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States Can't Control the Narrative on Israel-Palestine Anymore Print
Written by <a href="index.php?option=com_comprofiler&task=userProfile&user=29641"><span class="small">Murtaza Hussain, The Intercept</span></a>   
Wednesday, 12 May 2021 12:45

Hussain writes: "Since the first two Palestinian intifadas, camera phones and social media have changed the landscape of global outrage."

Palestinians evacuate a building targeted by Israeli warplanes conducting airstrikes in various parts of Gaza Strip, in Gaza City, Gaza on May 11, 2021. (photo: Mustafa Hassona/Getty)
Palestinians evacuate a building targeted by Israeli warplanes conducting airstrikes in various parts of Gaza Strip, in Gaza City, Gaza on May 11, 2021. (photo: Mustafa Hassona/Getty)

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States Can't Control the Narrative on Israel-Palestine Anymore

By Murtaza Hussain, The Intercept

12 May 21


Since the first two Palestinian intifadas, camera phones and social media have changed the landscape of global outrage.

hen Israeli troops stormed the Aqsa mosque compound last week during Ramadan prayers, much of the world vicariously experienced the raid as it took place. Raw video footage of soldiers storming through screaming crowds — with stun grenades exploding as congregants ran for safety — was transmitted globally at the speed of information.

The provocative attack on a site considered holy to billions of people triggered an almost immediate reaction, not just among international media and online, but at the diplomatic level as well. Within a day of the incident, U.S. lawmakers, European states, and even Arab governments that have good relations with Israel were publicly condemning the assault and demanding de-escalation. These actors were themselves reacting to the pressure coming, or expected, from their own populations, much of whom had livestreamed the events or seen clips of the social media videos.

Rather than reading relatively controlled textual accounts in the morning paper the next day, ordinary people the world over witnessed the violent scenes blow-by-blow. Images distributed on social media of several attempts by Israel to evict Palestinians from their homes in the historic Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of Jerusalem had kicked off the tensions earlier in the week. On Monday, videos of Israeli throngs at holy sites cheering the chaos while singing far-right anthems flew around the internet. Now, footage of violence in mixed Arab-Jewish cities across Israel is spreading, along with the aftermaths of Israeli air strikes in Gaza. The emotional impact of literally viewing these scenes as they happen cannot be underestimated.

“Due to technology, ordinary Palestinians now have the ability to broadcast their stories without the filter of a media that is highly biased against them,” said Yousef Munayyer, nonresident senior fellow at the Arab Center Washington DC, a nonpartisan research institute. “We are seeing this on many different platforms, including Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok, where Palestinians of the younger generation are sharing their voices and experiences with as many people as possible.”

The internet has so deeply enveloped all aspects of our culture that it’s hard to recall that we are still in the early phases of a digital revolution. Estimates hold that by mid-decade, around 75 percent of people on Earth will have a smartphone. Being able to capture high-resolution videos and instantaneously send them out to the world is placing a level of broadcasting power once monopolized by outlets like CNN in the pockets of almost everyone.

The political impact of this change has already helped reshape politics across the world and has become a critical variable during armed conflicts. The pure strength of weaponry was for so long alone as the prime determinant in conflicts, but now extraordinarily powerful states also have to worry about teenagers with 200-gram microcomputers — as Israel is seeing today.

“I think we have been seeing the importance of this for a number of years now,” said Munayyer. “The state of Israel, and states in general, now have a much harder time using traditional tools to control the narrative of events.”

A sad reflection of the sheer length of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is that it has continued over several information revolutions. When early waves of Jewish settlers began arriving in Mandatory Palestine in the late 19th century, people were still understanding the world through print media and telegrams, later giving way to newsreels. That frame of reference has since transformed several times over. Throughout the 20th century, as the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians escalated, scenes of shootings, bombings, and forced displacement were transmitted to the world first by newspapers, then radio stations, network television channels, and now, in perhaps the biggest revolution yet, instantaneously by participants themselves through unedited cellphone video.

In the Mideast conflict, Israel’s decadeslong occupation has been punctuated by two mass Palestinian uprisings, known as intifadas. The current tensions — over Sheikh Jarrah and Al Aqsa Mosque — are raising the specter of a third in which, for Palestinians, the implications of the new information environment cannot be overstated. The next major phase of the conflict may take place in the streets of Jerusalem and the Israeli-occupied Gaza Strip, but the narrative war between Israelis, Palestinians, and their respective global diasporas will be fought just as much in cyberspace.

For the Israelis, this narrative war is hugely important, not least because of the role of the U.S., its most important political and military supporter. The U.S., through military aid, pays for about a fifth of the Israeli defense budget and acts as a bulwark against international action, in the United Nations and other fora, aimed at Israel.

During the first and second intifadas, the Israel-Palestine conflict was depicted to a global audience largely from an Israeli perspective. Should a third uprising break out, raw footage like that broadcast during the raids on Al Aqsa Mosque are likely to trigger immediate reactions from the global public that are favorable to the Palestinians, as well as from American lawmakers who have grown bolder in their condemnation of Israeli actions.

The Mideast conflict had lately subsided as an international issue, but the wave of Israeli actions captured on social media stoked outrage and pushed it back into the headlines. “Many people had been thinking recently that the Israel-Palestine issue was falling off the agenda,” Munayyer said, “but now we are seeing the scale of mobilization throughout the land and globally.”

The ability of cameraphones and social media to push an issue to the fore has been witnessed beyond Israel-Palestine. Social media has helped opposition movements in other parts of the world build support and promote their causes, including Black Lives Matter, Syrian revolutionaries, democracy activists in places like Myanmar as well as Hong Kong, and, more darkly, Islamic extremists and far-right nationalist groups across the world.

States still wield a lot of power in this information war, but attempts to counteract social media with state-driven online messaging tend to be viewed as inorganic, leaving them at a disadvantage in an information environment where authenticity is key.

A recent U.S. Army War College report spelled out the magnitude of this transformation, which has accelerated as the internet has grown more powerful and become as much a visual medium as a textual one.

“In the modern era, broadcast television has been tightly controlled from its inception by political and commercial elites who wish to shape public discourse and protect the audience from messages they find harmful or unprofitable,” the report stated. “The digital revolution exploded this top-down model. Vastly more individuals and groups across the globe now have access to inexpensive cameras, sophisticated visual media tools, and a virtually free delivery system on the Internet.”

As a result, the report’s authors continued, “The dominance of state and industrial information producers has receded, and a new crop of visual communicators has swept aside the old rules and relationships.”

As Israel carries out military operations, many of which result in the deaths of Palestinian civilians, including airstrikes on the Gaza Strip that killed at least five children, the visceral impact of the rest of the world seeing the results in real time may make it politically difficult for even its friends to support it in the years ahead.

Still, rather than decentralized protocols controlled by no one, social media platforms are themselves profit-making entities vulnerable to political pressure, just like old media institutions. During the Sheikh Jarrah protests, pro-Palestinian users complained of mass takedowns of their online content.

“It has helped without a doubt that today ordinary Palestinians are able to share their stories with the rest of the world on social media,” said Marwa Fatafta, the Middle East and North Africa policy manager at Access Now, a digital rights organization. “Everyone knows what is happening in Sheikh Jarrah right now and that is because of social media, but unfortunately, whenever things reach a certain peak, what we see are these mass takedowns of content.”

Fatafta added, “These companies need to provide transparency about their decisions on restricting content, particularly during these extremely critical times.”

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FOCUS: We Must Fix the Gaping Holes in Medicare Print
Written by <a href="index.php?option=com_comprofiler&task=userProfile&user=59416"><span class="small">Bernie Sanders and Pramila Jayapal, The Washington Post</span></a>   
Wednesday, 12 May 2021 11:55

Excerpt: "Since its inception in 1965, Medicare has not covered such basic health-care needs as hearing, dental care and vision."

Rep. Pramila Jayapal and Sen. Bernie Sanders. (photo: CNN)
Rep. Pramila Jayapal and Sen. Bernie Sanders. (photo: CNN)

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We Must Fix the Gaping Holes in Medicare

By Bernie Sanders and Pramila Jayapal, The Washington Post

12 May 21

 

ore than 55 years ago, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed Medicare — one of the most popular and successful government programs in our nation’s history — into law. Before the enactment of Medicare, about half of our senior citizens were uninsured and roughly 35 percent lived in poverty. Today, everyone in America aged 65 or older is guaranteed health-care benefits through Medicare regardless of income or medical condition, while the official poverty rate for seniors is now less than 9 percent.

That is the good news. The bad news is that, since its inception in 1965, Medicare has not covered such basic health-care needs as hearing, dental care and vision. The result: Millions of senior citizens have teeth rotting in their mouths, are unable to hear what their children and grandchildren say or can’t read a newspaper because of failing eyesight. It is a cruel irony that older Americans do not have coverage for these benefits at the time when they need it the most.

The lack of benefits for hearing, dental and vision has severe consequences for worsening a whole host of other medical conditions. Researchers at Johns Hopkins found that mild hearing loss doubled dementia risk. Moderate loss tripled risk, and people with a severe hearing impairment were five times more likely to develop dementia. Aging affects teeth as well, as gum tissue naturally recedes exposing roots to decay and infection. Poor oral health and untreated gum disease leads to increased serious risk of heart attacks, strokes, rheumatoid arthritis and worsened diabetes. Aging also takes a toll on vision, leading to injury, cognitive impairment and depression.

And yet, in the richest country in the world, the outrageous reality is that 75 percent of senior citizens who suffer from hearing loss do not have a hearing aid because of the prohibitive cost. Sixty-five percent of senior citizens have no dental insurance and no idea how they will be able to afford to go to a dentist. More than a quarter of senior citizens in this country are missing all of their natural teeth, with many unable to properly digest the food that they eat. Over 70 percent of Americans 65 and older have untreated gum disease. We simply cannot tolerate this any longer.

The original vision of Medicare was to provide quality health-care coverage to our nation’s seniors. Today, it’s past time to fix the gaping holes that are the lack of coverage for dental, vision and hearing, which are so critical, especially as we age. We must do what the overwhelming majority of Americans want us to do: expand Medicare to cover hearing aids, dental care and eyeglasses.

But expanding benefits is not the only thing we need to do. Too many older workers are uninsured or underinsured, which is why we must lower the eligibility age for Medicare to at least 60. Doing so would give 23 million older workers the security of knowing they can finally address illness and injury and not worry about how they will pay for a doctor. This is not only the right thing to do from a public policy perspective; it is also what the overwhelming majority of Americans support. That’s why we are joined by over 100 colleagues in the House and the Senate — including those in some of the most vulnerable districts in the country — who last month asked President Biden to include these critical proposals in his American Families Plan.

Expanding Medicare and lowering the eligibility age will cost money. So, how are we going to pay for it? There is an easy, popular and necessary answer: by taking on the greed of the pharmaceutical industry and demanding that it stops ripping off U.S. taxpayers by charging us the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs. Medicare and the rest of the federal government should do what Veterans Affairs already does, and what every major country on Earth does: negotiate with pharmaceutical companies to lower the outrageously high price of prescription drugs. It is a travesty that in the United States, one vial of insulin has gone from costing $21 in 1999 to $332 in 2019, reflecting a price increase of more than 1,000 percent.

By setting drug prices at the median price of other major countries like Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany and France, the Congressional Budget Office estimates we’ll save taxpayers at least $500 billion over a 10-year period. Additional cost-saving measures can raise the total saved to at least $650 billion. With those savings, we can finally make drug prices affordable for all Americans, give Americans over 60 the security of having Medicare, and expand the benefits that Medicare provides to include dental, vision and hearing. Let’s do what is wildly popular with the American people and get this done.

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FOCUS: Democrats Are Running Out of Time Print
Written by <a href="index.php?option=com_comprofiler&task=userProfile&user=39255"><span class="small">Robert Reich, Robert Reich's Website</span></a>   
Wednesday, 12 May 2021 10:57

Reich writes: "The political window of opportunity for Joe Biden and Democrats to deliver on their promises to the American people and pass the legislation the country needs, could close at any time."

Former Clinton Labor Secretary Robert Reich. (photo: Steve Russell/Toronto Star)
Former Clinton Labor Secretary Robert Reich. (photo: Steve Russell/Toronto Star)

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Democrats Are Running Out of Time

By Robert Reich, Robert Reich's Website

12 May 21

 

emocrats are Running Out of Time

The political window of opportunity for Joe Biden and Democrats to deliver on their promises to the American people and pass the legislation the country needs, could close at any time.

We must understand how rare it is that the Senate and the House and the presidency are all under the control of the Democratic Party.

That’s happened in only 4 of the past 28 years

The Democrats’ current Senate majority would end with the shift of a single seat from Democrats to the Republicans. That could happen even during this session of Congress. In 27 of the 38 Congresses since World War II, the party in control of the Senate has changed during the session.

Not to be morbid, but we also need to consider that this Senate has six Democratic senators, over the age of 70, who are from states where a Republican governor would be free to replace them with a Republican should a vacancy occur.

Five other Democratic senators are from states in which a Democratic vacancy would go unfilled for months until a special election was held to fill the seat — which itself would hand the G.O.P. control of the Senate at least until that special election.

It would be foolish to count on the Democrats increasing their numbers in the Senate or the House in the midterm elections of 2022. The president’s party rarely, if ever, picks up more seats during midterm elections. The last time a Democratic president has not lost Democratic seats in Congress in his first midterm election was 1934.

Meanwhile, state Republicans — who, not incidentally, control a majority of state governments — are proposing an avalanche of bills to make it harder for likely Democratic constituencies to vote, including people of color, young people, and low-income people. Some states, like Georgia, have already put these voter suppression measures into place.

And with these state Republicans in control of the upcoming once-in-a-decade redistricting process, we could see even more gerrymandering in these states — meaning an even greater likelihood that Republicans gain ground in the House.

If Joe Biden and the Democrats are going to accomplish what a majority of Americans want them to — such as raising the minimum wage, expanding health care, strengthening unions, raising taxes on big corporations and the wealthy, providing free public higher education, and strengthening voting rights with the For the People Act — they’ve got to get it done, now.

That means Democrats have to get rid of the Senate filibuster and stop worrying about bipartisanship.

The window of opportunity is already tiny. And it’s closing fast.

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Arizona Locals Are Revolting Against the Clown-Show 'Audit' of Its 2020 Election Print
Written by <a href="index.php?option=com_comprofiler&task=userProfile&user=11104"><span class="small">Charles Pierce, Esquire</span></a>   
Wednesday, 12 May 2021 08:41

Pierce writes: "The indications are the Cyber Ninjas may be outstaying their welcome."

State rep. Mark Finchem (right), R-Oro Valley, a candidate for Arizona secretary of state, is interviewed by the Victory Channel from the press viewing area as Maricopa County ballots from the 2020 general election are examined and recounted on May 11, 2021. (photo: David Wallace/The Republic)
State rep. Mark Finchem (right), R-Oro Valley, a candidate for Arizona secretary of state, is interviewed by the Victory Channel from the press viewing area as Maricopa County ballots from the 2020 general election are examined and recounted on May 11, 2021. (photo: David Wallace/The Republic)

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Arizona Locals Are Revolting Against the Clown-Show 'Audit' of Its 2020 Election

By Charles Pierce, Esquire

12 May 21


The indications are the Cyber Ninjas may be outstaying their welcome.


hey're revolting!

Penzone said the law enforcement agency would be at risk if the county turned over the state Senate's intensified demand for certain routers, or digital copies of the routers. The Senate also is demanding certain administrative passwords to voting machines that county officials say they do not have. Providing the routers could compromise confidential, sensitive and highly classified law enforcement data and equipment, he said in a statement on Friday. "The Senate Republican Caucus' audit of the Maricopa County votes from last November's election has no stopping point. Now, its most recent demands jeopardize the entire mission of the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office," Penzone's statement said.

The ongoing farce that is the Arizona Audit has begun to alienate the locals, especially now that the people running it are saying that it might extend into July. The sheriff has had enough, and the dwindling band of sane Arizona Republicans are scared witless of the long-term political cost. From the Republic:

“I just want it over. I think Arizona needs to move on and not be the center of more of this political gossip,” said Betsey Bayless, the former Republican secretary of state for five years beginning in 1997. Jan Brewer, the former Republican governor and Trump surrogate who served as the state’s election czar before her ascent to the governor’s office, typically speaks her mind. She didn’t want to talk about the audit. Neither did former GOP Secretary of State Michele Reagan, who cited her role as a justice of the peace…

Former U.S. Sen. Jon Kyl, who rose to become the No. 2-ranking Republican in the chamber, made clear he’s not associated with the audit, and sees little upside to it. “It is always the case that when there are serious controversies within a political party, it doesn’t do the party any good,” Kyl said during a phone interview. “And I think the divisions within the Republican Party will not reflect well on the party's chances of success in the next election. That's pretty obvious.”

It’s not obvious to the flying monkeys who are making life hell for Arizona’s Democratic Secretary of State, Katie Hobbs. From 12News in Phoenix:

For the second time in six months, Democratic Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, the state’s top elections officer, is receiving law-enforcement protection after a reported death threat. Gov. Doug Ducey’s office on Friday assigned Department of Public Safety officers to protect Hobbs after her office made the request. “It is really unfortunate that we are at this place that people are OK just making threats like this,” Hobbs told 12 News…On Thursday, a Phoenix real estate agent who’s a correspondent for the far-right web site Gateway Pundit shot video of himself chasing Hobbs and a staffer to her Capitol office building. He tweeted that Hobbs “runs in fear.”

“If people would stand up,” Hobbs said, “regardless of party, regardless of political consequences, and just say this is wrong, that would make a difference.” Hobbs said she was referring specifically to Ducey.

In addition, the state senate and the Maricopa County election officials are about to go to war with each other because the county board is standing behind one pissed-off sheriff, and because the people running the audit are a few sandwiches short of a picnic.

Bennett, the audit liaison, says the routers are needed to test another conspiracy theory -- whether the county’s ballot tabulators are connected to the internet. “Well, there are people that have always suspected something nefarious about elections being connected to the Internet," Bennett said Saturday to audit pool reporter Dan Zak of the Washington Post. "And so I think that's why the request was made." An independent audit done for the county earlier this year found there were no connections to the internet.

Yeah, like that will matter.

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Al-Aqsa Under Attack: How Israel Turned Holy Site Into a Battleground Print
Written by <a href="index.php?option=com_comprofiler&task=userProfile&user=59413"><span class="small">Frank Andrews, Middle East Eye</span></a>   
Wednesday, 12 May 2021 08:40

Andrews writes: "Al-Aqsa Mosque, one of the three holiest sites in Islam, has long been an emblem of Palestinian resistance to Israeli occupation."

Palestinians pray as Israeli police gather at the compound that houses Al-Aqsa Mosque, in Jerusalem's Old City, 7 May 2021. (photo: Ammar Awad/Reuters)
Palestinians pray as Israeli police gather at the compound that houses Al-Aqsa Mosque, in Jerusalem's Old City, 7 May 2021. (photo: Ammar Awad/Reuters)

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ALSO SEE: At Least 35 Killed in Gaza as Israel Ramps Up Airstrikes

Al-Aqsa Under Attack: How Israel Turned Holy Site Into a Battleground

By Frank Andrews, Middle East Eye

12 May 21


Targeted by Israeli security forces, the symbolic mosque was at the centre of much of Jerusalem's long weekend of violence

l-Aqsa Mosque, one of the three holiest sites in Islam, has long been an emblem of Palestinian resistance to Israeli occupation.

Al-Haram al-Sharif (the Noble Sanctuary), the complex in Jerusalem’s Old City that houses the mosque - which includes the Dome of the Rock and other Islamic shrines - is arguably the most significant symbol of Palestinian sovereignty.

Jerusalem has been on edge for weeks over Israel's restrictions on Palestinian access to parts of the Old City during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, and Israeli authorities' attempted eviction of several Palestinian families in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood to make way for Israeli settlers.

Al-Aqsa found itself at the centre of a long weekend of violence from Friday, that left hundreds of people injured and led to a series of deadly rocket exchanges between the Israel military and Hamas in Gaza.

By Tuesday night, Israeli security forces had raided the holy site four times in five days.

This is how the prayer, protest and violence at al-Aqsa unfolded.

Friday 7 May

On the last Friday of Ramadan, thousands of Palestinian worshippers gathered to pray outside the Dome of the Rock.

In total, more than 70,000 congregated to take part in the final Friday prayers of the holy month, according to Sheikh Azzam al-Khatib, head of the Waqf Islamic affairs council.

Tensions between Israelis and Palestinians had reached boiling point in recent days, as events in Sheikh Jarrah continued to unfold. While Palestinians in the neighbourhood were resisting eviction orders that would force 40 Palestinians, including 10 children, out of their homes, supporters inside Israel, East Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank organised protests in solidarity with them and others facing imminent eviction.

After Friday prayers, Palestinians at the mosque began their own demonstration, raising both Palestinian and Hamas flags.

Israeli police had deployed large numbers of officers to the city of Jerusalem, especially in the Old City, and closed off the surrounding streets that led to the mosque. Those who came to take part in the prayers were met with iron barriers and forced to go through identity checks.

Israeli police violently dispersed the protesters around Jerusalem throughout the day, forcing many to retreat to the mosque and hide within the confines of the shrines inside the complex.

Later that evening, Israeli forces used tear gas, stun grenades and rubber-coated steel bullets to disperse worshippers at the mosque. Hundreds were injured and hospitalised, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent.

The Red Crescent said that many of the injuries reported were to the head and eyes. Israeli police said six officers were injured as tensions intensified throughout the night.

Videos showed worshippers trying to ignore the tear gas canisters exploding around them as they prayed. Some appeared to be struck directly, others were engulfed in smoke. All fled the armed Israeli security forces flooding the complex. The man who remained longest appeared to be hit by one of the men in uniform.

Palestinian civil society called for a day of anger on Saturday in response to the crackdown.

Saturday 8 May

Friday's violence prompted protests by Palestinian citizens of Israel in towns throughout the country, including Jaffa and Nazareth, in a show of anger against the Sheikh Jarrah evictions and the storming of al-Aqsa.

Israeli forces carried out arrests and raids throughout occupied East Jerusalem and built up their presence in the city on Saturday. This created a tense atmosphere ahead of the 27th night of Ramadan, one of the month's holiest nights, which typically draws large crowds of worshippers to al-Aqsa, completely filling its courtyards.

Israeli Police Commissioner Yaakov Shabtai said that the force was sending extra officers to Jerusalem in anticipation of more protests on Saturday night.

Despite the febrile atmosphere in the city, some 90,000 Palestinian worshippers flocked to al-Aqsa for prayers.

Many travelled long distances from the occupied West Bank or from Palestinian-majority towns inside Israel, but Israeli forces reportedly blocked buses bringing them to Jerusalem, forcing them to walk along highways. Some Palestinians in the city drove down to ferry the stranded worshippers to Al-Aqsa.

Mohammed Atiq, from the West Bank town of Jenin, said Friday's raids on al-Aqsa did not deter him from making the journey.

"They began attempts to clear out al-Aqsa, attempts to ruin the night of worship," he told Middle East Eye. "But the will of the worshippers is stronger than bullets."

Suad Abu Eraim, from the town of Yatta in the southern West Bank, said she spent hours waiting at Israeli checkpoints before finally reaching Jerusalem.

"This is al-Aqsa mosque, this mosque is ours, we must stay tied to it," she told MEE. "We must be present here, young or old, from every place.”

Though the prayers were conducted safely, Israeli forces quickly began cracking down on Palestinians trickling out of the Old City after the service, arresting many and wounding at least 90, according to medics.

Rubber-coated metal bullets, tear gas and smoke grenades were fired at Palestinians at the Damascus Gate, which was adorned with lights to mark Ramadan. Women with bloody faces were seen being led away by medics. A short distance away, Israeli forces and settlers tore up a protest camp in Sheikh Jarrah.

Sunday 9 May

Jerusalem remained on edge on Sunday following another night of violence, as solidarity protests took place in cities worldwide, including Amman, Berlin, Chicago, London and Istanbul.

Staff and volunteers in al-Aqsa washed down the mosque's courtyards the morning after Laylat al-Qadr, while hundreds of Palestinians rallied under the Dome of the Rock after the dawn Fajr prayer.

The passage between the Dome of the Rock and al-Qibli Mosque was packed with people clapping and chanting: "In spirit, in blood, we sacrifice for you al-Aqsa."

There were some confrontations with Israeli forces at the nearby Chain Gate, which many of the protesters had exited through, still chanting. Palestinians threw rocks while Israeli forces lobbed stun grenades into the mosque complex.

Compared to other days, Sunday was relatively quiet. But fears were growing about an event planned on Monday as part of Jerusalem Day, which marks Israel’s capture and subsequent occupation of East Jerusalem during the 1967 war.

Thousands of Israelis, many from the religious far-right, planned to enter the al-Aqsa complex and chant anti-Palestinian slogans as part of the Flag March.

But Israeli security officials feared that the march would only add fuel to the fire after a week of confrontations in the city, and lobbied politicians to either postpone the event or limit the number of attendees and shorten the route.

Monday 10 May

Half an hour before the Flag March was scheduled to begin, organisers called it off. Hundreds of Israelis gathered nonetheless, the vast majority of whom were right-wing religious nationalists. The crowds made their way into the plaza after a march through parts of Jerusalem's Old City, under the protection of Israeli police.

But the main development on Monday morning was Israeli security forces again raiding Al-Aqsa, firing multiple projectiles into the ancient building.

According to the Palestinian Red Crescent, 305 Palestinians were injured and 228 others hospitalised - some in a field hospital set up near al-Aqsa - including four in a critical condition.

Ehab Jallad, a historical researcher from Jerusalem, was in the mosque when Israeli forces stormed in and attacked worshippers. He recounted his experience to MEE.

“We prayed Fajr [dawn prayers] at around 4am and watched the settlers as they continued marching in, carrying with them stones and whatever materials they could to form a barrier. Israeli forces were positioned in strategic locations, targeting worshippers in the area.

“While young people were preparing for their seminar at 8am, Israeli police started targeting us with snipers using rubber bullets. Some of the young people reacted with stone-throwing,” he added.

“I was near the Qibli Mosque when the police started attacking us. They were positioned in rows, and were targeting us with tear gas. They were aiming to drag people to the north side, and from there to the gate to evacuate the mosque.”

It was terrible,” Jallad told MEE. “Within minutes, it felt like the sky was falling down on us. I wanted to try and escape the rubber-coated bullets, so I hid, in order to be out of sight.

During the raid, videos emerged of calls blasting out over al-Aqsa’s tannoy, appealing for help for Palestinians trapped inside al-Aqsa's al-Qibli Mosque. Footage from inside the Qibli mosque also showed vast plumes of tear gas.

A spokesperson for the Jerusalem emergency medical services said Israel was denying medics access to the mosque and had even confiscated some carts used to evacuate the wounded. Israelis also reportedly seized the mosque's audio control room at one point, hampering the Palestinians' ability to safely coordinate.

Speaking to Middle East Eye in Jerusalem, Palestinian activist Hanady Halawani said many had been wounded on Monday, and journalists covering the raid had also been targeted by Israeli forces.

She added that Israeli police stormed al-Aqsa’s Qibli shrine, located in the southern part of the complex, as people were praying.

“We have reached a new point now, and it’s very dangerous. The occupation has crossed all the red lines and all the feelings of Muslims. Al-Aqsa, Ramadan, women: there are no lines which have not been crossed,” Halawani said.

The director of Jerusalem's Endowments Department also told Al Jazeera Arabic that Israeli forces had confiscated the keys to all entrances to al-Aqsa complex.

At some point during the raid, some of the stained glass windows at al-Aqsa were smashed by Israeli security forces.

Following the morning’s violence, the mosque was littered with rocks and shards of glass, and the carpets were stained.

However, despite the violence and unrest caused by the raid, Palestinians were quick to return to the mosque to start cleaning it again. With Israeli forces no longer in al-Aqsa Mosque's complex, some Palestinians were able to return to the courtyard.

MEE correspondent Latifeh Abdellatif reported that only Palestinians above the age of 40 were allowed into the courtyard by Israeli police via the Lions' Gate.

Israeli forces violently stormed al-Aqsa for the third time in four days on Monday evening. Tear gas was used to disperse crowds, sound grenades were aimed at people, and heavily armed police made their way into al-Aqsa, causing further damage to the interior of the buildings.

After hours of attacks against worshippers, trapping hundreds inside the mosque’s buildings, Israeli forces withdrew from the complex.

Tuesday 11 May

Much of the attention turned to Gaza on Tuesday, with Hamas and Israel exchanging rocket fire amid warnings of a "full-scale war".

According to Gaza's health ministry, the number of Palestinians killed by Israeli air strikes on the besieged enclave since Monday has increased to 36 civilians, including 12 children, while 220 people have been wounded.

In Israel, at least five civilians have been killed by missiles fired from Gaza in retaliation for the air strikes, according to Haaretz, including one teenager and her father.

On Tuesday evening, Israeli security forces again stormed al-Aqsa - the fourth time since Friday.

Media outlets and social media users shared footage of heavily armed Israeli officers running towards the mosque from two separate directions.

The Palestinian Red Crescent reported that Israeli forces blocked medics from entering the mosque, amid attacks on Palestinians inside.

"Blocking medical rescue teams from reaching the wounded is a blatant violation of international humanitarian law, which requires the occupying force to facilitate the mission of medics and provide healthcare to the sick and injured," the Red Crescent said in a Facebook post.

Israel’s raids on al-Aqsa may, under international law, constitute war crimes. Yet while some have described the events at the mosque over the past few days as "unprecedented", there have been several major incidents of Israeli police violence at the mosque and its immediate vicinity over the years.

In October 1990, for example, Israeli security forces massacred around 21 Palestinians, shooting live bullets into a crowd.

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