# Guest column: Ending the cycle of violence between Palestinians and Israelis

East Jerusalem is an occupied territory that Israel annexed in violation of international law. The Israeli government and Jewish settlers have systematically attempted to “Judaize” the Old City. One way they do this is through the eviction of as many Palestinian families as possible and then replacing them with Jewish residents.

Israel may revoke the residency status of any Jerusalemite Palestinian who leaves historic Palestine, say for study or medical treatment, or acquires foreign citizenship and thus prevent his return, even though a Jew from anywhere in the world always has the right to move to Israel and live in Jerusalem. Moreover, Palestinians are not allowed to build new homes in Jerusalem, or build additions to existing homes, without the permission of Israel, which it routinely denies. If a Palestinian builds a new home or adds to his home without Israeli permission, Israeli authorities will demolish the expansion or even the home in its entirety. Israeli law permits Jews to claim ownership of any property in East Jerusalem based on pre-1948 records and evict any Palestinian family living there now, even if the evidence is weak.

But Israeli law does not allow Palestinians expelled from the homes they owned in West Jerusalem prior to 1948 from reclaiming their property, even when there is no dispute that they owned those properties at the time they were expelled. The point of these arbitrary and discriminatory rules is to minimize the Palestinian presence in the Holy City and gradually make it a Jewish city over time, instead of preserving its character as a multi-religious city.

Recently, lower courts ordered the eviction of six Palestinian families in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of East Jerusalem. Palestinians protested peacefully for weeks. The case went to the Israeli Supreme Court, but it postponed its ruling in the wake of the sit-ins, demonstrations and attacks of the Israeli police on the Aqsa Mosque during this most recent Ramadan. In addition, Israel introduced additional restrictions on Palestinians from the West Bank coming to pray in the Aqsa Mosque in Ramadan, despite that being the most sacred time of the Muslim religious calendar.

Demonstrations began around the Aqsa Mosque protesting these restrictions and in solidarity with the people of Sheikh Jarrah. Israeli security forces dealt with them harshly. They invaded the mosque’s sanctuary and attacked worshippers with stun grenades, rubber bullets and tear gas. At least 300 Palestinians were injured, three of them critically. Palestinians threw rocks at the police and injured few.

It is not only Palestinian Muslims who are prevented from reaching their sacred places in Jerusalem. Palestinian Christians were also hindered from worshipping at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher on Easter Sunday.

The international community, particularly the United States and its allies, failed to condemn Israel’s flagrant violations of Palestinians’ human and religious rights.

The Palestinian Authority under Mahmoud Abbas did not have any means to stop the Israeli attack on the peaceful protesters. Hamas, the ruling party in Gaza, after warning Israel several times to cease and desist from its attacks on the Aqsa Mosque, began to fire rockets on Israel. Unfortunately, only when Hamas intervened did the world begin to pay attention to the beleaguered Palestinians. Israel retaliated with massive airstrikes, artillery and tank barrages intended to punish Palestinians for Hamas’ decision to resist Israel’s actions in Jerusalem.

It took 11 days for the Biden administration to pressure Israel to accept a ceasefire. These 11 days of reckless attacks on Gaza resulted in the deaths of at least 230 civilian Palestinians, including 65 children. Hamas rockets resulted in the deaths of 12 Israelis, mostly civilians, including two children. Israel’s indiscriminate and disproportionate retaliatory measures have damaged 1,000 buildings, including schools, 17 hospitals and clinics and the only facility that tests for COVID-19; displaced 70,000 Gazans; and degraded power, water and sewage lines. Israel’s latest attacks have left hundreds of thousands of Gazans without electricity and further reduced the availability of fresh water.

U.S. citizens bear special responsibility for the ongoing violence and Israel’s continuous, slow-motion campaign of ethnic cleansing against Palestinians. The U.S. government provides Israel with $3.8 billion in military aid annually. It is our tax dollars that finance this brutal war on the Palestinians. At the same time, the U.S. shields Israel in the United Nations Security Council and other international organizations from sanction as mandated by international law and the Geneva Conventions that describe the rights of people under occupation.

It is good that the ceasefire seems to be holding. We should not allow the situation to go back to the status quo. The harsh Israeli military occupation under which millions of West Bank Palestinians live and which Human Rights Watch and the Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem describe as apartheid, the blockade of 2 million Gazans in the biggest open-air prison in the world and the lack of a sovereign Palestinian state remain unaddressed. These issues must be addressed. President Biden recently declared that Palestinians and Israelis equally deserve security, peace and prosperity. Only then will peace and security prevail in the region and the cycle of violence stop.