Bedouin village of Al-Araqib for the 205th time.140 Palestinians in various neighborhoods and
villages throughout Mandatory Palestine are under the imminent threat of dispossession and
displacement, including those with homes in Silwan,141 Sheikh Jarrah,142 Khan Al-Ahmar,143
Masafer Yatta,144 and Al-Naqab.145
It is thus clear that any change facilitated by various Israeli political parties is merely an illusion.
The atrocities that the Palestinian people face at the hands of Israel are not a result of the
actions of a specific actor or political party nor can they be attributed to a few ‘bad apples’
in the otherwise ‘democratic’ system. All Israeli politicians, regardless of political leaning,
are working towards the same goal imbedded in the very foundation of their state: that is,
the total and indefinite theft and colonization of Palestinian land, the establishment of an
engineered Jewish majority, and the continuous ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people and
the denial of their right to return and self-determination.
The Events of May 2021: Sheikh Jarrah, Gaza, and the Palestinian Unity
and Dignity Habba (Uprising)
The case of eight Palestinian families facing impending forced evictions in the Sheikh Jarrah
neighborhood of Jerusalem reached a pinnacle in 2021, which soon catalyzed mass popular
mobilization in Palestine and beyond. The attempted forced displacement of the families of Sheikh
Jarrah was merely the spark that triggered the Unity and Dignity Habba; the mass mobilization was in
fact predicted to eventually occur in light of Israel’s increasingly aggressive policies of, inter alia, forced
140
Dukium, ‘House Demolitions’ (Dukium, 2022) <https://www.dukium.org/articles-reports/house-demolitions-anddestruction-of-crops/house-demolitions/#> accessed 3 October 2022.
141
Al-Haq, House Demolitions and Forced Evictions in Silwan: Israel’s Transfer of Palestinians from Jerusalem (Al-Haq 2020)
<https://www.alhaq.org/cached_uploads/download/2021/08/17/silwan-webversion-1-page-view-1629184473.
pdf> accessed 3 October 2022.
142
OCHA, ‘Statement of the Humanitarian Country Team on the imminent eviction of the Salem Family in Sheikh
Jarrah in East Jerusalem’ (OCHA, 18 February 2022) <https://www.ochaopt.org/content/statement-humanitariancountry-team-imminent-eviction-salem-family-sheikh-jarrah-east-jerusalem> accessed 3 October 2022.
143
Ramona Wadi, ‘Publicising the demolition of Khan al-Ahmar is not political support against displacement’ (Middle
East Monitor, 27 January 2022) <https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20220127-publicising-the-demolition-ofkhan-al-ahmar-is-not-political-support-against-displacement/> accessed 3 October 2022.
144
OCHA, ‘Fact sheet: Masafer Yatta communities at risk of forcible transfer | June 2022’ (OCHA, 6 July 2022) <https://
www.ochaopt.org/content/masafer-yatta-communities-risk-forcible-transfer-june-2022>; Ahmed Jundeya, ‘Israel
expelled my father from Masafer Yatta 20 years ago. Now it’s happening again’ (+972 Magazine, 4 July 2022) <https://
www.972mag.com/masafer-yatta-father-interview/>;
<https://www.972mag.com/masafer-yatta-demolitionsexpulsion/> accessed 3 October 2022.
145
Adalah, ‘Adalah: Israel Land Authority’s attempt to forcibly displace 500 Palestinian Bedouin residents of Ras Jrabah
to expand the primarily-Jewish city of Dimona is illegal and must be cancelled’ (Adalah, 15 May 2022) <https://
www.adalah.org/en/content/view/10623>; Amnesty International, ‘Israel/ OPT: Scrap plans for forced transfer of
Palestinian Bedouin village Ras Jrabah in the Negev/Naqab’ (Amnesty International, 22 May 2022) <https://www.
amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2022/05/israel-opt-scrap-plans-for-forced-transfer-of-palestinian-bedouin-village-rasjrabah-in-the-negev-naqab/>; BADIL, Israel’s Forcible Displacement of Palestinian Bedouin: Forced Displacement
as a Pillar of Colonialism and Apartheid (Submission for the Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human
Rights in the Palestinian Territories Occupied since 1967, BADIL 2015) <https://www.badil.org/cached_uploads/
view/2021/04/25/submission-for-the-special-rapporteur-on-20the-situation-of-human-rights-in-20the-palestinianterritories-occupied-since-1967-28july2015-29-1619361750.pdf> accessed 3 October 2022.
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