Saturday Night: Demonstration to End the Police Brutality in Isawiya

For almost half a year, the Palestinian residents of Isawiya in occupied East Jerusalem have endured daily violence at the hands of the Israeli Police. Large forces of Israel Border Police and Special Police Patrol Unit reconnoiter Isawiya day and night, in an organized, systematic campaign to turn the neighborhood on Mount Scopus into a warzone.

In the streets, schools, and stores, the residents, including large numbers of children, are exposed to intense violence, sound grenades, teargas, roadblocks, and hundreds of arbitrary arrests, the vast majority of which end without indictment. Even in their homes, residents are not safe from violent nightly raids.

Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Leon, who has been the target of demonstrations by anti-occupation activists for the past three weeks, continues to verbally back the police brutality in Isawiya and to allow law enforcement officers to continue their indiscriminate repression of neighborhood’s residents.

Tomorrow, while Leon is busy with public relations overseas, peace activists, among them members of Hadash and the Communist Party of Israel, will bring their demands to those directly responsible for the violence in Isawiya – the Jerusalem District of the Israeli Police and its chief, Doron Yedid.

The organizers of the demonstration have written: “This Saturday night, at 8 pm, outside the police station in Jerusalem’s Russian Compound, we will demand an immediate end to the violent abuse and collective punishment perpetrated by the Israeli Police, and will demand accountability from Sheriff Yedid. Together, as both large movements and individual activists from around the country, we will sound out a loud, unwavering voice in solidarity with the people of Isawiya, demanding an end to the police brutality and repression in East Jerusalem that must not be allowed to continue any longer.”

Related: Arrests, Violence and Raids on Homes: Summer 2019 in Isawiyah

The demonstration on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/1136043919933567/