Muna El-Kurd

Muna El-Kurd is an activist and journalist from the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of East Jerusalem who has drawn global attention to Israel’s efforts to forcibly expel Palestinian families from their homes and to the broader realities of life under Israeli occupation.

When Muna was born in the neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah on May 15, 1998, her family was already under constant threat of forced expulsion from their home. The El-Kurd family has lived in Sheikh Jarrah since the 1950s, following their forced displacement by Israel from their home in Haifa in 1948.1 Her father, Nabil El-Kurd, was born into a family that had settled in Haifa (in the territory that became Israel in 1948) from Jerusalem. His own family members—including his father, Sa‘id—were also forcibly displaced from Haifa, where he owned a restaurant, at that time.2 Zionist forces arrested him and seized the restaurant; the family fled back to Jerusalem to seek refuge without him for nine months.

The family eventually settled in Sheikh Jarrah under a housing scheme arranged by the Jordanian government and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) for Palestinian refugees.

In Sheikh Jarrah, forced expulsion has been an ongoing reality for many Palestinians for decades. At just 27 years old at the time of this writing, Muna has shared this experience and lived with the constant instability of displacement for much of her life.

Muna grew up with two siblings, Mohammed (her twin brother) and Maha, in a house full of family, including her grandmother, aunts, and mother, Maysoon. Her grandmother Rifka was a strong woman, remembered for her fearlessness and loud voice. Muna’s family tells her she resembles her grandmother most of all.3

As children, Maysoon would dress Muna and Mohammed in specific colors, so as not to confuse them–Muna in yellow, Mohammed in black. The twins would run around their neighborhood making videos, documenting its streets. While today she admits she had to grow up quickly because of living under the realities of occupation, she did used to play in the street like other normal children. That all came to end, though, when one of the settlers pushed a wooden plank onto her back.

Muna regularly saw Israeli forces in her neighborhood. She grew up exposed to legal battles between Jewish settlers and Palestinian residents over land and housing. From a young age, then, she understood something about the struggle for home. She says that, from age 10, she could talk politics. Because her own childhood was cut short, she grew up with a deep desire to give Palestinian children a safe, joyful childhood.

Israeli settlers seized part of the El-Kurd home in 2009 (see The Takeover of Part of the Rifka El-Kurd Family Home in Sheikh Jarrah). Muna was only 11, and since then, her family has shared their home with Israeli settlers.

Muna studied communications and journalism at Birzeit University and graduated in 2021.4 During this time, she was heavily involved in activism against forcible expulsions in Sheikh Jarrah. She helped organize neighborhood demonstrations while simultaneously documenting events on the ground. Alongside her twin brother, Mohammed, she used social media platforms to record and share videos of Israeli settlers moving into Palestinian homes, confrontations with police, and the daily realities of families facing expulsion. Her frequent posts, live streams, and firsthand accounts helped bring international attention to the situation. Her own family, along with 11 other Palestinian families, were threatened with forcible expulsion following a decision that passed in an Israeli court. The families were given 30 days to leave, but their lawyer filed an appeal with the district court.

Upon her graduation on June 30, 2021, Muna gave a convocation speech at her graduation emphasizing education as a means of resistance.

Meanwhile, her family still shared their home with Israeli settlers, who were groups of young men that rotated every few months, disturbing the neighborhood with late-night parties and an unhinged dog.5 She used to have dreams that settlers broke into her house and shot her.

Muna turned to public speaking as a means of resistance. In 2021, the same year she graduated, she began documenting events in Sheikh Jarrah. She gained international visibility as she exposed how Israeli settlers, backed by Israeli police, seized Palestinian homes, often violently. One of her most important roles was in the #SaveSheikhJarrah campaign, which emerged in early 2021 as a grassroots response by Palestinian residents of the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah to the imminent threat of forcible expulsions of long-standing Palestinian families from their homes under contested Israeli property laws.

What began as a local struggle quickly transformed into a global movement through intensive digital activism: residents documented settler takeovers, court proceedings, police violence, and daily life under threat of expulsion using videos, photos, live streams, and firsthand testimonies shared across Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook under the hashtag #SaveSheikhJarrah. Because her family was directly affected, Muna’s personal story humanized the struggle, making the campaign more relatable and compelling to international audiences. Her repeated arrests and continued activism turned her into a figure inspiring local residents and strengthening global solidarity. While she did not originate the campaign, Muna’s persistent documentation, advocacy, and embodiment of the community’s struggle were essential in amplifying and sustaining the #SaveSheikhJarrah campaign.

Muna used social media platforms and interviews as a vehicle to provide direct, unfiltered accounts of harassment, intimidation, and protests, refusing to dilute Palestinian experiences to make them more palatable for international audiences. Her work challenged dominant narratives by centering lived reality and naming forced displacement as a form of systemic injustice.

In June 2021, amid heightened tensions and nightly protests in Sheikh Jarrah, Muna was detained by Israeli police. Officers entered her home late at night and arrested her on allegations related to participation in protests and disturbances of public order—accusations commonly used against Palestinian activists during demonstrations. The arrest came after weeks of public advocacy and international media attention, signaling her detention as an attempt to intimidate and silence a prominent Palestinian voice.6 Her arrest sparked immediate backlash, with journalists, human rights groups, and activists around the world calling for her release.

Muna was detained and interrogated for several hours before being released without charge. Israeli authorities did not proceed with formal prosecution, and she returned home the same night.

Muna’s release underscored a pattern in Israeli policy often noted by rights organizations: the use of short-term detention as a tool of pressure rather than as part of a sustained legal case.

Rather than deterring her, the experience reinforced her resolve to continue speaking publicly about displacement, state violence, and Palestinian resistance.

Alongside her twin brother, Mohammed, Muna has helped to turn Sheikh Jarrah into a global symbol of Palestinian struggle against forcible expulsion. Their advocacy was recognized internationally when they were named among Time magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world in 2021 (see Muna and Mohammed El-Kurd Make the Time100 List as “Icons”).

Despite ongoing threats, surveillance, and harassment from settlers, Muna continues to write and speak with clarity and defiance, insisting that telling the truth about Palestinian life under Israeli occupation is itself an act of resistance.

Muna herself admits that she hardly has a life outside of her resistance against settlers and settlements and her struggle to keep her home.7 Yet, like any young woman, she has hopes and aspirations. She wants to be a director and has many ideas for documentary films. She wants to travel, especially with her family, as they have never been able to go anywhere all together at once because someone always has to stay behind, guarding their house. Muna volunteers as a clown at hospitals to put smiles on children’s faces and supports local artists who create jewelry symbolic of Palestine.

Above all, Muna is grateful for her family.

Alfred, Charlotte. “Young Palestinian Poet Brings to Life the Troubles of Jerusalem.” HuffPost, January 29, 2016.

Eltahawy, Mona. “Global Roundup: Sheikh Jarrah Women’s Resistance . . . Lithuanian Artist Supports LGBT Community.” Feminist Giant, May 13, 2021.

Essalih, Ilham. “‘I’m Not Afraid to Pick a Fight’: Mohammed el-Kurd on Rifqa, God and Palestinian Resilience.” Middle East Eye, October 12, 2021.

“Israel Arrests Palestinian Activist Muna el-Kurd in East Jerusalem.” BBC News, June 6, 2021.

“Nothing Is Impossible: Muna El-Kurd: Sheikh Jarrah’s Screaming Voice.” [In Arabic.] Al Mayadeen Programs, July 29, 2022.

“Palestinian Activist Muna El-Kurd Graduates from University.” Roya News, June 30, 2021.

“Save Sheikh Jarrah: Nabil Al Kurd Fights Israel Eviction in Sombre Mood.” Albawaba, November 11, 2021.

[Profile photo: Eamonn M. McCormack/Getty Images for DFI]