Sensing victory, Jerusalem 'shabab' turn Sheikh Jarrah into major crisis

The Palestinians have also succeeded in making the Sheikh Jarrah dispute appear as being part of an overall Israeli scheme to drive Arabs out of Jerusalem and “Judaize” the city.

By KHALED ABU TOAMEH
An Israeli border policeman scuffles with a Palestinian protester during clashes amid ongoing tension ahead of an upcoming court hearing in an Israeli-Palestinian land-ownership dispute in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood of East Jerusalem May 3, 2021. (photo credit: REUTERS/AMMAR AWAD)
An Israeli border policeman scuffles with a Palestinian protester during clashes amid ongoing tension ahead of an upcoming court hearing in an Israeli-Palestinian land-ownership dispute in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood of East Jerusalem May 3, 2021.
(photo credit: REUTERS/AMMAR AWAD)
The Palestinians have succeeded in turning the dispute over the ownership of a number of houses in the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah into a major crisis that has now caught the attention of the United Nations, the European Union and the US administration, as well as several countries and local and foreign media organizations.
This success came on the heels of another “victory” proclaimed by the Palestinians two weeks ago, when Jerusalem police, responding to daily demonstrations, removed barricades it had placed outside the entrance of the Old City’s Damascus Gate.
The barricades, intended to prevent hundreds of youths from gathering at night at the gate entrance, were reinstalled two days later because the nightly skirmishes between the protesters and the police continued even after their removal.
Palestinians praised the removal of the barricades as a “big victory” and bragged about how the “shabab (youths) of Jerusalem” had forced Israel to capitulate and this perceived capitulation is seen as a sign of weakness that is further emboldening the “shabab.”
Leaders of the Palestinian Authority, Hamas and other Palestinian factions were also quick to heap praise on the “heroic” east Jerusalem youths who forced Israeli authorities to remove the barricades. They further lauded the youths for “thwarting attempts by Jewish settlers to storm al-Aqsa Mosque and the homes of residents” of east Jerusalem.
To maintain the momentum, the Palestinians decided to focus on al-Aqsa Mosque compound on the Temple Mount and Sheikh Jarrah, where a number of Arab families face eviction from houses that were owned by Jews before 1948.
The violence that erupted in Sheikh Jarrah in the past few days and al-Aqsa Mosque compound on Friday, when hundreds of rioters threw rocks and other objects at policemen, has succeeded in creating a link between the dispute over the Sheikh Jarrah houses and Islam’s third holiest site.
The Palestinians have also succeeded in making the Sheikh Jarrah dispute appear as if it is part of an overall Israeli scheme to drive Arabs from Jerusalem and “Judaize” the city.
The Jewish organizations claiming ownership of the houses may have won the legal battle, but it’s now hard to see how the Israeli authorities will be able to implement any court order, given the outcry by many international parties and condemnations by several countries, including Arab states.
In 2017, the Palestinians celebrated another “victory” in Jerusalem when Israel was forced, after weeks of protests and clashes, to remove the metal detector gates installed by police at the entrances to al-Aqsa Mosque compound.
Some Palestinians also refer to Israel’s failure to evacuate the Bedouin village of Khan al-Ahmar, located alongside the Jerusalem-Jericho highway, as yet another achievement in the arm-twisting battle with Israel.
Since then, the Palestinians have vowed to pursue their efforts to prevent Israel from “changing the historical and legal status of al-Aqsa Mosque compound” and stop it from implementing its alleged plan to “Judaize” Jerusalem.
Now the “shabab” of Jerusalem, who in the past few days were chanting slogans in support of Hamas, are convinced that if they keep up the pressure, Israel will have no choice but to refrain from evicting the Arab families from Sheikh Jarrah.
Finally, the events of the past few weeks have shown that Hamas has many supporters in east Jerusalem, much to the dismay of the PA leadership. During some of the protests, demonstrators raised Hamas flags and chanted slogans denouncing PA President Mahmoud Abbas as a “traitor” and a “US agent.”


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