Isreali Occupation Forces Storm Mona Al-Kurd’s Home and Arrest Her

Jerusalem, MINA – Today, Israeli occupation forces arrested Jerusalemite activist, Mona Al-Kurd, from her home in Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in the occupied Jerusalem without prior warning.

Mona al-Kurd is the leader of the #SaveSheikhJarrah campaign that has mobilized local and international action against Israel’s plan to displace dozens of Palestinian families from their homes in the occupied Jerusalem neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah.

Eyewitnesses said that the isreali occupation police broke into the Kurd family’s home in Sheikh Jarrah and arrested Mona Al-Kurd, 23, MINA’s contributor from Gaza reported.

Nabil Al-Kurd, the head of the Al-Kurd family, said that Israeli police had arrested his daughter, Mona, and he is currently searching for his son, Mohammed, who was arrested by the occupation police last month.

He said Mona was taken to an Israeli police station in Salaheddine Street in the occupied capital.

On the other hand, Mona’s mother talked about the attack in detail and said,

“Mona was arrested in the morning from our home in Sheikh Jarrah, in which Isreali intelligence broke into. They also searched the house looking for her brother Mohammed, who was also wanted for investigation.”

The Israeli police have not commented on the recent arrest of Mona, who appeared through the media and played a major role in covering isreali crimes in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood and communicated these core issue with the people inside and outside Jerusalem.

Three months ago, Mona launched an online campaign under the hashtag #SaveSheikhJarrah to highlight the plight of the homeowners threatened with displacement. In a recent interview, she explained resiliently that “if their families are evicted, the rest of Jerusalem will be taken too”.

Mona and her brother, Mohammad, whose family has been living under the threat of displacement from their house in the Karm al-Jaouni quarter in Sheikh Jarrah, have been keeping the world well-informed about the situation there.

The al-Kurd family is one of four families who were initially set to be expelled at the beginning of May. Half of their home was seized by a group of Israeli settlers in 2009.

On May 2, the Israeli district court ruled that the four households must be evicted or reach a compromise with settler organisations by paying rent and recognising them as landlords. The families resolutely refused in a sign of renewed resistance.

Following Israel’s occupation of East Jerusalem in 1967, settler groups launched legal battles to take over the area, claiming the land of Sheikh Jarrah belonged to Jews prior to the 1948 war in Palestine, despite the fact that Palestinian families in the neighbourhood have been there for generations.

Since 13 April, the situation in the occupied Palestinian territories has exploded due to the isreali occuoation violations against the Palestinains in the occupied city of Jerusalem, particularly in the Al-Aqsa Mosque and Sheikh Jarrah, attempting to evacuate 12 Palestinian homes and hand them over to settlers.(L/MS/R1/RE1)

Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)