Ongoing Nakba: Palestinian activist blasts Israeli violence at Al Aqsa and Sheikh Jarrah

What the hell is going on in Jerusalem? Has Israel totally lost it? Is this the beginning of a third intifada? 

Rania Khalek is joined by Ramallah-based activist Hadeel Shatara, coordinator of the Palestinian prisoner rights group Samidoun, to discuss Israeli violence in Sheikh Jarrah and Al Aqsa mosque, what’s driving Palestinian resistance, internal Palestinian political divisions, western media bias and how those outside of Palestine can help. 

In recent weeks Israeli settlers and police have escalated their violence in occupied east Jerusalem,. violently storming the al Aqsa mosque during Ramadan and attacking  the neighborhood Sheikh Jarrah where Palestinian families are fighting efforts by Israeli settler groups backed by the courts to evict and replace them with Jewish settlers. Hundreds of Palestinians have been arrested, injured and hospitalized as they resist increasing Israeli brutality in Sheikh Jarrah and in and around al Aqsa. All of this is ahead of the Jerusalem day March, when far right Israeli Mobs are set to march through the streets of occupied East Jerusalem chanting hateful anti-palestinian slogans to celebrate Israel’s illegal capture of the city in 1967. These Israeli provocations have spurred worldwide condemnation and horror, with Israel’s allies expressing deep concerns about the mounting violence. Hadeel explains that this is what Zionism and ethnic cleansing look like.