Palestinians in Jerusalem Face Intensified Violence and Rights Violations as Israel Bombs Gaza

As Israeli leaders call for flattening Gaza in retaliation for the October 7 Hamas Operation al-Aqsa Flood, Palestinians in East Jerusalem and elsewhere in the West Bank have not been immune from this policy of revenge. Indeed, even aside from the skyrocketing death toll in the Gaza Strip, 2023 is the deadliest year for Palestinians in the West Bank since 2005,1 with more than 200 killed since the beginning of the year, including 58 in the first 10 days after the attack began on October 7.2

Here is a rundown of the latest on the ground in East Jerusalem.

On October 13, Israeli forces fatally shot two 17-year-old boys, Mohammad Taher Ali Mustafa and Laith Osama Zaal Abu Mara, in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of al-‘Isawiyya during confrontations between Palestinian youth and Israeli border police.3 Earlier in the week, Israeli police shot and killed two Palestinian men, Abdel Rahman Faraj, 18, and Ali Abbasi, 24, during clashes in the Silwan neighborhood near the Old City.4 Israel police did not respond to requests for comment on the killings.

Since the surprise attack on Israel by Hamas, Palestinians throughout Jerusalem have been experiencing increased harassment and heightened violence from police and Israeli settlers.

“We are witnessing attacks against Palestinians throughout the Occupied Palestinian Territory as Israeli forces and settlers are emboldened by systemic impunity and international support to commit war crimes on a whim,” said Ayed Abu Eqtaish, accountability program director at rights organization Defense for Children International—Palestine.5

All checkpoints controlling access to Jerusalem that Palestinians are allowed to use to enter the city have remained completely closed since October 7, including for UN and international NGO staff.

Flying checkpoints have also been erected at the entrances to some Palestinian neighborhoods in the city.6 These checkpoints have prevented Palestinians from accessing their work and seeing their families. The municipality has also moved large concrete blocks into place at the access points to Palestinian neighborhoods such as al-‘Isawiyya, Ras al-Amud, Sur Bahir, and Jabal Mukabbir, sealing neighborhood entrances with large concrete blocks.

The agricultural village of al-Walaja in the southwest corner of Jerusalem, already sealed in on three sides by the Separation Wall, had its only entrance blocked for several days. The enclave of Bir Ona also was completely sealed off.

Inside the city, police even banned anyone from sitting on the steps of Bab al-Amud, turning it into a hauntingly deserted space.

Israel police did not respond to requests for verification.7

On October 13, a Friday, Muslims under the age of 65 were barred from praying at al-Aqsa Mosque.8 These restrictions likewise affected funeral processions to al-Aqsa, which have been blocked, and the ability of waqf workers to reach their offices and fulfill their professional responsibilities. (The al-Aqsa Mosque is administered by the Jordanian waqf.)

Shut out of their holy site, Muslims resorted to praying in the streets of their neighborhoods, often under the glare of police presence. This happened in several places. In some instances, they were forcibly dispersed by police shooting tear gas and rubber bullets, to the horror of one Turkish news reporter for CNN Türk (Türkiye), who witnessed the stampede during a live broadcast.

In addition to the tightened police measures, settler groups are calling the mosque to be closed to Muslims. Last week, the settler organization Beyadenu—Returning to the Temple Mount called on the Israeli government to bar Muslims from al-Aqsa Mosque until all Israelis captured by Hamas during its al-Aqsa Flood attack are released.9 Beyadenu regularly tours and performs Jewish rituals at the al-Aqsa compound, defying the current ban on non-Muslim prayer at the site.

A day after the Hamas attack, the group pushed for a Jewish takeover of the holy site on social media.

“Go up to the Temple Mount and demand a free ascent to the Temple Mount and the expulsion of the waqf!” the right-wing group wrote.10

Police raids and unprovoked assaults on Palestinian youth proliferated across the city, with 130 arrests being made in the first 10 days after the attack, according to Ir Amim.11

In today’s Jerusalem and elsewhere in the country, any expression of support for Palestinian rights is being equated with support for terror and treated as a criminal or fineable offense.

The chief of police, Kobi Shabtai, stated on the official Israeli police’s Arabic TikTok channel that “Anyone who wants to identify with Gaza is welcome—I’ll put them on busses and send them there.” He said there would be “zero tolerance” for people demonstrating for Gaza.12 This message and attitude seems to be coloring police attitudes on the street as well.

According to Ali Ghaith, a Palestinian activist in Jerusalem, most of the regular security forces have been deployed to the frontlines in Gaza and along the Lebanese border, and reservists have taken over police duty in the city, leading to greater acts of violence against Palestinians. Videos have circulated online of police harassing and assaulting Palestinians13 and preventing them from exiting Palestinian neighborhoods.14

“The less experienced, new officers in Jerusalem have this policy of shooting to kill, and they don’t understand the context of Jerusalem in that sense. And so they suspect that each Palestinian is going to do something to inflict harm,”15 Ghaith told Jerusalem Story.16

Mohammed, a Palestinian activist in Jerusalem who wished to not be fully identified out of concerns for his safety, told Jerusalem Story that the situation is “so difficult, from every perspective.”17 Police are now using live ammunition more frequently and dispelling tear gas in Palestinian neighborhoods, he said. The stench of tear gas was so penetrating that he had to close the windows of his home.

Mohammed also said Israeli settlers carrying guns are standing at the entrances to Palestinian neighborhoods and blocking roads—with police doing nothing to stop settlers’ provocations.

“My son and I went past the entrance to the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Abu Tur and there were settlers there threatening people,” Mohammed said. “Even one of them had a gun drawn and the border police was present, but they didn’t tell them anything and they didn’t even push them away from the side of the road.”

In response to mounting fears that police and settlers may kidnap Palestinians, many Palestinians are now only going out in groups, Mohammed said.

Amid greater police presence, more checkpoints, and settler calls for violence, Jerusalemites are now confining themselves to their homes.

“When you are on the streets, you are suspected that you would do something and you always have that feeling of being targeted,” Ghaith said. “So we minimize our movement, we minimize our interactions.”

Yet even inside their houses, Palestinian Jerusalemites feel unsafe as police are now arresting Palestinians over their social media content.

Israeli law mandates that all persons aged 16 and over have an ID and carry it at all times and show it whenever directed to do so by police or soldiers.

In recent new days, Palestinians report an alarming new trend: Police are stopping Palestinians at random and even in their own places of business and their homes and demanding their phones instead of their IDs. The Israeli news station Kann Broadcast News confirmed that this is part of the “deterring measures” being taken.18

Between October 14 and 18, according to the International Middle East Media Center, soldiers barged into numerous private homes, both in East Jerusalem and across the West Bank, demanding IDs and private devices, and then hauled off young men to detention. This was reported in the neighborhoods of Silwan, al-Ram, al-Tur, al-‘Isawiyya, Abu Dis, Qalandiya refugee camp, the Old City, and even reportedly from a sick bed in Hadassah Hospital, in addition to many other West Bank locations.

Palestinian singer Dalal Abu Amneh, an Israeli citizen and research doctor in brain science at the Technion, was arrested on Monday night in Nazareth over allegations her social media posts in support of Gaza amount to “incitement.” Before Abu Amneh made her Instagram account private, she posted links to charities working in Gaza and wrote, “Lord, grant me relief and mercy” and “There’s no victor except God”—a Quranic verse.

Even writing phrases such as “We Are All Gaza” on social media was cause for severe consequences, up to and including disbarment for one young new law graduate.

Reports also reached us of similar harassment of Palestinian construction workers on their job sites in East Jerusalem as well as municipal workers who were beaten by religious Jews.

In a statement to Middle East Eye, Adalah—The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel said, “We are receiving reports of unlawful arrests, often carried out with brutal force in the middle of the night, and without proper legal justification, and solely on the basis of social media posts in the majority of cases, some just for expressing solidarity with the Palestinian people in Gaza, or even for sharing verses from the Quran.”19

Jerusalemites, like all Palestinians, are apprehensive about the wide-ranging Israeli crackdown. Mohammed warned that if the violence continues, “It will make the whole Middle East go up.”