Sheikh Jarrah: A Third Palestinian Intifada Is Now a Stone’s Throw Away

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Israeli police officers take a Palestinian into custody during a demonstration at Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood after Israeli government’s plan to force some Palestinian families out of their homes in East Jerusalem on May 04, 2021. (photo by Mostafa Alkharouf)
Fears for a 3rd Palestinian Intifada are growing.

By Yousef Aljamal | Politics Today | May 10, 2021

From relocating these Palestinians to ghettos such as those in Jaffa, to placing them under military orders in what became Israel, to mass expulsion such as the case of the village of Abu Ghosh in 1950 and Al-Majdal in 1949-1950, Israel has proven repeatedly that its settler-colonialism project necessarily means uprooting the Palestinians.

The ongoing Israeli policies of mass expulsion of Palestinians from the neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah in Jerusalem is a continuation of a more than seven-decade-long policy of ethnic cleansing against native Palestinians following the creation of Israel on May 15, 1948.

Israel’s nature has been augmented in ethnic cleansing and settler-colonialism from day one, when its creation meant the mass expulsion of some 750,000 Palestinians from 532 villages in 1948. Israel’s creation on the ruins of Palestine was based on a complete negation of their existence, forcing them out of their lands and houses, and replacing them with colonial-settlers from all over the world.

Israel’s settler-colonialism and viewing Palestinians as a threat to this project and, therefore, displacing them by all means possible – was and still is the backbone of this project. Despite the UN Resolution 194, which calls for the return of Palestinian refugees to their towns and villages, Israel continues not only denying these refugees the right to return, but also pursues its policies of expulsion against Palestinians who managed to remain in their towns and villages.

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