Jalal Abukhater

Jerusalemites face oc­cu­pa­tion and apartheid. No amount of strong­ly word­ed state­ments and mon­ey pledges can help them.

Set­tlers are vi­o­lent­ly block­ing Pales­tini­ans from ac­cess­ing the green spaces of the oc­cu­pied West Bank.

It would not do more dam­age to Pales­tin­ian re­sis­tance than it would to British pol­i­tics.

It feels per­son­al when I hear that the US em­bassy in Jerusalem will be built on land stolen from Pales­tini­ans.

But this does not mean there is no hope.

We lost yet an­oth­er revered Pales­tin­ian icon to the Is­raeli oc­cu­pa­tion.

A Pales­tin­ian Jerusalemite, I live in a sur­veil­lance so­ci­ety rem­i­nis­cent of those in dystopi­an sci­ence fic­tion nov­els.

The Is­raeli au­thor­i­ties re­sent­ed the suc­cess of Pales­tin­ian ac­tivism in Jerusalem and now want to quash it.

And it has made colo­nial vi­o­lence a per­ma­nent fea­ture of Pales­tin­ian lives in the holy city.

Is­rael’s diplo­mat­ic stand­ing in the world is on the rise, and its il­le­gal oc­cu­pa­tion is rapid­ly be­ing nor­malised.