Hundreds of families – thousands of Jerusalemites, many of them children – are threatened with forced expulsions and demolitions of their homes. Some are scheduled to begin in days! If the plans to destroy these historically Arab communities are carried out, they will bring immeasurable pain and trauma to the men, women, and children whose families have resided in these close-knit neighborhoods for generations. The Israeli eviction orders have spread fear in Sheikh Jarrah, Silwan and other communities that are endangered by Israel’s expansionist plans. In regard to Israel's colonization of Palestinian land, the United Nations Security Council reaffirmed in December 2016: “Israel’s establishment of settlements in Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem, has no legal validity, and constitutes a flagrant violation under international law...” (emphasis added). UMKR and faith-based and secular partners across the US and in Palestine are working together to try to avert this tragedy. Our brothers and sisters in Jerusalem have implored church leaders to raise their voices, resist the impending evictions, and defend these threatened families. In March 2021, they wrote: “Daily we experience the restrictions, the dehumanization, the brutality and loss of life resulting from these apartheid laws and policies. Daily we suffer the abuses of Zionism, which as practiced in Israel and Palestine clearly favors the rights of one people, one ethnicity, over another.” (See what Kairos Palestine is calling for, on the right at the top.) |
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Joint Urgent Appeal to the United Nations Special Procedures on Forced Evictions in East Jerusalem
