Israel intensifies violence against Palestinians in east Jerusalem

by Abbas Adil

Israeli police clashed Sunday with residents of a Palestinian neighborhood in east Jerusalem, leaving at least 15 Palestinians and two officers wounded, officials said. It was the third consecutive night of violence in the Issawiya neighborhood and came hours ahead of the opening of a new Israeli archaeological project in a neighborhood elsewhere in east Jerusalem.

The clashes in Issawiya erupted last Thursday following the shooting death of a Palestinian man by Israeli police. Residents say police have stepped up their presence in Issawiya for several weeks and that they were demonstrating against police violence when 20-year-old Mohammed Obeid was shot.

The Israeli forces frequently carry out wide-ranging arrest campaigns across the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem on the pretext of searching for “wanted” Palestinians. In 2018, Israeli forces rounded up 6,489 Palestinians, including scores of women and children, in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip this year, according to official estimates. A total of 1,063 minors and 140 women were among those arrested in 2018, the Palestine Liberation Organization’s Commission of Detainees and Ex-detainees Affairs said in a statement released in December. Israeli violence has continued amid years of diplomatic paralysis, diminishing hopes for peace and escalating Palestinian frustration with the policies of U.S. President Donald Trump.

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