Israeli police detain Sheikh Jarrah's Muna El-Kurd after row with settlers

Israeli police detained Palestinian activist Muna El-Kurd at her home in Jerusalem's Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood on Sunday after a disagreement with a settler, her father told The New Arab.

Police arrived at the El-Kurd family home after Muna argued with an Israeli settler who occupies part of the premises, Nabil El-Kurd said.

"The settler, who occupies half of my house, was putting a decoration up, on the top of the house and Muna told him he couldn't do it," El-Kurd said.

"They were arguing about it when the Israeli police arrived and detained Muna for interrogation."

The police released Muna a few hours later, he said.

#Palestinians #Israel : The moment that Palestinian activist Muna el-Kurd was detained this evening in Sheikh Jarrah neigbourhood in #Jerusalem where her family lives- @TIME included her in top 100 Most Influential People in 2021 #منى_الكرد #الشيخ_جراح pic.twitter.com/9MXY6iULVE

— sebastian usher (@sebusher) December 5, 2021

An Israeli settler association claims property on Sheikh Jarrah's land, based on an Israeli law that allows any Jewish Israeli to claim ownership over any property that was owned by Jews before 1948.

Palestinian families in Sheikh Jarrah, who were granted the property by the Jordanian government in the 1950s after being made refugees by Israel, have been fighting for their homes in Israeli courts since 1971. Some 65 of the families currently face expulsion orders.

Muna El-Kurd and her brother Mohammed have become two of Sheikh Jarrah's most famous faces by covering Israeli state and settler violence in the neighbourhood on social media.

Both have been arrested by the Israeli police on multiple occasions for their activism.

صرنا عيلتكم وأهلكم، وبنرجع نقول لكم هذا الحي حيكم، ونحن الان بحاجتكم اكثر من اي وقت مضى. #انقذوا_حي_الشيخ_جراح #savesheikhjarrah pic.twitter.com/wCZxAFs7am

— muna.kurd (@kurd_muna) November 7, 2021

In early November, residents of Sheikh Jarrah rejected a deal proposed by the Israeli court to grant them 'protected tenants' status in exchange for monthly rent payments to the Israeli settler organisation.

"Since we declared our refusal of the deal, we have expected anything to happen," Nabil El-Kurd told The New Arab. "The only thing keeping the court from expelling us is the potential local and international reaction.” 

"Israeli settlers in the neighborhood try to impose their symbols and erase ours. Last week they vandalised a mural made by the residents, twice."