Sheikh Jarrah Neighborhood, Al-Aqsa Mosque, and Israeli Apartheid

May 11, 2021 (EIRNS)—After Israeli authorities suppressed protests against moves to evict several dozen Palestinians from their homes in East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah, many of the worshippers who had gathered on May 9—despite roadblocks and Israeli harassment—to pray at the Al-Aqsa mosque during the final days of the holy month of Ramadan, let their anger be known about the ongoing Israeli cleansing of Palestinians. Israeli authorities launched a brutal attack on the mosque, assaulting Muslims with batons, rubber bullets, tear gas and noise grenades. Palestinian medics report that at least 180 Palestinians were injured and over 80 hospitalized.

Heart-wrenching footage of tear gas and crowd-control grenades being launched inside Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem, Islam’s third most holy site, has circulated on the internet, beyond the control of the pathetic spin by most of the legacy media.

Following this brazen assault, Hamas fired rockets from Gaza towards Jerusalem for the first time in many years, an action that predictably led to a violent response from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Israeli strikes against Gaza killed at least 20 Palestinians, including many children.

When State Department spokesman Ned Price was pressed by media who were, uncharacteristically, doing a good job, on May 10, he tripped all over himself to avoid condemning the attack that killed children and danced around the question about whether the principle of self-defense applied to Palestinians as well as Israelis.

Extremists on both sides—including Hamas’s allies in Iran—have their own reasons to prevent the normalization process in the region, including the moderate government in Iran making progress on the JCPOA and potential rapprochement between Saudi Arabia and Iran as well as Syria, as do the Anglo-American war party.

The National, an English-language daily published in the United Arab Emirates, tweeted the footage of Ned Price’s shameful defense of “self-defense.”