SHEIK JARRAH, WHERE YOU CAN LOSE YOUR HOME OVERNIGHT

Qavi and others gather before the protest march

     Going back to Sheik Jarrah is always upsetting. Something about seeing with my own eyes that people are getting thrown out of their homes into the street while settlers move into the home, discard the furniture and personal belongings - everything from toys to photographs to beds and dishes - like so much garbage, put up Israeli flags and even a giant menorah on the Gowi home, and then come and go from the home as if it was really theirs -- it is unnerving. It has happened to three families so far, and at least two others have settlers living in parts of their houses or yards, while 23 more families are threated with a similar fate. Note that this threat can be carried out at any moment, starting with a knock on the door at 2:00 A.M.When I told him I had seen him back then, he informed me that since then he has been arrested 89 times for defending his right to live in his own home. 






 

Farhaat home -settler guard hut to the right

 

 

 Gowi home with menorah added by settlers

 I went with Doris to the weekly protest which is made up of many anti-occupation Israelis, some internationals, and a handful of stalwart Palestinians. We gathered across the intersection that leads into the Sheik Jarrah neighborood of middle class famllies. There I went over to a man holding a banner in English which said, "Repair the world, keep hope alive," and started a conversation. I thought he might be Palestinian and could tell me what the plan for today's demonstration was. Turned out he was an Englishman of Indian descent, born in New Delhi, and had come to Palestine several times but never to this particular demonstration. As the procession was about to begin, we continued talking as we walked.     

     Soon I was helping Qavi who was wrestling with the wind in his banner by carrying his folding cane/seat. I was able to explain which homes we passed were the ones settlers had occupied until we reached one I didn't know anything about. No one else I asked knew either. Finally I had a chance to ask the protest leader, who explained that this family's situation has not been as well publicized as it should be due to lack of coordination among supporters. It is the Farhaat family home of 30 people who still live, there though the outisde of the house is "decorated" with little Israeli flags, and adjoined by a sort of guard station with a settler inside it.





Nasser Gowi  addressing the crowd





     The protest leader is Nasser Gowi, head of the 37 member family that was thrown onto the streets back in August, 2009. I had seen him along with other adults and children of all ages camped out on the sidewalk across from his home in the Fall of 2009. When cold weather demanded it, they rented an apartment in another neighborhood but come back every week to haunt the setttlers