This morning, a huge force of the occupation army and police raided Kufr Aqab in the north of Jerusalem. The raid was carried out under the pretext that residents complained that the public is ignoring social distancing instructions that aim to stop the spreading of the COVID-19 virus. However, this raid clearly comes in order to declare Israeli control over the neighborhood after the Palestinian Authority sent its security forces there two days ago.

Kufr Aqab is a one of two Palestinian neighborhoods of Jerusalem that have a peculiar geopolitical status: they are included within the Israeli dictated municipal boundaries of Jerusalem on the one hand, but are separated from the city by the Annexation and Expansion Wall. As a result, Kuf Aqab suffers total administrative neglect by the occupation municipality which refrains from providing the services it is obliged to give the residents in the neighborhood (infrastructure, social services, garbage collection, etc.)

The isolation of Kuf Aqab from Jerusalem by the Wall (constructed in the mid 2000s) is yet another example of the displacement policies applied against the Palestinian residents of Jerusalem. Today, Coronavirus brought back the Israeli authorities to Kufr Aqab, after long years of political and deliberate absence that has deprived residents from the very basic means of life. Ironically, this return to Kuf Aqab comes under the pretext of protecting these residents from the pandemic.

The Israeli occupation authorities’ show of power ended with the removal of a sign, hung by the Palestinian police in Kufr Aqab. It is expected that this action today will be followed by the spreading of Isralei police officers in Kufr Aqab, as well as other Palestinian neighborhoods in Jerusalem, supposedly to help stop the spreading of the virus. This way, the virus will become another tool used by the occupation authorities in order to apply their colonial policies against the Palestinians in Jerusalem. ... See more