Clash

Crowds cramming the streets

Last night saw some vicious violence just at the northern outskirts of the Old City, in the neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah. It's been a flashpoint of clashes for the past 10 years, but these few nights had become even worse. Several arab families are threatened with forceful eviction because jewish settlers have claimed ownership of their houses. Already 4 such houses were occupied last week. Ousted arab families stage daily protests in the street but police disperse them, even arresting them. Last night the jewish and arab groups clashed, a car was burned and several injured and arrested. What is worrying the authorities is that this is no longer a neighbourhood problem, but arabs in other cities and villages are joining in the protest in their own way. It could well explode into a national rebellion, as arabs here consider the eastern part of Jerusalem where these houses are situated, to e their future capital.  https://www.timesofisrael.com/renewed-clashes-in-east-jerusalems-sheikh-jarrah-neighborhood-as-tensions-flare/

Confrontation at Bab Hutta

Early this morning as I went out to throw the garbage, there was a loud altercation between a group of jews and some arab youths at Bab Hutta. Every Friday and Saturday morning this group with their rabbi will try to enter the mosque and pray, passing by our house and spitting at us. The police will keep them out, at the street, as they also did this morning. But with the tensions of the neighbourhood has spilled into the Old City and the arabs were jeering and calling the group to leave the area, which they initally refused. But a little later, they moved out of the Old City.

Today is also the last Friday of Ramadan, which will see tens of thousands of muslims from all over the country gathering in the Al Aqsa Mosque for prayer. I could hardly make my way out of my house to work as I was walking against the flow. And every ten or so meters are police in riot gear. I don't know if the police are restricting muslims without vaccination to enter the Old City today ... they've been doing that for the past 4 Fridays ... which is a sensible thing to do as there is no social-distancing at all. The Brasilian, Chilean and Indian coronavirus variants have been found in Israel and this is a worrying factor.