Reply To: Some “random” anti-Jewish racist attacks by Arabs

SHEIKH JARRAH: ETHNIC CLEANSING ATTEMPT BY RACIST ARABS

May 4, 2021: Zeev Kam Zeev Kam (@ZeevKam) Tweeted: ‘Tonight, as every evening recently, Arabs are demonstrating (sometimes violently) in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of Jerusalem against a Jewish presence in the neighborhood. Arabs demand a clean area from Jews and to everyone around it it seems reasonable and logical.’

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Sheikh Jarrah dispute reflects Arab-Israeli conflict

Shimon HaTzadik is a neighborhood where Jews and Arab could have lived side by side peacefully – had Arabs not tried to ethnically cleanse all of the Jews living there.

 By  Micha Danzig. Published on  05-10-2021. Israel Hayom

Last week, anti-Israel forces went into overdrive regarding the Jerusalem District Court’s decision authorizing the eviction of certain Arab families from homes in the “Sheikh Jarrah” neighborhood of Jerusalem. These critics have aggressively railed against Israel on social media and even started a trending hashtag, “SaveSheikhJarrah,” all while claiming that what is happening in this Jerusalem neighborhood exemplifies the entire Arab-Israeli conflict.

And they are right. The dispute over “Sheikh Jarrah” does illustrate many of the principal features of the entire Arab-Israeli conflict.

But first, some history about this neighborhood is needed. “Sheik Jarrah” is an Arab neighborhood that was established in 1865. And before 1949, there was a separate Jewish neighborhood within it. For about 2,000 years before that, this area was known by the name “Shimon HaTzadik” (Simon the Righteous), named after the famous rabbinical sage whose tomb is located there.

For centuries, the Jewish presence in the area revolved around the tomb of Shimon HaTzadik, who was famously one of the last members of the Great Assembly (HaKnesset HaGedolah), the governing body of the Jewish people during the Second Jewish Commonwealth (after the Babylonian Exile). Shimon HaTzadik, whose full name is Shimon ben Yohanan, was so impactful that practically every Jewish kid going back 2,000 years learned his most famous verse in Pirkei Avot (“Sayings of the Fathers”), which was incorporated millennia ago into the Jewish morning prayers: “The world stands on three things: Torah, the service of God, and deeds of kindness.”

Because of the tomb and its significance to the Jewish people, the Sephardic Community Committee and the Ashkenazi Assembly of Israel purchased the tomb and its surrounding land (about 4.5 acres) in 1875. Shortly thereafter, it, along with the neighborhood of Kfar Hashiloah in the Silwan area of Jerusalem, became home to many, mostly Yemenite, Jews who had migrated to Jerusalem (Zion) back in 1881. Notably, by 1844, Jews were the largest ethnic population in Jerusalem.