A Night Visit to Um Kamel's Tent

On an open piece of waste ground just north of the Old City of Jerusalem in the neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah stands a 'defiant' tent, which refuses to be flattened however much the Jerusalem municipality tries to destroy it. It is a symbol of resistance for the Palestinian struggle not only in East Jerusalem but throughout Israel/Palestine. Its central place in the Palestinian struggle for justice is led by a quiet, kind, welcoming but determined middle aged woman, Fawzieh Al-Kurd, who entertains diplomats, journalists, politicians, internationals from all around the world, neighbours and friends with unfailing courtesy and hospitality. She stands to greet each one with a confident, peaceful smile. She explains her position and why she lives in this tent with clarity, consistency and simplicity.  She must have repeated her story hundreds of times but she never shows any impatience when asked to repeat.                                                     

Her story is, regrettably, an all too familiar one in Israel/Palestine and yet unique in its detail and more especially in her fight for justice. Fawzieh Al Kurd's family was driven from their home in the neighbourhood of Talbieh in West Jerusalem in 1948 at the establishment of the State of Israel and came as refugees to the Sheikh Jarrah area of East Jerusalem.

The house in which the family was settled is part of a housing project the Jordanian government built with the United Nations Refugee and Welfare Association (UNRWA) to house 28 Palestinian refugee families who had also fled their homes in the displacement of Palestinians from Israel in 1948. It was agreed then that ownership of the houses would be transferred to the families within three years.                                

Shortly after the six-day war in 1967, religious Jews claimed ownership of the land, referring to an old Ottoman document, whose legality is debated and a long legal battle ensued. In 2001, with the legal process still in progress a group of settlers broke into and settled in half of the Al-Kurd family home. Although the Al-Kurd family won a legal case and the settlers were ordered to leave the house at the beginning of November 2008, their removal was never enforced by the Jerusalem municipality. 

Instead, on 9th November 2008 at 4 am soldiers and police arrived and forcibly evicted the Al-Kurd family; the father Mohammad Al-Kurd, who was in a wheel chair and a very sick man,  and the mother, Fawzieh Al-Kurd. The couple has adult children who live elsewhere.

On 10th November the protest tent was erected. On 11th, 12th and 13th November the family received orders to demolish the tent and pay fines. On 19th November, the IDF demolished it for the first time. It was re-erected the same day. On the 20th November it was demolished for a second time and again erected within hours. It has been demolished another three times since and always re-erected within a few hours. On 22nd November, two weeks after the eviction, Mohammad Al Kurd died of a heart attack leaving his widow to continue their struggle for justice. She has done so with outstanding courage and belief in the justice of her case.

"I fear no one except God," she declares with utter conviction. As a consequence of her resistance to the eviction and her refusal to do as the Jerusalem municipality dictates, her 'home' -  the tent, has become a focal point for all 28 families in the area who have also been served with eviction orders and for all Palestinian families in Jerusalem and beyond, faced with eviction or demolition orders.

Her story has been told all round the world by the hundreds of people who have visited her tent these past eight months but it deserves re-telling. Her very public stand against the injustice of the treatment the family has received is in stark contrast to the night time eviction and the early morning demolitions of her 'home,' carried out under cover of darkness by the IDF and Israeli police. Her struggle for justice also continues as the agenda of the Jerusalem municipality to drive as many Palestinians as possible from the 'Holy Basin'* progresses unabated.   The struggle however, is empowered by the strength, vision and determination of Fawzieh Al-Kurd.