Watch: Sheikh Jarrah Resident Who Appeared on CNN, MSNBC Kicked Out of Neighborhood by Israeli Forces
A video posted to Twitter on Wednesday shows Sheikh Jarrah resident Mohammed El-Kurd being kicked out of his neighborhood by members of the Israeli Defense Forces just one day after he appeared on MSNBC and CNN.
Reporter Matt Binder retweeted the video with caption, “this is the person both CNN and MSNBC had on for an interview over the past 24 hours whose clips had gone viral.”
this is the person both CNN and MSNBC had on for an interview over the past 24 hours whose clips had gone viral https://t.co/48iS73Hp0G
— Matt Binder (@MattBinder) May 12, 2021
In addition to showing Israeli soldiers escorting El-Kurd out of his neighborhood, the video also shows a woman yelling at them in Arabic, begging them to “leave him.”
She went on to accuse the soldiers of kicking them out of their homes as they continued to walk El-Kurd out, asking them to have pity while later calling them “animals.”
“Hit me! Hit me! Hit me!” El-Kurd challenged the soldiers in Arabic as they shoved him past the security fence bordering Sheikh Jarrah.
El-Kurd later assured his followers that he was fine and “unintimidated” following the incident, adding, “Our protest was nonviolent, this was probably targeted (not that nonviolence is superior). the settlers, who are allowed in while we’re kicked out, are armed w knives & guns. the soldiers tonight were animalistic, howling & glaring. they’re big mad.”
some notes: our protest was nonviolent, this was probably targeted (not that nonviolence is superior). the settlers, who are allowed in while we’re kicked out, are armed w knives & guns. the soldiers tonight were animalistic, howling & glaring. they’re big mad. #SaveSheikhJarrah
— mhmd krd (@m7mdkurd) May 12, 2021
El-Kurd was interviewed on MSNBC and CNN the day before the incident, during which he described the evictions in Sheikh Jarrah as a “war crime” and an “ethnic cleansing.”
During a Tuesday interview, MSNBC’s Ayman Mohyeldin asked El-Kurd what he has to say to United States officials who have supported Israel’s right to self defense, prompting El-Kurd to note that the U.S. has “waged more wars than there are Hamas members.”
“I don’t wait for the United States to tell me what constitutes as self-defense and what not constitutes as self-defense, that is not where my moral compass stems from,” he added. “I don’t think the United States is in position, given all the genocides and wars it’s partaken in, to say something about who has the right to self-defense.”
“What I know is that the military occupation that we’re living in is excruciatingly violent,” he continued. “The siege we’re living under is excruciatingly violent, and that is the aggressor, that is the occupier, that’s what started it all. That’s fundamentally what started the so-called conflict.”
While on CNN, El-Kurd also pushed back on the term “eviction,” instead labeling the ongoing events as “forced ethnic displacement.”
“An eviction implies legal authority, while the Israeli occupation has legitimate jurisdiction over the Eastern parts of occupied Jerusalem under international law,” he said, later adding that the term “eviction” also implies the presence of a landlord while Israeli settlers did not built his home.
Watch above, via MSNBC and CNN.
