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And if the Occupation does not end, if the settler colonialism does not end, these uprising are bound to happen, relentlessly, until it’s over.Īnd I think it has shown us a new, decentralized approach to struggle, one that is authentic and true to the Palestinian street, one that is unafraid and not held hostage by the international aid complex. These uprisings, independent of who’s at the forefront, or who’s doing the media interviews, these uprisings are bound to happen when you’re living under suffocating circumstances.

NE: What do you think that that the Unity Intifada portends for us in terms of this new young leadership? I think that’s one of the lessons we learned this summer, that Palestinians are all facing this colonial violence in its various forms and can always have a role to play in rebelling against it. This hierarchy, which is this extension of these colonial borders-both the cement barriers, but also these colonial delusions in our minds that have fragmented our realities as Palestinians-all of these things have come crashing down. And this hierarchy, which tells me that my oppression does not matter, no longer exists in my mind. At least we’re not getting our residency revoked.” And I think this most recent uprising has taught me that it actually matters that I stay in my home. I’ve genuinely always thought: “We’re losing our home, but at least we’re not getting shot. I’ve always thought my whole life that losing my home is not a big deal. In Arabic, there’s this proverb: Somebody else’s troubles make your troubles look like nothing. MEK: Well, I can answer this in a very personal sense.

NE: ….how has the Unity Intifada reshaped the way people understand the Palestinian struggle for freedom? When we talk about this regime, which demolishes homes or takes over homes, these settlers who commit colonial violence, it’s not in our distant memory-it is in our backyards… It also highlighted this idea that what we talk about is not a metaphor. This, in a lot of ways, functioned as a media training for me. Coming home from school every day, I had to speak to a group of internationals and tell them about what’s happening. And in a lot of ways, we were constantly on display. What was unique is that our house became this kind of media hub to which many journalists, many activists, many people came. MEK: It’s not unique that our house was taken over by settlers. NE: Can you tell us about that experience? And we saw a resurgence of these dispossession orders this past year, not only in Sheikh Jarrah, but in neighborhoods, like Silwan. And they took over our home on a falsified basis, utilizing a judicial system that is inherently colonial. MEK: Like many homes in Palestine, our home was taken over in 2009 by settlers who were supported by policemen and the army. Can you give us a quick background on that takeover, for audiences who are not familiar with that story? NE: You grew up in a home besieged by settlers. In October, he published a book of poetry, Rifqa…. He has since been named one of the 100 most influential people of 2021 by Time, and The Nation recently tapped him as our inaugural Palestine correspondent. In the process, he helped spark what has come to be known as the Unity Intifada. This spring, El-Kurd returned to Palestine from the United States, where he was studying for his MFA, to fight a renewed push to expel his family and neighbors from their homes. When he was 11 years old, settlers carrying rifles and backpacks, and supported by the Israeli army, took over half his house. Mohammed El-Kurd is a Palestinian poet, writer, and activist who grew up in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah. Erakat wrote the Forward for the soon to be released book, A Land With A People.

By Noura Erakat, human rights attorney and activist, associate professor at Rutgers University-New Brunswick, and a contributing editor of Jadaliyya.