[News] The resilient women of Sheikh Jarrah: ‘We will never leave’

[Anti-Imperialist News]

https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-palestine-sheikh-jarrah-women-resilient-fight
The
resilient women of Sheikh Jarrah: ‘We will never leave’
By Aseel Jundi in Sheikh Jarrah, Palestine - May 11, 2021
------------------------------

>From behind the scenes to the forefront of the struggle, the women of
Sheikh Jarrah are leading their own fights to save their neighbourhood from
Israel’s plans to appropriate the land on which they and generations of
their families were raised.

“I will take it upon myself to chain myself in my room should they raid our
house to forcibly expel us,” says 23-year-old Muna al-Kurd, whose family
has been living under the threat of displacement from their house in Karm
al-Jaouni in Sheikh Jarrah, in occupied East Jerusalem.

“I will not leave my home in Sheikh Jarrah.”

[image: Sheikh Jarrah]
Muna and her father Nabil standing next to a wall graffitied with 'We will
not leave' in Arabic (MEE/Aseel al-Jundi)

While Palestinians are being attacked by Israeli forces and settlers for
defending their rights to remain in their homes, Muna, the only journalist
in the neighbourhood, can rarely be found at home.

Instead, she has made herself readily available to news outlets in order to
document daily violations by Israeli settlers and occupation forces.

Middle East Eye met with Muna near her family home, where she shared her
own story on how the women of Sheikh Jarrah have been spending their time
amid the escalating tension, daily oppression of residents, and growing
solidarity from activists, while they face eviction orders in favour of
settlers.

Muna’s experience with Israeli harassment started in 2001, three years
after she was born, when a section of her home was shuttered and its keys
confiscated as a prelude to housing settlers.

'I go to sleep with my cloak and hijab in fear of any sudden raids as we
are confronting gangs'
*- Nuha Attieh, Sheikh Jarrah resident*

“Some of the first stories I’ve heard and talked about were stories of
evictions and expulsions that threatened some of the neighbourhood’s
residents, until the threat knocked on our own doors,” Muna says.

“I grew up and matured around international law, war crimes, crimes against
humanity terminologies, and other such expressions.”

The settlers have been living in the Kurds’ home since 2009.

Today, Muna finds herself repeating these same expressions on social media
platforms and to news outlets, assuming the responsibility bestowed upon
her as a journalist by the residents of Sheikh Jarrah to garner
international support.

Muna has long advocated for Sheikh Jarrah. Two months ago, she launched an
electronic campaign under the hashtag #SaveSheikhJarrah to highlight the
plight of the neighbourhood’s people.
‘Gasping for air’

As events unfold in Sheikh Jarrah, Palestinian women are assuming vital and
prominent roles, Muna acknowledges, by attending residents’ meetings and
participating in the decision-making process. They are also taking
individual initiatives towards solidarity activists, attending hearing
sessions at Israeli courts and closely monitoring the legal battle.

“I cannot overemphasise this resilience without saying that the
neighbourhood’s women are grappling with both living under a state of
incredible fear for their husbands and sons in the wake of the daily,
brutal Israeli oppression, and dealing with the deep anxiety stemming from
the fear of being imminently evicted from their homes,” she says.

'I have had a recurring nightmare for years, where I feel someone is trying
to pull me out of my house by force, and I resist them'

*- Muna al-Kurd, Sheikh Jarrah resident*

“After breaking the Ramadan fast, women hasten to entertain the solidarity
activists by offering them tea, coffee or cool melons to dampen the heat of
the day, and then they rush to police the area once the activists depart,”
Muna says with a smile hiding years of duress.

Muna's own fearlessness was on display when she tried to free her brother
from the hands of Israeli special forces as they severely beat him. Her
brother was eventually arrested a few days ago.

When asked about her fears, Muna says that talking about it was painful and
could not be summed up in a few words.

“I was born and raised in Sheikh Jarrah and I cannot imagine myself living
anywhere else,” she says.

“Sometimes I drift to sleep and suddenly wake up gasping for air.

“I have had a recurring nightmare for years, where I feel someone is trying
to pull me out of my house by force, and I resist them.”

Muna reiterates that regardless of the daily peril surrounding her and her
family since the settlers occupied half of their house, and the looming
threat of being forcibly expelled from the remaining part, she would not
feel safe anywhere else.

“Before my grandmother died, I didn’t have a room of my own and I used to
sleep in the living room next to the window, where I would imagine a hand
carrying a gun and shooting at me,” she said.

“Still, I totally refuse forcible expulsion.”
A history of displacement

In 1948, Muna’s father Nabil al-Kurd was forced out of his home in Haifa to
Jerusalem by the Jewish militia during the Palestinian Nakba
<https://www.middleeasteye.net/fr/news/interactive-nakba-1480842065>, or
Catastrophe. His family was among 28 families that Jordan, in cooperation
with the UN refugee agency, UNRWA, decided to resettle in Jerusalem in 1956
in exchange for giving up their rights as refugees.

'I got married in this house and I wish I could die here. Every single
piece within these walls and around it means a lot to me'
*- Salwa Skafi, Sheikh Jarrah resident*

These families were selected and provided with housing units built by the
Jordanian government for three years, after which the ownership of the
properties would automatically become theirs.

However, after the occupation of Jerusalem in 1967, with the eastern part
of the city coming under Israeli control, the inhabitants of Sheikh Jarrah
district were surprised when two Jewish committees registered their
ownership of the 18-dunam land at the Land Department in 1972.

Consequently, dozens of judicial cases were raised in Israeli courts, as
the 28 nuclear Palestinian families expanded and the number of residents
facing eviction in favour of settlers rose to 500, including 111 children.

In 2001, as his own family grew, Nabil completed the construction of an
extension to his house. However, four days before the family could move in,
the Israeli occupation authorities confiscated the keys to the extension.

In 2009, Israeli settlers moved in and occupied the house, only to turn the
life of the Kurd family to hell
<https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-palestine-save-sheikh-jarrah-campaign>
through relentless harassment.

Now in his seventies, Nabil and three other families in Sheikh Jarrah are
waiting for Israel’s Supreme Court to reach a verdict in the eviction case
against them. The court had postponed its decision last week as tensions
escalated.
Salwa Skafi

On the road northward from the Kurd family home to the Skafi family home,
settler posts can be seen adjacent to the house of Umm Kamel al-Kurd, which
settlers took over by force in 2008.

On the iron gate of the Skafi home, one is greeted with the plaque engraved
with “we will never leave our land” in English. Sixty-two-year-old Salwa
Skafi, the woman of the house, has lived there since 1976.

“I gave birth to all my sons and daughters here, and my grandchildren were
born here too,” Salwa tells MEE.

“Whenever it occurs to me that I might be expelled from this house I feel a
lump in my throat.

“We no longer enjoy a calm sleep, and we’re living under immense duress
especially during times of Israeli judicial deliberations, which I’ve been
keen to attend lately.”

[image: Sheikh Jarrah]
'I gave birth to all my sons and daughters here, and my grandchildren were
born here too,' says Salwa Skafi (MEE/Aseel al-Jundi)

Salwa speaks about the extent of her worry for her sons and ailing husband
in case of eviction. She then recalled Umm Kamel’s husband who had suffered
from a cerebral stroke and died within a month of their forced eviction.

“I got married in this house and I wish I could die here. Every single
piece within these walls and around it means a lot to me,” she says.

“Sometimes I think of uprooting the trees in the yard of my house, lest the
settlers enjoy its fruits.

“In a couple of months the kaki persimmon tree will ripen and everyday I
wonder, who is going to eat the fruits this year, us or the settlers?”

Salwa describes a general state of frustration prevailing among women in
the neighbourhood, facing a harsh destiny and a vague future if evictions
are carried out.
Nuha Attieh

Nuha Attieh, a 59-year-old nurse who has been living in Karm al-Jaouni in
Sheikh Jarrah since her marriage in 1988, says that ever since the first
family was evicted from the neighbourhood in 2008, she has never felt safe.

This Ramadan, women’s responsibilities have turned upside down. Nuha is no
longer dedicated to preparing the breaking-fast meal for her family in the
evening. Instead she feels more responsible towards activists and rushes to
their aid when the need arises. She also looks after them by offering them
tea, coffee and cookies to make them feel at home.

[image: Sheikh Jarrah]
Nuha Attieh holding the cookies she has prepared to offer activists
(MEE/Aseel al-Jundi)

The trauma of witnessing Israeli forces raiding their neighbours’ home in
the middle of the night 13 years ago has only served to amplify Nuha’s own
feeling of insecurity.

“I witnessed the doors of our neighbours, Al-Gawi family, being shattered
during a pitch-black night, the women thrown out in their night garments
and forcibly evicted from their home,” Nuha tells MEE.

“This scene never leaves my imagination. I remember grabbing some clothes
from my house and giving them to the women.

“Today, in the wake of the tension that the neighbourhood is living under,
I go to sleep with my cloak and hijab in fear of any sudden raids as we are
confronting gangs.”

*This article is available in French on Middle East Eye French edition
<https://www.middleeasteye.net/fr/reportages/jerusalem-sheikh-jarrah-femmes-expulsion-israeliens-colons-maisons>.*
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