questions

Some of you may have been following the campaign to thwart the eviction of the Sumarin family in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan by activists from Sheikh Jarrah Solidarity and Rabbis for Human Rights (both Israel and North America), reported on our site here. As part of the effort to raise awareness, a group of activists staged…

By Mairav Zonszein December 23, 2011

Riots in Silwan Today. Photo by Joseph Dana

WATCH: Palestinian youth abducted by police in E. Jerusalem

While Israelis are busy pitching tents across the country, in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan, life under occupation goes on as usual, far away from the media’s eyes. In the shocking footage below, taken with a surveillance camera last Friday, July 22, Palestinian teens playing soccer in the street are suddenly abducted by Israeli…

By Mairav Zonszein July 26, 2011

Ministers celebrate East Jerusalem settlement expansion

While Netanyahu was still reeling from his political victory following his US trip Wednesday, back at home, Interior Minister Eil Yishai and Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat and other government officials made good on Netanayhu’s promise to maintain the occupation in Jerusalem by staging a provocative ceremony to inaugurate 60 housing units already constructed in the Palestinian…

By Mairav Zonszein May 26, 2011

Latest

The emergence of the new Israeli Left

Joseph Dana and I have a cover story for The Nation this week on the Israeli activists who takes part in the unarmed protest in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. We discuss the history of the joint struggle, its political significance and the challenges lying ahead. Though we say it in the text several…

By Noam Sheizaf March 13, 2011

Novelist Ian McEwan plays for both teams in East Jerusalem

The British author visited the Sheikh Jarrah protest – but also intends to receive the Jerusalem Prize for Literature from the patron of the city’s settlers, mayor Nir Barkat The celebrated British author Ian McEwan joined today the weekly protest in the neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah, where Palestinian families have been evacuated from their homes…

By Noam Sheizaf February 18, 2011

The Palestine Papers: The ultimate confirmation

The cables released last night by Al Jazeera, which form the Palestine Papers, have provided ultimate confirmation of what many on the ground have known for some time – Israel is not interested in an equitable two state solution. Instead Israel is interested in maintaining the status quo, which necessarily means that both Palestinian and…

By Joseph Dana January 24, 2011

East Jerusalem: Friday protest moves to Shepherd Hotel

The weekly protest in Sheikh Jarrah took place in front of the Shepherd Hotel yesterday, where demolitions began last Sunday to make way for the construction of a Jewish residential complex owned by Irving Moskowitz. The demolition was met with sharp criticism by the US and European community, however the Prime Minister Office’s response is…

By Mairav Zonszein January 15, 2011

Palestinian child faces Israeli riot control police in East Jerusalem (photo: Lisa Goldman)

Settlement of Sheikh Jarrah not ‘bad politics,’ it’s simply bad

Jeffrey Goldberg believes that the Jewish settlement in Sheikh Jarrah is “not necessarily” in the best Jewish self-interest. Why not? Because peace is important, and without a Palestinian East Jerusalem, there will be no Palestinian state, and hence, no possibility of peace. Israel will either cease to be a Jewish state (through the absorption of…

By +972 Magazine January 14, 2011

Protesting Jewish settlement in Sheikh Jarrah (photo: Oren Ziv/activestills.org)

Can the demolition of Shepherd Hotel be good for democracy?

The Israeli government allowed Jewish settlers to take over an abandoned hotel in the heart of Arab East Jerusalem in order to build a Jewish only settlement on Sunday. From Washington to Brussels, diplomatic representatives have raised concern and dismay about the unilateral Israeli decision. The international community has raised questions about the viability of…

By Joseph Dana January 11, 2011

“Running On Empty”: Israel’s morals are nowhere to be seen

By Louis Frankenthaler The Jerusalem Marathon of 2011, which will pass through Sheikh Jarrah, reminds Louis Frankenthaler of an old Jackson Browne song he grew up on A great song, indeed, I remember it from those good old days, when I was a kid, in Jersey. Growing up in the early 80’s,being tremendously turned on…

By +972 Magazine January 9, 2011

Shepherd Hotel demolished, to be replaced by settlement

Bulldozers razed a big chunk of the Shepherd Hotel in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah early morning Sunday to make way for a new residential complex for Jews (a.k.a settlement). The Shepherd Hotel was owned by Jerusalem Mufti Haj Amin al-Husseini until 1967, when Israel expropriated it under the Absentee Property Law (Read…

By Mairav Zonszein January 9, 2011

Protesting Jewish settlement in Sheikh Jarrah (photo: Oren Ziv/activestills.org)

Video report: Jewish settlers vs. Palestinians in Sheikh Jarrah

By Harvey Stein There is plenty of detailed historical and legal info readily available on Sheikh Jarrah and the other East Jerusalem settlements. In this video I wanted to contrast the very different personal stories and experiences on the two sides. I tried to let the settlers “dig their own graves.” I was amazed at their…

By +972 Magazine January 3, 2011

President Jimmy Carter at Sheikh Jarrah

From the protest on Friday, October 22, 2010. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snC_krTBaYQ[/youtube]

By +972 Magazine October 24, 2010