A thread about how we got here, after weeks of tension in Jerusalem, violence from Jews and Palestinians, and a checklist of unreasonable and ineffective decisions made by police that violated fundamental rights and incited extremists.

1. For over 3 decades, there has been a legal and public struggle b/n Palestinian residents of #SheikhJarrah neighborhood in East Jerusalem and private associations seeking to evict Palestinian families from their homes in favor of Jewish settlers.

2. Despite Israel’s attempt to frame this struggle as a real estate dispute, the reality this story of injustice and discrimination: The State acquired all property owned by Palestinians in the territories that Israel occupied both in 1948 and 1967 under the Absentee Property Law

3. After the annexation of Jerusalem, the law was amended so that Jewish Israelis are entitled to reclaim property that was once owned and abandoned by Jews. The current struggle is over an area near the tomb of Shimon HaTzadik, which was owned by 2 Jewish committees since 1876.

4. The area was abandoned in 1948. In 1956, the Jordanian government and the UN built houses for Palestinian refugees. In 2003, a private company called Nahalat Shimon bought the territories from the Jewish committees and launched a legal battle to evict those families.

5. The company wants to build ~200 new units in the neighborhood exclusively for Jewish Israelis. 4 families have already been evicted from their homes and another 13 (300 children, women, and men) are in danger of being evicted if they lose this legal battle.

6. Residents have been fighting against evictions for over a decade. Their usual civil, non-violent struggle often makes headlines due to the Israeli Police’s violent conduct and arrests of peaceful protesters. The Supreme Court hearing planned for tomorrow has been delayed.

7. Responding to recent daily protests, police deployed large forces to disperse the crowds. We received testimonies of water cannons fired into closed structures, which endangers children and the elderly, and stun grenades thrown at non-violent protesters without warning.

8. Set all of this against the backdrop of the drama at the Damascus Gate starting April 12. At the start of Ramadan the police placed checkpoints and barriers preventing residents and visitors of Al-Aqsa from congregating in the plaza, as has been the practice for many years.

9. This led to clashes with the police, who responded with excessive force. A group of Palestinians recorded videos in which they attacked ultra-Orthodox Jews, publishing them on TikTok. Jewish extremists marched through J'lm calling “Death to Arabs” and attacking Palestinians.

10. On 25.4, the Police removed the barriers in order to calm the tensions clouding Ramadan celebrations. We arrive at last Friday. The weekly demonstration in Sheik Jarrah alongside prayer on the last Friday of Ramadan, which has special significance, turned into violent clashes

11. Police responded with disproportionate use of sponge bullets and stun grenades, including into the Al-Aqsa Mosque itself. Saturday, police blocked worshippers riding into the city on buses in order to exercise their basic right to worship – employing collective punishment.

12. There is a clear hierarchy for the use of crowd control weapons, and rules for operating in a restrained manner so as not to escalate the situation or cause further harm. It seems that when it comes to the Palestinians in Jerusalem, police orders do not include restraint.

13. A concluding remark – on Monday, May 10, unification of the city will be celebrated as is done every year on #JerusalemDay . Over the years, this day has become a symbol that actually represents the separation between the city’s Jewish and Palestinian residents.

14. The violent conduct of the police, policy of neglect and discrimination by authorities, continued takeover of Palestinian homes, and violent demonstrations continue to violate the rights of Palestinian residents and draw a clear line separating parts of the city.