“We shall overcome!” Where have we heard that song before?
This event occurred on August 10. Rabbi Erik Ascherman, director of Rabbis for Human Rights (Israel), was arrested in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh-Jarakh during a vigil for Palestinian families evicted by the police from their homes
This and other similar eviction incidents received worldwide attention and diplomatic protests from the US, EU, and numerous Middle East countries. We remember them in the US because Secretary of State Hillary Clinton came out with a timid scolding, saying she found the evictions “unhelpful.”
Rabbi Ascherman wrote about his experience:
On Tuesday evening we helped organize a candlelight solidarity vigil opposite the Sheikh Jarakh homes where Palestians were evicted and settlers were allowed in. As many of you know, I was arrested there, the 36th person to be arrested since the evictions of the Hanoun and Ghawi families (Including 2 women from the RHR staff.) The situation leaves me angry and worried, because we are talking about a serious threat to Israeli democracy. Some of the arrests were “justified,” even though we don’t think that the police should have been there evicting families to begin with. However, the only crime of many of those arrested was their inability to accept the injustice done to the El-Kurd, Ghawi and Hanoun families.
Read the remainder of Rabbi Ascherman’s account HERE.
The International Solidarity Movement reported that these forced evictions including house demolitions have affected Palestinian families in many neighborhoods of East Jerusalem, including Silwan and the Mount of Olives, which together with Sheikh-Jarakh form part of the Holy Basin surrounding the Old City of Jerusalem. From January to July 2009, at least 194 people, including 95 children, were forcibly displaced and another 107, including 46 children, were affected as a result of house demolitions ordered or carried out by the Israeli authorities in East Jerusalem.
It was also reported that there are currently over 1,500 pending demolition orders in East Jerusalem alone, potentially affecting several thousand Palestinian residents.
The result of this protest, two months later, is much like the effects of other protests including that of the US, as seen below in these pictures taken only a few weeks ago.
