【Text/ Observer Network Columnist Fan Hongda】
The direct trigger for the Rocket Attack on Israel by Gaza militants on May 10 was the outbreak of serious clashes between Palestinians and Israel in the al-Aqsa mosque area, their religious holy site, on the same day, injuring more than 300 people. Three days ago, on May 7, Israeli police and Palestinians had reached a serious clash in the Al-Aqsa mosque district, injuring more than 200 people. It was against this backdrop that armed men in the Gaza Strip launched a rocket attack on Israel on the evening of 10 May. According to the Gaza armed groups, this is a response to Israel's egregious practices in Jerusalem.
Why, then, are palestinians and Israel in a series of serious clashes in Jerusalem and the Al-Aqsa mosque area? Of course, this is related to the confrontational thinking formed by Palestine and Israel for a long time, and it is more related to the current internal political competition between Palestine and Israel. But this article hopes to interpret the outbreak of the Palestinian-Israeli military conflict from another perspective: the clashes between Jews and Palestinians in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of East Jerusalem and the impact of the Islamic month of Ramadan.
The Sheikh Al-Qarah neighborhood is a very famous Palestinian gathering place in East Jerusalem, and its name is derived from the "Grave of the Patriarch Of The Galah" here. Sheikh Galah is a prominent figure in Arab history, having been a physician and courtier of Saladin, the hero of the Muslim rebellion against the Crusader invasion. In the 12th century, he built a school (or small mosque) in the present-day Sheikh district of Galah, and after his death he was buried under the school, where a Muslim community gradually formed.
Beginning in the mid-19th century, the Sheikh Garah neighborhood became a modern Muslim community where palestinian elites gathered, in which the famous Houthseni family was located. During the rise of the Zionist wave and the migration of Jews to Palestine, a small number of Jews also entered the area. After the First Middle East War in 1948, East and West Jerusalem were occupied by Jordan and Israel respectively, and some Palestinians who had previously lived in West Jerusalem also moved to the Sheikh Neighborhood of Galah.
After israel occupied East Jerusalem in 1967, Jewish organizations or individuals claimed that Jews had purchased some of the land in the neighbourhood as early as the Ottoman Empire, or that they had other evidence that some of the land had once been their own, and demanded that the Arabs living in it either move or pay rent to themselves, which some Palestinians of course refused.
Although some of the Jewish evidence appears to be unreliable, such as the fact that an Israeli court ruled that a property belonged to a Jew on the basis of an Ottoman-era document, that document was seriously questioned afterwards because it was only a lease contract and did not indicate that the ownership of the building belonged to the Jews. Despite this, Palestinian families continue to be expelled from the Sheikh neighborhood. Moreover, jordan did not fully address some of the legal status of property in the Patriarchal Galah neighborhood when Jordan occupied it.
In 2001, several Jews moved into a Muslim home, claiming it was their property and never leaving. Since then, Israeli courts and government departments have continued to make decisions and decisions in favor of the Jews, and the Palestinian Kudel family was forcibly expelled from their home in November 2008, and Muhammad Kuder, the pillar of the family, died just 11 days after his expulsion. When I was doing fieldwork in the Patriarch's neighborhood of Galah in 2011, I also met Kuddell's elderly mother, who was living in a tent set up next to her original house.
Several other Palestinian families had been evicted from their homes, such as Mr. Gerhavi's family, who had been evicted in 2009. In order to help threatened and expelled Palestinians in the neighbourhood and to promote Palestinian-Israeli reconciliation, an Israeli non-governmental organization called "Peace Now" has since launched a non-violent Movement for Jewish-Palestinian Solidarity and Peace in the Patriarchal Galah neighborhood, where demonstrations against the construction of Jewish settlements in Muslim areas are held every Friday afternoon, with the participation of Jews, and of course, Palestinians, who are direct victims of Jewish settlement construction.
Mr. Gerhavi and his original house behind Fan Hongda photographed
I have observed several such peace operations on a few Friday afternoons. I found that in every parade, Mr. Gerhavi was always at the forefront of the line. During the conversation, Mr. Gerhavi told me that the international community wanted to help these "Palestinians who are weak and powerless to confront settlers supported by the Israeli Government and police". After being expelled, Mr. Gerhavi moved to the village of Isavia, just outside Jerusalem.
The Peace Movement in the Patriarchal District of Galach van Hongda photographed
The author photographs scenes related to the peace movement in the Patriarchal District of Galah
To this day, several Palestinian families in the Patriarchal Galah neighborhood still face the fate of being expelled. Since April, the Sheikh Galah neighborhood has been a focal point for palestinians and Jews, with jewish right-wing and Arab parties speaking out on the issue, and there have been many fierce clashes between the two communities in the neighborhood, and even cases of Arab Israeli parliamentarians being beaten here.
The author communicates with Jews who participated in the peace movement in the Sheikh neighborhood of The Patriarch Of Galah Fan Hongda
According to the established arrangement, May 6 this year was originally the day when the Israeli Supreme Court pronounced the final ownership of some real estate and properties, which further stimulated the nerves of some Palestinians and Jews. As a result, we have seen that since April, the contradictions between the two ethnic groups in the Sheikh neighborhood of Galah have become increasingly increasing.
Almost in parallel with the escalation of the contradictions in the Sheikh neighborhood of Galah, the Islamic month of Ramadan, which began on April 13 of this year. Because of the decades-long impact of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, the Israeli police tend to strictly control Muslim access to the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem's Old City during Ramadan or other important Islamic or political days, and even restrict Muslims' access to the Old City of Jerusalem. The Israeli police reason is that if a large number of young and middle-aged male Muslims gather in the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Old City, it is easy to produce security incidents against Israel.
But for Muslims, entering the Al-Aqsa Mosque during the "festive, auspicious and noble" month of Ramadan has a special significance, especially on Fridays during Ramadan. And in the face of important events or crises, many Muslims are often eager to listen to the analysis of the situation by religious figures in mosques. It was against this backdrop that on Friday, May 7, on this day when many Muslims particularly wanted to go to the Al-Aqsa Mosque to pray, the conflict in the Sheikh neighborhood of Galah shifted to the Al-Aqsa Mosque district.
Palestinians who are not allowed to enter the Al-Aqsa halal district can only worship outside Fan Hung Da photographed
Three days later, on May 10, this year's Israeli "Jerusalem Day," Israel's annual anniversary of controlling all of Jerusalem in the Third Middle East War in 1967, is certainly a sad day for the Palestinians. On the same day, serious clashes between Israeli police and Palestinians resumed in the holy Al-Aqsa mosque area.
In short, to a large extent, the situation in the Patriarchal Galah neighborhood is a microcosm of the political and geographical evolution of Palestine over more than a hundred years — the jewish settlers pressing closer and the Palestinians retreating. And once Israeli and Palestinian political forces exploit them for their own purposes, the small Patriarchal Galah neighborhood can be a weapon to stir up the situation in Jerusalem, and it is likely to intensify palestinian-Israeli confrontation, as it did this time.
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