THREAD: 6 Things to Know about Jerusalem violence

Amidst all the headlines and breaking news, it can be confusing to make sense of what’s happening in #Palestine/ #Israel right now. Here are 6 things you need to know to understand what’s going on:

1) Israel has been escalating tensions in #Jerusalem for weeks, including placing new restrictions on Palestinians marking Ramadan, the violent suppression of Palestinians protesting evictions of families in #SheikhJarrah by settlers,

and soldiers assaulting worshippers in Al Aqsa Mosque.

2) The root cause of all the violence is Israel’s systematic dispossession of Palestinians in #Jerusalem and elsewhere in Palestine/Israel, which has been going on since the founding of the state, and the #apartheid regime it has imposed.

3) Israel and its settlers have no legal claim to East Jerusalem whatsoever. Period. It is Palestinian land that the Israeli military has been occupying since 1967 and is recognized as such by the UN and international community.

If East Jerusalem is “contested” or “disputed” then predominantly Jewish West Jerusalem should be described the same. During Israel’s establishment, 30,000 Palestinians were driven from their homes in West Jerusalem

and have been prevented from returning ever since because they aren’t Jewish.

4) When you hear about “clashes” and “scuffles,” what’s really happening is Palestinians are protesting for their freedom and rights against heavily armed Israeli police and soldiers using tear gas, stun grenades, coated steel bullets, and skunk water, to violently suppress them.

5) The Gaza Strip, like the West Bank, has been under Israeli military occupation since 1967 plus a 15-year-old suffocating siege and naval blockade that has been condemned as collective punishment of the entire population, which is a war crime, by the UN and human rights orgs.

6) Israel will continue dispossessing #Palestinians and the situation on the ground will continue to deteriorate unless or until the US and international community apply concrete pressure on Israel to begin respecting Palestinian human rights.

#SaveSheikhJarrah