ISRAELI police forces violently dispersed a Palestinian protest in the occupied East Jerusalem village of al-Tur on Wednesday, amid complaints that authorities’ closure of the village’s main road is a form of ‘collective punishment’ against locals.
Dozens of residents of the neighbourhood on the Mount of Olives as well as foreign activists carried out a sit-in on al-Tur’s main street to protest Israeli authorities’ decision to shut down major thoroughfare Suleiman al-Farsi street with two concrete blocks.
The street was closed earlier this week when locals protested against the death of a 17-year-old boy from the area who was shot dead after a scuffle with a soldier at a nearby checkpoint.
Mufid Abu Ghannam, director of a local activist committee, said that Israeli forces assaulted protesters on Wednesday and launched stun grenades at sit-in participants, injuring two people with shrapnel in their lower extremities.
Israeli forces also reportedly detained two Palestinian protesters, Amjad al-Shami and Youssef Khuweis.
Abu Ghannam said that even after protesters had dispersed, Israeli forces continued firing stun grenades at people in the area.
Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld confirmed the incident, saying that police used stun grenades against protesters after they blocked roads in what he called an ‘illegal demonstration’ in which ‘stones were thrown at police officers who were at the scene’.
Rosenfeld denied any injuries in the incident.
The sit-in on the main street of al-Tur was held concurrently with rallies at five schools in the village, where students carried out sit-ins in school yards in protest against the closure of the village’s entrance.
Suleiman al-Farsi Street is considered the main entrance to the village, and local activists said that the closure of the road negatively affected the ability of 3,000 local residents to live normally. The closure also prevents ambulances and fire trucks from reaching the village.
The thoroughfare is also the main road leading to the Suleiman al-Farsi mosque, the village cemetery, and two elementary schools where some 1,200 students attend.
The closure of the roads followed widespread protests against the killing of Muhammad Abu Ghannam on Saturday as he crossed the al-Zayyim checkpoint on foot resulted in widespread protests.
A soldier at the checkpoint reportedly insulted Abu Ghannam’s sister, leading to a scuffle, while Israeli authorities have alleged the boy pulled a knife on the soldier.
Israeli municipal authorities routinely close and block major roads leading into Palestinian neighbourhoods of occupied East Jerusalem.
In addition to Al-Tur, another major road into the nearby town of al-Issawiya was also shut closed.
Muhammad Abu Ghannam was one of three Palestinians shot dead by Israeli forces in the last week.
Although Palestinians in occupied East Jerusalem live within territory Israel has unilaterally annexed, they lack citizenship rights and are instead classified only as ‘residents’ whose permits can be revoked if they move away from the city for more than a few years.
Jerusalem Palestinians face discrimination in all aspects of life including housing, employment, and services, and are unable to access services in the West Bank due to the construction of Israel’s separation wall.
Tensions have been running high in East Jerusalem since last summer when Jewish extremists raided the area and kidnapped and murdered a 16-year-old Palestinian boy, Muhammad Abu Khdeir.
Israeli forces have detained hundreds of Palestinians across East Jerusalem who have taken part in protests, especially against Israel’s summer assault on Gaza, including 600 alone in the two months after Abu Khdeir’s death.
• In a last minute move, former US President Jimmy Carter on Wednesday cancelled his visit to the Gaza Strip, scheduled on Thursday.
The removal of the Gaza Strip from Carter’s itinerary was announced without reason on Wednesday evening by the Elders, a non-governmental organisation that describes itself as a group of ‘independent global leaders working together for peace and human rights’.
Carter’s stop in the Gaza Strip was to be the first of a larger trip, to be followed by visits to the occupied West Bank and Israel to address pressing political issues and bring international attention to the current humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip.
In response to Carter’s decision to meet with the Hamas leadership, Israeli President Reuven Rivlin said on April 20 he would refuse to meet with the former president due to his ‘anti-Israel’ positions, according to Israeli media.
The Jerusalem Post reported on Wednesday that the Israeli Foreign Ministry recommended that Rivlin should not meet with Carter, in order to convey the message that those who harm Israel will not meet with the president.
Carter is a longstanding critic of what he views as Israel’s unjust and violent policy against Palestinians.
During last summer’s war, Carter demanded that the the Israel-Gaza status quo change, calling for the international community to recognise Hamas as a ‘legitimate political actor’.
Carter was scheduled to meet Hamas leaders including Ismail Haniya to discuss national reconciliation, Hamas leader Ahmad Yousef said earlier this week.
He added at the time that since Egypt has no role in mediation now, Carter would come accompanied by international officials to meet Hamas leaders and then President Mahmoud Abbas.
Carter was also scheduled to meet faction leaders and ministers in Gaza, and had planned to discuss a ceasefire with Israel as well as Palestinian elections. The former president is assumed to continue as usual with his plans to visit Israel and the occupied West Bank.
• The UN’s new Middle East peace envoy on Thursday urged Palestinian factions to unite and Israel to lift its blockade of the Gaza Strip, on his first visit to the territory.
‘I strongly believe that it will hurt the cause of the Palestinian people if division, if the lack of unity, is not addressed as soon as possible,’ Nickolay Mladenov, who was appointed in February, told reporters in Gaza City.
‘I hope that the United Nations will be able to support the efforts to strengthen this unity,’ he said.
Gaza faces a humanitarian crisis months after a devastating 50-day war between Israel and Hamas, with the international community warning of further conflict without Palestinian reconciliation and a lifting of Israel’s blockade. ‘We in the United Nations, along with our partners in the international community, have a responsibility to ensure that Gaza is not just being reconstructed. . . but that the blockade which stops access to construction materials, to movement of people, goods … is lifted,’ Mladenov said.
The July-August Gaza war, which killed 2,200 Palestinians and 73 on the Israeli side, mostly soldiers, has left 100,000 people homeless in the tiny coastal territory, home to 1.8 million people.
Reconstruction of homes has barely begun, with an eight-year Israeli blockade still in place.
Gaza’s Islamist de facto rulers, Hamas, and their West Bank-based rivals, Fatah, have failed to implement a unity deal they signed in April last year.
The deal was meant to hand over control of Gaza to the Western-supported Palestinian Authority, which Fatah dominates.