Produced by the United Nations Exhibits, this video features Jerusalemite journalist and activist Muna El-Kurd(see Muna El-Kurd) and her father, Nabeel El-Kurd, reflecting on their family’s experience in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah. In 2009, Israeli settlers took over part of their home, marking the beginning of a prolonged legal and political struggle that continues today (see Sharing Our House with Settlers in Sheikh Jarrah).
Nabeel recounts his father’s arrest and the seizure of his restaurant among other incidents, while Muna speaks about growing up in a house partially occupied by settlers and surrounded by ongoing threats of displacement. Together, they situate their family’s case within broader waves of forced expulsion that imperil Palestinian families in Jerusalem.
The interview moves between personal memories and structural critique, addressing court rulings, settler claims, and the wider question of land, legality, and permanence in East Jerusalem. The Palestinian community in Jerusalem expresses little faith in a judicial and legal system that is established and administered by the same Israeli authorities that oversee and authorize harsh measures, such as home expulsions, property seizures, settlement expansion, and the forced displacement of residents. This system ultimately functions to legitimize and sustain the continuation of such policies, rather than to protect the Palestinians affected by them.