Israeli police detain Palestinian activist twins from East Jerusalem’s Sheikh Jarrah

Israeli police detained two distinguished Palestinian activists on Sunday who’ve grow to be the face of a marketing campaign to halt Palestinian evictions from a flashpoint East Jerusalem neighbourhood.
Supporters of Muna and Mohammed El-Kurd, who’re twins, say their detention is a part of a broader Israeli effort to halt opposition to the evictions in Sheikh Jarrah, the place Jewish settlers need to transfer into the El-Kurds’ residence and others beneath an Israeli court docket ruling.
Without explicitly naming Muna El-Kurd, 23, an Israeli police spokeswoman stated “police arrested under court order a suspect (23) who is a resident of East Jerusalem, on suspicion of participating in riots that took place in Sheikh Jarrah recently”.
Footage on social media confirmed her handcuffed and being escorted out of her residence by Israeli officers earlier on Sunday.
Police didn’t instantly touch upon her twin brother Mohammed, who turned himself in at a police station in East Jerusalem after receiving a police summons.
“What’s happening is that they (Israel) want to quiet all of our voices in Jerusalem,” stated their father, Nabil El-Kurd, calling on Palestinian youth to protest outdoors the police station on East Jerusalem’s Salah Al-Din avenue.
The detentions comes a day after police in Sheikh Jarrah arrested a reporter with Qatar-based media community Al Jazeera who had been overlaying a protest there.
In October final 12 months, an Israeli court docket dominated in favour of Jewish settlers who say some eight Palestinian households in Sheikh Jarrah reside on land that used to belong to Jews.
Palestinians are interesting the choice at Israel’s Supreme Court, and the evictions are at present on maintain.
Anger over the proposed evictions helped spark 11 days of violence in May between Israel and Palestinians in Gaza, whose Islamist rulers Hamas have known as Israeli coverage in East Jerusalem a “red line”.

Tensions might flare additional in Jerusalem this week, when a Jewish right-wing march is anticipated to move by means of the Old City’s Damascus gate. An identical march, its route diverted on the final minute, was held the identical day that the Israel-Gaza preventing broke out.
Israel captured East Jerusalem, together with the West Bank and Gaza, within the 1967 Middle East struggle. Palestinians search the territories for a future state.