Hundreds of Issawiyah's residents marched together with Israeli activists through the battered East Jerusalem neighborhood on Friday, protesting the recent Israeli brutality against the village. The neighborhood of Issawiyah has been the center of much turmoil in recent years , and a focal point of resistance to the Occupation in East Jerusalem. In recent months Israeli authorities have carried house demolitions, laid siege on the neighborhood, and staged violent police raids and arrests.

Protesters march in Issawiyah. Picture credit: Oren Ziv/ActiveStills

Demonstrators convened near the one and only entrance now open to traffic going in and out of the neighborhood - the rest having been sealed off with concrete barricades. From there, protesters marched into Issawiyah to the inimical background of dozens riot police officers in full gear, backed by an ominous water cannon. The procession continued through the streets of Issawiyah, culminating at its other end, where a narrow opening in the concrete barricades is wide enough to allow the passage of only one or two people at a time.

Youth building a barricade on Issawiyah's main street to prevent Border Police from entering the neighborhood. Picture credit: Oren Ziv/ActiveStills

As the protest came to an end, a Border Police force moved in on the streets of Issawiyah provoking clashes with local youth. A large garbage cans were dragged into the main street, and set aflame to serve as barricades in the youth's attempt to ward off the Border Police. The officers shot massive amounts of tear-gas directly into the neighborhood, amidst the houses. It was such an attack a few weeks back, that caused the death of a baby from tear-gas asphyxiation. The clashes, small numbered to begin with, ended with the fall of night, when the Border Police force withdrew outside the neighborhood.

Demonstrators raising an oversized Palestinian flag during the Issawiyah demo. Picture credit: Oren Ziv/ActiveStills

Like most Palestinian neighborhoods of East Jerusalem, Issawiyah is neglected by the municipality. Portions of its land have been annexed at different times to build up Jewish neighborhoods, roads, and parks. Palestinians today compose roughly 30% of Jerusalem's population, but are confined to reside in about 7% of the city's built-up area through a plethora of bureaucratic measures. Building permits are very scarcely issued for Palestinians by the Jerusalem Municipality, often forcing residents to either build illegally or leave the city, risking the loss of their ever-venerable residency status. Since 2004, more than 1,300 people have been directly affected by house demolitions in East Jerusalem, the majority of them minors.

In a speech during the demonstration a representative of the neighborhood expressed the people's right and to be treated like any other resident of the city, and demanded to end the racial discrimination employed by the Jerusalem Municipality.