Police break up leftist demonstration in East Jerusalem

More than 20 people were arrested Friday afternoon in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah, as police broke up a peaceful demonstration that they said was an illegal assembly.

The unusually large gathering of approximately 400 people included high-profile personalities such as former and current members of Knesset (parliament) and veteran human rights activists such as Uri Avnery, who is practially a household name in Israel. The participants included young couples with small children, octogenarians and a heavy media presence.

A mixed group of Israeli and international human rights activists have been gathering weekly since August in this residential neighborhood to protest the eviction of two extended Palestinian families - a total of 53 people - from the homes they had occupied since 1956. Originally refugees from areas that became part of Israel after the 1948 war, the families were settled in the abandoned houses, then under Jordanian control, by UN refugee authorities.

Jewish settlers moved in to the Sheikh Jarrah homes as soon as the Palestinians were evicted; they now live on the street under the protection of Israeli security forces. The majority of Sheikh Jarrah residents are Palestinians; the neighborhood is also home to foreign diplomats and international NGO staff.

Many of the demonstrators came for the first time this past Friday in response to the previous week's arrests; the detained included Hagai El-Ad, the head of the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI).

El-Ad's arrest caught the media's attention, raising public awareness of police tactics against non-violent demonstrators. The arrest also provoked an unprecedented response from the executive director of the ACLU, Anthony Romero, who expressed '[deep concern] that one of Israel's top human rights leaders has been detained for peaceably expressing his views.'

Several prominent Israeli columnists condemned what appeared to be police tactics designed to suppress freedom of speech, particularly since the arraigning judge dismissed the charges against the protestors who were arrested last week and spent the weekend in jail. The judge released the prisoners without charge or conditions, scolding the police for breaking up a legal demonstration.

In a response that many saw as a deliberate provocation, the Jerusalem police announced they would not grant organizers a permit to demonstrate the following week, despite the judge's ruling. They added that they would once again disperse with force any large political gathering in Sheikh Jarrah.

The Israeli Supreme Court ruled that the Sheikh Jarrah houses had belonged to Jews before 1948, when the city was divided between Jordan and the new state of Israel. The court ruling paved the way for the evictions, which were carried out by Israeli border police who broke into the homes in the pre-dawn hours of August 2, 2009, and evicted the families by force. One of the Palestinian families has since lived in a tent pitched nearby.

Yossi Sarid, a prominent retired politician who once headed the leftist Meretz party, told ProVoices that he was participating in a political demonstration for the first time in the five years since he left politics. "We must be responsible citizens," he said, as he dragged morosely on yet another cigarette. "I read about what happened last week and was overcome by a sense of nausea. I cannot believe people are doing these things in the name of religion and Zionism." Sarid waved away the issue of legality. "The settlers use the law when it serves their purposes," he said.

Israel occupied East Jerusalem in the 1967 Six Day War and annexed it shortly afterward, declaring that the city would never be divided again. But the annexation is not recognized by the international community or the Palestinians, for whom the eastern part of the city is the capital of a future Palestinian state. The sites holy to Jews, Christians and Muslims are almost all located in the eastern part of Jerusalem, mostly in the walled old city.

While Jews are legally allowed to reclaim pre-1948 property in East Jerusalem, the law does not permit Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem, who are not Israeli citizens, to lay claim to homes they were forced to abandon in west Jerusalem. Thus the demonstrators were not protesting the legality of the evictions, but rather the morality of the law that sanctioned them.

A Palestinian resident of Sheikh Jarrah moved through the crowd on Friday, offering thick coffee in tiny plastic cups arranged on a tray as demonstrators banged on drums, blew on plastic whistles and chanted "There is nothing holy about an occupied city," and "fascism will not pass." Police moved aside the metal barricades to allow religious Jews into the residential street, but refused to allow journalists or demonstrators access.

Avrum Burg, a retired lawmaker who is both religious and a leftist - an unusual combination in Israel - was present with his family. "Justice and injustice are finally colliding in Israel," he said. "This is the ultimate iconic event. Here we have second generation Palestinian refugees, thuggish settlers and brutal police. The fruit of our warped, manipulative legal system is right in front of our faces, and we cannot ignore it anymore."

Burg and his family had already departed from Sheikh Jarrah as dusk fell and demonstrators surged forward toward the metal police barriers. They were shoved back by rows of heavily armed riot police, who ultimately broke up the demonstration by bundling the leaders into police vans and driving back the rest with a combination of physical force and verbal orders. By the time darkness fell, there were a few hand-lettered signs reading "Jews and Arabs refuse to be enemies," and "free Sheikh Jarrah," lying on the empty sidewalk.