Palestinian, Israeli, and foreign activists demonstrate against Israeli occupation and settlement activity in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood of East Jerusalem. Photo: Ahmad Gharabli, Agence France Presse.
Statement from the United Jewish People’s Order – Canada
May 13, 2021
Today is Eid al-Fitr, the feast that follows the end of the month-long Muslim observance of Ramadan. At the al-Aqsa Mosque in East Jerusalem, Israeli police and settlers have been harassing and attacking Muslim worshippers. On May 10, Israeli forces once again fired tear gas and sound grenades into the mosque as worshippers prayed. The United Jewish People’s Order (UJPO) is appalled at this attack on a house of worship. At the same time, in the East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah, settlers continue their push to take over by expelling Palestinians from their homes under the watch of Israeli forces. And now Israel is bombing Gaza again. Currently 83 Palestinians, including seventeen children, have been killed as well as six people in Israel. The Canadian government and others have expressed “concern” and a need for “both sides” to de-escalate, but we recognize that this is an asymmetrical struggle of people facing evictions, violence, bombings, and erasure in the face of the full force of state power and the violence of Israeli settlers.
UJPO strongly condemns Israel’s actions and the ongoing harassment and evictions of Palestinians from their homes. We oppose settler-colonial policies, whether the Canadian government’s actions displacing the people of Wetsuwet’en, or the Israeli government’s displacement of Palestinians in Sheikh Jarrah, in the West Bank, and elsewhere. We call for an end to Israeli impunity. As we approach May 15, which Palestinians commemorate as al-Nakba, or the Catastrophe, we call on the Canadian government to move beyond “concern” and exert pressure on the Israeli government to stop settler and police attacks on Palestinians under Israeli rule, and halt their brutal assault on Gaza. If there is to be a just and lasting peace in this place where there has been none, all inhabitants must have the same rights and protections.
We stand with #SheikhJarrah. #WeStandWithGaza