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<font size="1"><a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-palestine-gaza-citizens-down-tools-protest-bombing-abuses">https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-palestine-gaza-citizens-down-tools-protest-bombing-abuses</a>
</font><h1 class="gmail-reader-title">Palestinians in Israel and beyond stage historic strike over abuses and Gaza bombing</h1>
<div class="gmail-credits gmail-reader-credits">By Lubna Masarwa ,
Shatha Hammad ,
Latifeh Abdellatif - May 18, 2021<br></div>
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<div><p>The stone streets of Jerusalem’s Old City are silent. Shutters with peeling paint are firmly rolled down.</p>
<p>In Haifa, Jewish cafes are serving coffee. Beside them, Palestinian-run businesses have their lights turned off.</p>
<p>Across Israel, the clanking, sawing and drilling sounds from
construction sites have disappeared. There are no Palestinian labourers
manning the scaffolds now.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>'I cannot recall, for years, Palestinians of all backgrounds,
factions, Muslims, Christians, atheists, being united under one goal'</p>
<p><em>- Inas Abbad, Palestinian political researcher</em></p>
</blockquote>
<p>Millions of Palestinians have gone on strike.</p>
<p>In Israel, occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank, Palestinians
have downed tools or stayed away from their desks in just the latest
example of pan-Palestinian solidarity following days of Israeli
crackdowns and ferocious bombing on Gaza.</p>
<p>“I cannot recall, for years, Palestinians of all backgrounds,
factions, Muslims, Christians, atheists, being united under one goal,”
Inas Abbad, a political science researcher and activist from East
Jerusalem, told Middle East Eye.</p>
<p>“This is the first time since the Second intifada that Palestinian
parties, together with all Palestinians of the occupied territories of
1948, have issued a joint statement and a unified call for a strike.”</p>
<h3>Shutdown in Israel</h3>
<p>Schools, businesses, shops and official institutions have heeded the
call, first raised on Sunday by the Arab Follow-up Committee, which
coordinates between political parties inside Israel.</p>
<p>The Palestinian Authority (PA) in the occupied West Bank, too,
encouraged participation in the action, labelled the Karameh (Dignity)
Strike.</p>
<p>Around <a href="https://imeu.org/article/fact-sheet-palestinian-citizens-of-israel" target="_blank">1.93 million Palestinians</a>
are citizens of Israel, a fifth of the country’s population. In the
West Bank and East Jerusalem are some three million, some of whom travel
over to Israel every day to work on construction.</p>
<p>Though the strike has shut down large parts of all of their economies, there is no quietude.</p>
<div>
<p><img src="https://www.middleeasteye.net/sites/default/files/000_9A8973%20%281%29.jpg" alt="An Israeli border police member confronts a Palestinian man during protests against Israel's occupation and its air campaign on the Gaza strip, at Damascus Gate in East Jerusalem (AFP)" title="An Israeli border police member confronts a Palestinian man during protests against Israel's occupation and its air campaign on the Gaza strip, at Damascus Gate in East Jerusalem (AFP)" style="margin-right: 25px;" width="476" height="347"></p>
An Israeli border police member confronts a Palestinian man
during protests against Israel's occupation and its air campaign on the
Gaza Strip, at Damascus Gate in East Jerusalem (AFP)</div>
<p>Thousands of Palestinians are protesting in cities and towns
across historic Palestine, raging against Israeli raids in al-Aqsa
Mosque, attempted expulsions in East Jerusalem’s Sheikh Jarrah, deadly
far-right violence in Israel and a punishing bombardment in Gaza that
has killed 212, including 60 children.</p>
<p>In Haifa, a northern Israel city known for its mix of Jewish and
Palestinian citizens, the Palestinian flag has been raised on several
buildings, and residents have taken to the streets chanting in
solidarity.</p>
<p>“My feeling is that this strike is important to each and every one of
us, so that we can put a stop to this brutality and the constant
assault on us in all walks of life,” Hazar Hijazi, a 45-year-old
education therapist, said in Haifa.</p>
<p>“Enough attacks on people in Gaza, the West Bank and Jerusalem, Lod,
everywhere. Enough attacks on our homes, our daily life and
displacement. The displacement and erasure of our existence on our land
needs to stop, we’ve experienced enough repression, arrests and threats
to our homeland and our futures.”</p>
<p>Israeli forces have violently cracked down on Palestinian protests in
Jerusalem, both inside the Old City and around the Damascus Gate.</p>
<p>Israeli police beat, pepper sprayed and removed the hijab of MEE correspondent <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/users/latifeh-abdellatif" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Latifeh Abdellatif</a> while she was filming the detention of a young boy.</p>
<p>Palestinians on the scene stepped in to protect Abdellatif, scuffling
with the Israeli officers. A number of them were arrested as a result.</p>
<p>Fatima Khadir, an activist from Jerusalem at the Damascus Gate,
underlined the feeling of unity across all Palestinian communities.</p>
<p>"We gave so many sacrifices during this past year, many of our
children were killed in Jerusalem and Gaza, and we don't want to go to
the past again. Our children and families are being destroyed and have
no chance of living in dignity under occupation," she said. </p>
<p>"Who will protect us from the settlers and the Israeli forces? Who will protect Sheikh Jarrah from eviction?" she asked.</p>
<p>"We have no one.. I really hope that the international community
stands with us. Shame on the Arab countries that normalise with Israel
and see the Palestinian women being beaten by the army. Biden is a
Zionist, the arms that are used in Gaza are coming from the US."</p>
<p>Shabtai, a Jewish Israeli in his 60s in the Jerusalem neighbourhood
of Baqaa, has had to take the day off because none of the Palestinian
labourers working on his construction site turned up for work.</p>
<p>“I hope this does not last. The longer the Arabs strike, the more
money we will lose because the building projects will be frozen,” he
told MEE.</p>
<p>“I’ve called them several times to try and convince them to come to
work. Even the ones that want to work say they cannot because of the
shame and popular pressure.”</p>
<h3>West Bank solidarity</h3>
<p>In the West Bank city of Ramallah, hundreds of Palestinians have gathered in the main streets and squares.</p>
<p>The crowd includes teachers, bank clerks and doctors, repeatedly
chanting “we will return to Haifa, Jaffa, Ramle and Lydd”. Anger is
palpable over the international community and Arab states’ inability to
stop the bombing of Gaza.</p>
<div>
<p><a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/video/children-gaza-console-one-another-during-israeli-air-strikes#autoplay" target="_blank"><img src="https://www.middleeasteye.net/sites/default/files/styles/read_more/public/video_thumbnails/DOLDUHAYiko.jpg?itok=d6B3Vh7d" alt="" width="400" height="250"></a></p><p>Children in Gaza console one another during Israeli air strikes</p>
<p><a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/video/children-gaza-console-one-another-during-israeli-air-strikes#autoplay" target="_blank">Read More »</a>
</p></div>
<p>“This is the start of a new era, one united aim for all Palestinians,
wherever they may reside. Our demand is that we want to live freely and
in peace,” said one protester.</p>
<p>Demonstrations have also begun in Bethlehem and the Bedouin village
of Tulkum. They are expected to be followed this evening by ones in
Jenin and Nablus.</p>
<p>Israel forces shot a Palestinian man dead in Hebron on Tuesday
morning. The military said Fayyad Zahda, 31, was carrying weapons as he
approached soldiers near a settlement.</p>
<p>East of Ramallah in the town of Silwad, Shahla Hammad, 60, told
Middle East Eye that the nine-day bombing campaign on Gaza has
resurfaced traumatic memories.</p>
<p>“The air strikes bring back memories of the West Bank during the
Intifada, when people were opposing the Israeli attacks,” she said.</p>
<p>“Today’s air strikes, just like the air strikes during the Intifada,
unite us as Palestinians and brings us closer together and in cohesion.</p>
<p>"It helps us remember one another’s pain and the pain of parents in
Gaza who face Israeli aggression, and the pain of people in Jerusalem
who are under threat of displacement,” she added.</p>
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