About six months after Hamas issued an ultimatum to Israel to evacuate the Shimon Hatzadik neighborhood, and after disturbances that the Arabs of nearby Sheikh Jarrah tried to carry out in the neighborhood, Jews are interviewed for the first time by the Jewish families who live there and break the silence.
In an article to be published tomorrow in "Israel Hashavua", they recreate the difficult moments in May and June, describe the routine of the present and speak with hope about the future as well.
The families report the claim that their return to the place from which Jews were deported during the War of Independence and the riots of 1936 and 1936 gives legitimacy to the Arabs to demand a return to the places in "Little Israel" where they lived until 1948. They note that "For the murdered, between the person who made the partition decision and the one who rejected it, and sought to destroy and exterminate the Jewish community in the country. There is no comparison, neither legal nor ethical. The state does not claim that either. This is a distorted comparison," says Dvir Cohen.
Dvir Cohen, resident of the neighborhood, Photo: Gideon Markovich
Eliana Shandlov, who will move to Shimon Hatzadik next week, says: "I came to the neighborhood to live in a place that is the center of Jerusalem and present myself there. If someone wants to accept this and live next door to me - I will respect him and be neighbors, but if he fights me, I will fight him back. I was educated at home to respect a person as a person, but the Arabs in Shimon the Tzaddik, at least some of them, stopped behaving like human beings. "
Other residents recount how during the difficult events at the site about six months ago, on Fridays, Palestinians threw stones and Molotov cocktails at the compound, waved Palestinian flags, played nationalist songs through speakers, put speakers on the roofs of their homes and played Shabbat songs.
To reassure their children, some families introduced them to the noises of the barrage of stones and objects, as noises caused by police activity designed to protect them.
Chairman of Religious Zionism Bezalel Smutrich attacked by Arabs in Sheikh Jarrah
As is well known, the issue of Jewish settlement in Shimon the Tzaddik-Sheikh Jarrah is at the center of a difficult controversy.
It was adjudicated at a Biden-Bent meeting in August and also at a meeting between King Abdullah and MK Mansour Abbas this week. However, the Arab families rejected the proposal. The Supreme Court will soon rule on their case.
Full article: Tomorrow in "Israel Hashavua"
The families report the claim that living in the neighborhood gives legitimacy to the Arabs to demand a return to the place where they lived until 1948: "Distorted comparison"
