7: Mothers fighting for justice in Sheikh Jarrah

The International Solidarity Movement Podcast

In this episode, we share an interview with Um Ramadan. We met her at a demonstration outside the district court in Jerusalem. Alongside other mothers, she is protesting her son's imprisonment. In this moving interview, she talks about the conditions her son is kept in and how mother's are organising to support each other. Please note there are references to suicide and abuse.

View episode transcript here

The East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah has been an important part of the struggle against colonisation in Palestine. The residents of Sheikh Jarrah are refugees, or descendants of refugees, who were forced from their homes by the ethnic cleansing carried out by Zionist Forces in 1947-9. This ethnic cleansing is known by Palestinians as the Nakba (or catastrophe).

After 1948, East Jerusalem was under Jordanian control - and the Jordanian government struck a deal with the UN to settle Palestinian refugee families who were living in Jordan in Sheikh Jarrah. In 1967 the Israeli military militarily occupied East Jerusalem, and since then the Israeli state and settler movements have been trying to evict the Palestinian residents - both through legal processes and by violence.

Many families have already been forcibly evicted from the neighbourhood, and replaced by settlers. The community has resisted by holding sit ins outside the threatened homes, by mobilising, international solidarity and by building a culture of solidarity.

In 2020 Israeli courts ordered the eviction of more families from Sheikh Jarrah. And in 2021 the harassment and violence against people in Sheikh Jarrah helped trigger an uprising across Palestine.

In 2022 right wing politician Itamar Ben Gvir - the minister of national security - led a mass of settlers to the neighbourhood backed up by cops. The settlers attacked the community as the police looked on. Ben gvir famously shot his gun in the air that day, as Palestinians defended themselves by throwing stones. These kind of provocations are routine in sheikh jarrah - and that's the context that led to um Ramadans son's arrest.

We would like to apologise about the sound quality of this interview, due to its impromptu nature and lack of equipment with us! But we wanted Um Ramadan's story to be shared. A big thank you to Noah for translating.

Links

• Middle East Eye - Sheikh Jarrah explained: The past and present of East Jerusalem neighbourhood
• International Solidarity Movement website
• Join the International Solidarity Movement in Palestine
• Middle East Eye - describes Ben Gvir's controvesial visit to Sheikh Jarrah

If you would like an explanation of the terms used in this podcast, youI can find a useful glossary on pages 140-154 of Shoal Collective’s Ebook

Supported by Shoal Collective