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Israeli police in Sheikh Jarrah on Friday were accused of injuring 23 runners who took part in a run to offer solidarity with families facing eviction in the city.
Al Jazeera reported that the two-mile race drew hundreds who wore white T-shirts with “7,850” written on them, representing the number of people who face eviction. A reporter for the paper said the run was peaceful, but Israeli forces deployed stun grenades and attacked runners.
One participant took to Twitter to post a video and tweet from the finish line in the Silwan neighborhood. The tweet read:
“Out of nowhere, Israeli forces raided the finish line, where we had gathered and been singing songs, drinking water, and resting our legs. They [Israeli forces] were violent, attacked everyone indiscriminately, beating, throwing grenades, & firing rubber bullets at some.”
He posted a video purportedly from the event that showed what appeared to be Israeli forces lobbing stun grenades into the crowd, while some in the crowd responded by tossing water bottles.
Protest? Get Arrested.
On Sunday, according to the Wall Street Journal, “Israeli police burst into the home of a prominent family in the contested Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood,” arresting a 23-year-old woman “who led protests against attempts by Jewish settlers to evict dozens of Palestinian families from their home in the area.”
The WSJ went on to report:
“Earlier this year, heavy-handed police actions in Sheikh Jarrah and other parts of east Jerusalem fueled weeks of unrest that helped spark an 11-day war between Israel and Hamas militants in the Gaza strip.”
TREND FORECAST: We note the language being used by the WSJ to illustrate how the Israel “right or wrong” tide is changing.
The newspaper called the Israeli police action “heavy-handed.” At one time, that characterization would not be tolerated by American supporters of Israel and not used by mainstream media. And, as we noted in detail following Israel’s bombing of Gaza last month, there was broad criticism from nations and individuals over the mass destruction of homes and buildings, including AP and Al Jazeera press offices… and the killing of some 300 Palestinians, of which nearly 70 were children.
Israel said they bombed the press building, which also contained apartments, because Hamas was running operations at the location. While promising to provide proof to support that accusation, which U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken repeated, none has yet to be provided.
As reported on the website of Israel’s Channel 12, military chief of staff Lieutenant-General Aviv Kohavi was quoted as saying the building “was destroyed justly” and he did not have a “gram of regret.”
He went on to say Hamas militants used various floors of the Jalaa Tower for “significant electronic warfare” to disrupt Israeli air force GPS communications and that “AP journalists drank coffee each morning in a cafeteria in the building’s entrance with Hamas electronics experts, whether they knew it or not.”
The AP said the claim was “patently false” and “there was not even a cafeteria in the building.”
And, when Israel’s defense minister Benny Gantz was asked to provide proof to support that Hamas was using the building and that was why Israel bombed it (giving the occupants only one hour to gather their belongings and evacuate), Gantz said Israel has shared its intelligence with the U.S. government, but he had no intention of making the information public.
While the global media has ignored the chief of staff’s comments and false accusation, and Gantz has refused to provide evidence to support his accusation, we note this and other recent Israeli actions to further illustrate the decline of unconditional pro-Israel support.
Also, while there have been, and will be more anti-Israel protests, particularly in western nations should the Gaza War heat up again, while Israel and its supporters will deride demonstrators as anti-semitic, that accusation will begin to ring hollow considering the Jewish state being labeled an apartheid nation by organizations such as Human Rights Watch. (See HRW article here.)