OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — Israeli occupation forces
detained two prominent Palestinian activists on Sunday who have become the face
of a campaign to halt Palestinian evictions from a flashpoint East Jerusalem
neighborhood.
اضافة اعلان
Supporters of Muna and Mohammed El-Kurd, who are twins, say
their detention is part of a broader Israeli effort to halt opposition to the
evictions in Sheikh Jarrah, where Jewish settlers want to move into El-Kurds'
home and others under an Israeli court ruling.
Without explicitly naming Muna El-Kurd, 23, an Israeli
police spokeswoman said "police arrested under court order a suspect (23)
who is a resident of East Jerusalem, on suspicion of participating in riots
that took place in Sheikh Jarrah recently".
Footage on social media showed her handcuffed and being
escorted out of her home by Israeli officers earlier on Sunday.
Police did not immediately comment on her twin brother
Mohammed, who turned himself in at a police station in occupied East Jerusalem
after receiving a summons from the Israeli forces.
"What's happening is that they (Israel) want to quiet
all of our voices in Jerusalem," said their father, Nabil El-Kurd, calling
on Palestinian youth to protest outside the police station on East Jerusalem's
Salah Al-Din street.
The detentions come a day after occupation forces in Sheikh
Jarrah arrested a reporter with Qatar-based media network Al Jazeera who had
been covering a protest there.
In October last year, an Israeli court ruled in favor of
Jewish settlers who say some eight Palestinian families in
Sheikh Jarrah are
living on land that used to belong to Jews.
Palestinians are appealing the decision at Israel's Supreme
Court, and the evictions are currently on hold.
Anger over the proposed evictions helped spark 11 days of
violence in May between Israel and Palestinians in Gaza, whose Islamist rulers
Hamas have called Israeli policy in East Jerusalem a "red line".
Tensions could flare further in Jerusalem this week, when a
Jewish right-wing march is expected to pass through the Old City's Damascus
gate. A similar march, its route diverted at the last minute, was held the same
day that the Israel-Gaza fighting broke out.
Israel occupied East Jerusalem, along with the West Bank and
Gaza, in the 1967 Middle East war. Palestinians seek the territories for a
future state.
Read more
Region & World
.jpg)
.jpg)
