Bi-Weekly Brief for April 25, 2022
A digest of Israel’s ongoing dispossession of Palestinian land and livelihoods, and Palestinian resistance.
Al Aqsa experiences police invasions and drone attack as Ramadan, Passover and Easter converge
On April 15, thousands of worshipers remained in the Old City’s Al-Aqsa Mosque after morning Ramadan prayers in response to rumors that Jewish groups were planning to perform a Passover ritual sacrifice of a goat at the Haram Al-Sharif holy site (Israel’s Temple Mount). After some stones were reportedly thrown, Israeli police invaded the Al-Aqsa Mosque, beating people, firing tear gas and sound bombs, and carrying out some 400 arrests. In the six hour clash, over 150 Palestinians and six police officers were injured and images spread of police pointing weapons at Palestinians inside the Mosque as rows of men lay on their stomachs, with their hands tied behind them. The tension only grew in subsequent days as Haram Al-Sharif became the focal point of settler provocations, with far-right groups and the Kananist Knesset member Itamar Ben Gvir defying police efforts to prevent them from marching to the Damascus Gate. There were police attacks on Al-Aqsa Mosque on April 18, 19 and 20, and on April 22 over 50 people were injured, three seriously, when a drone was used to fire tear gas at worshipers. Attacks were not confined to Muslims. After Israel announced it would limit the number of Palestinian Christians celebrating Easter at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, many Orthodox Christians were prevented from reaching the Church for the April 24th Easter Fire ceremony, and other worshipers were attacked when soldiers entered the Church with their weapons. Meanwhile, a rocket from Gaza was intercepted on April 18, and anti-aircraft missiles were fired at Israeli war planes responding to the rocket launch. More rockets were launched on April 20 and 21. They either fell within the Gaza Strip or in a vacant area in Israel. The response was more Israeli air strikes. On April 24, Israel announced that it was suspending permission for 12,000 Gazans to work in Israel and slammed shut the Erez Crossing. Hamas has reportedly arrested individuals behind the firing of rockets. King Abdullah of Jordan denounced Israel’s “illegal provocative actions” at Al-Aqsa as the situation rattledmuch of the Arab world. The US has expressed deep concern and the UN Commissioner for Human Rights demanded an independent investigation into Israel’s use of force.
While all eyes are on Jerusalem the toll of killings and injuries mounts around the West Bank
During one 24-hour period (April 13-14), the Israeli army took the lives of six Palestinians in the West Bank. Among them was a 34-year-old lawyer, Mohammed Assaf, who was killed with a shot to the chest fired from a moving military jeep as he was taking his young son to the ‘Glimmer of Hope’ kindergarten and his two nephews to their high school in Nablus. He had nothing to do with a confrontation in the vicinity in which dozens of Palestinians were injured by soldiers who had escorted a construction crew to repair the vandalized Joseph’s Tomb. On April 18, the Palestine Chronicle printed photos of 17 Palestinians who were killed in the previous two weeks. The following day, 18-year-old Hanan Khaddoun died of wounds sustained as she was walking home from school in Jenin two weeks previously and on April 22, 20-year-old Lutfi Labadi died after being shot in the head by soldiers in a village near Jenin the previous week.
Settlers continue to exercise total impunity with the Israeli army standing by
Settlers are continuing to cut down trees and attack farmers with stones and bullets. They attacked Shams a-Din Aazem, a disabled 17-year-old who has cancer, when he was with friends at the spring of his village of Qaryut, which is surrounded by settlements in the central West Bank. Although the teenager moves with difficulty, he was detained by soldiers on suspicion of throwing stones and handcuffed for many hours. On April 19, the Israeli army reversed an earlier decision and offered its protection to some 10,000 settlers who – along with Itamar Ben Gvir and other agitators of the far right – were bused and marched through Palestinian villages to the evacuated settlement of Homesh where they staged a mass rally as dozens of Palestinians were injured by tear gas grenades and rubber bullets.
Surveys show US politicians out of touch with academics and the public where Israel is concerned
A poll published by the University of Maryland on April 20 showed that only a tiny fraction of Democratic Party voters (less than 1%) regard Israel as one of the top two US allies, with most placing it behind the UK, Canada, Germany, Mexico, France, Japan, South Korea and China. Twenty percent of Republicans rank Israel as number one. In another recent University of Maryland poll, 60% of academics in the field of Middle East Studies describe the current reality in Israel/Palestine as “a one state reality akin to apartheid.” That assessment is apparently not shared by Vice-President Kamala Harris, who served wine from the illegal settlement of Psagot at her Passover seder.
Water Fact
While Palestinians thirst for water, Israel is planning to raise the level of the Sea of Galilee with water from one of its desalination plants. The announcement was made as the level of the freshwater lake reached its highest level in 30 years thanks to heavy spring rains. Israel currently has five large desalination plants and according to the Ministry of Finance is building two more which would collectively meet up to 90% of its municipal and industrial water needs. Meanwhile, Israel continues to take an estimated 85% of the water from West Bank aquifers for its own use and that of its settlements and bars Palestinians from digging wells and cisterns and collecting rainwater.
Compiled by The Alliance for Water Justice in Palestine
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