The Ongoing Nakba

Within two weeks since the beginning of the holy month of Ramadan Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) has unleashed violence on the Palestinians residing in different regions. The airstrikes on the Gaza Strip, the call for genocide of Arabs in the old city of Jerusalem and now the  ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in Sheikh Jarrah. 

On 17th April the IDF had launched an airstrike on Gaza Strip allegedly hitting the terror targets which it claimed were operated by Gaza’s Islamist ruling party Hamas. The airstrike was second within a week. The strikes launched hours after the militants fired the rocket in southern Israel as per the claim of Israeli officials. It also claimed that the strikes caused no casualty or damage. This was not the first time that Israel has violated human rights in Gaza Strip. Rather It has conducted more such strikes in past years targeting schools, hospitals and homes justified by an act of ‘self-defense’ devastating the infrastructure of the region. It has also imposed land and sea blockades on Gaza Strip making the region the largest prison in the world. 

Another event that happened on 22nd April in the old city of Jerusalem was the clashes between the local Palestinian residents on one side and ultra-orthodox right-wing Israeli settlers backed by the Israeli Army and police officials on the other. The clashes broke out after the right-wing Israeli settlers held a march calling for the genocide of Arabs. The protesters seemed to chant the slogans like ‘burn Arabs’ and ‘Death to Arabs’ wielding weapons on local Palestinian residents and attacking their homes. The attacks were aimed at displacing the residents from the region. Later when Palestinians retaliated the Israeli army dispersed the crowd using rubber-coated bullet spaying the tear gas and skunk water on them. The violence also received rare condemnation from United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Morroco almost first after the signing of Abraham accords last year. 

The recent updates are coming from the neighborhood of old Jerusalem, Sheikh Jarrah where the illegal Jewish settlers have already started to occupy the houses of local Palestinian residents of the region. This happened after an Israeli court ruled to forcibly evict over 550 Palestinian residents and replace the refugee families with illegal Jewish settlers. The court in October 2020 had also imposed an amount of $20,000 to be paid by each evicted refugee family to cover the legal expenses of settlers. Sheikh Jarrah is home to around 28 Palestinian refugee families who were displaced earlier from their original homes during Nakba 1948. The evictions were set to be started by May 2, 2021.