Amid fears of rocket fire from Hezbollah in Lebanon, Israeli authorities have scrapped plans for the annual Lag B'Omer pilgrimage to Mount Meron in the Galilee region. Instead, up to 30,000 worshippers are anticipated to congregate at the Shimon HaTzadik tomb in the Palestinian neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah in East Jerusalem to mark the holiday, a decision that has drawn criticism as a potential catalyst for heightened tensions.

Critics have voiced concerns that holding the alternative event in Sheikh Jarrah, a frequent flashpoint for clashes between Palestinians and Israeli security forces, could ignite further unrest. Ir Amim, a Palestinian organization, stated, "For the authorities to sponsor this event in a context in which they also promote the eviction and displacement of Palestinians from Sheikh Jarrah is not a gesture for diversity but an attempt to Israelize east Jerusalem."

The Jerusalem Affairs and Heritage Ministry, under the leadership of Meir Porush from the United Torah Judaism party, is spearheading the organization of the east Jerusalem event, which is also responsible for the annual Meron gathering. Typically, Mount Meron, believed to be the burial site of the second-century sage Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, draws over 100,000 pilgrims during Lag B'Omer.

Shmuel Karmasky, a ministry spokesperson, dismissed apprehensions, remarking, "We're not ashamed of anything, developing the Shimon HaTzadik gravesite is a national priority headed by the ministry. It's not meant to provoke, and we have good ties with community leaders in the neighborhood. We don't expect disturbances." An invitation sent by the ministry mentioned that Chief Sephardic Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef would attend the Sheikh Jarrah event.

Of course, the picture was different last night, with hundreds of police barricading entrance and exit into the neighborhood as Jewish worshipers celebrated separate from the local community in a Sheikh Jarrah that seems to have underwent a drastic transformation for the holiday pic.twitter.com/wSUWmWKfXd

— Charlie (@cbsu03) May 26, 2024

 Concurrently, private donors have sponsored an alternative mass gathering in Beit Shemesh, where approximately 30,000 revelers are anticipated to partake in a torch-lighting ceremony led by Rabbi Elimelech Biderman.

Some voices advocate prioritizing safety over ritual observance. "No one should get hurt to fulfill this custom, no matter how significant or spiritually powerful it is," said Moshe Levy, a father of 10 from the West Bank settlement of Shiloh, who plans to celebrate Lag B'Omer locally this year.

For many secular and national religious Jews, Lag B'Omer holds relatively minor significance, with children and families enjoying bonfires on the eve, marking the 33rd day of the Omer – the 49 days separating Passover from Shavuot. However, the occasion carries major importance for Haredi Jews, as the Talmud links it to a plague that claimed thousands of Rabbi Akiva's students, one of the greatest early rabbinical figures executed by the Romans for teaching the Torah. The plague purportedly ended on Lag B'Omer.

Apprehensions persist that numerous pilgrims may defy the ban on attending the pilgrimage in Meron and Tiberias, whose municipality also prohibited Lag B'Omer celebrations at Rabbi Akiva's gravesite due to safety concerns. On May 25, the annual Lag B'Omer festivities did occur, but on a significantly scaled-down level at Mount Meron, with only 30 people permitted entry at any given time.

Video: Police spokesperson

The relocation decision arrives as authorities grapple with the aftermath of the 2021 Meron crowd crush tragedy that claimed 45 lives. A planned memorial event for the victims in Jerusalem has been canceled due to a lack of funding from the Finance Ministry, drawing condemnation from bereaved families.

Boaz Strakovsky, whose son Elhanan perished in the 2021 stampede, decried the cancellation as an "insult" to victims' families. "If there's money for security at the alternative Lag B'Omer event in Jerusalem, why not for the commemoration?" he told The Times of Israel, adding that organizing an alternative celebration in Jerusalem "makes it even more incomprehensible."

David Stav, an Orthodox rabbi chairing the Tzohar rabbinical group, said the decision to cancel the Jerusalem memorial was "very difficult to understand." However, Stav affirmed holding a Lag B'Omer event in Sheikh Jarrah is "perfectly legitimate."

The Jerusalem Affairs and Heritage Ministry's budget included an NIS 11 million allocation for the canceled Meron event. Karmasky stated that almost the entire Meron budget aimed to fund a police operation preventing pilgrims from reaching the site. The event at Shimon HaTzadik's grave will cost approximately NIS 2 million to produce, according to Karmasky.

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Security forces on early Wednesday apprehended the terrorist who shot and wounded two Israelis in Jerusalem, according to a joint statement from the IDF and the Shin Bet security agency.

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The terrorist was caught during a raid in the Samarian city of Nablus that included the IDF, Shin Bet and the Border Police's Yamam counterterrorism unit. No casualties to Israeli forces were reported. The suspect, a teenager from the Askar refugee camp on the outskirts of Nablus, was transferred to the Shin Bet for questioning.

Israel Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai praised the quick work of security forces that led to the predawn arrest.

"From the first moment that the police forces from the Jerusalem District and the soldiers of the Border Police rushed to the scene of the attack, we used many forces and together with accurate intelligence we managed to get our hands on the terrorist," he said. "Let every terrorist know that the long arm of the security system will reach wherever he escapes to and wherever he hides,."

Two Breslov Chassidim, aged 48 and 50, were moderately wounded in the terrorist attack in Jerusalem's Shimon HaTzadik (Sheikh Jarrah) neighborhood on Tuesday morning. They were shot at point-blank range while sitting in a vehicle.

On Tuesday afternoon, Israeli forces arrested three Islamic Jihad operatives in the Jenin refugee camp in northern Samaria, the IDF said. They are suspected of promoting significant terrorist activities.

The operation included personnel from the IDF's Duvdevan undercover unit and Paratroop Brigade and the Shin Bet. A car belonging to one of the terrorists was also confiscated.

During the raid, Israeli forces returned fire after terrorists shot and threw explosive devices at them. Palestinian media reported injuries during the fight.

The terrorists – Aa Kareem Ala Adin Ibrahim Ahmad, Ahmad Muhammad Ahmad Jaradat and Amjad Muhammad Ahmad Jaradat – were taken for questioning by the Shin Bet. No casualties to Israeli forces were reported.

Reprinted with permission from JNS.org.

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In the wake of the clashes in Jerusalem over contested homes in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of Jerusalem, a senior member of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad warned on Monday that the terrorist organization was ready to fight another round of hostilities as it did in the spring of 2021.

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Khaled al-Batsh, who sits on the organization's politburo in the Gaza Strip, told Palestinian radio, "What happened in the past was the starting point for 'The Sword of Jerusalem' and we are ready to fight round two," he said, referring to the organization's name for the flare-up in May over the same issue (unlike Israel which called it Guardian of the Walls).

"We call on everyone to act in order to stop what the enemy is doing in Sheikh Jarrah," he said. He then added, "We will never stay silent over the enemy's attempts to make the neighborhood Jewish and evict people in the dead of the night; it is unacceptable."

The latest unrest erupted after a Jewish home was torched over the weekend. MK Itamar Ben-Gvir, a right-wing lawmaker, responded to the fire by setting up a makeshift office early Sunday near the home of a family facing possible eviction. Palestinians moved in on Ben-Gvir's tent, throwing plastic chairs in the afternoon and scuffling with his supporters.

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett criticized Ben-Gvir and politicians from the other side of the spectrum who were inflaming tensions on Monday, saying that "we do not need provocateurs that will set the region ablaze for political purposes." Bennett added that Israeli law enforcement was capable of dealing with the Palestinian rioters who vandalize Jewish homes and "we have already reinforced the police presence there." He stressed that "firebombing Jewish homes in Israel's capital is intolerable."

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The Israel Police on Wednesday evicted the residents of several illegal structures in Jerusalem's flashpoint Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, arresting 18 people during the evacuation and subsequent demolition of the buildings.

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Police had attempted to carry out the court-ordered eviction several times this week, resulting in a tense standoff with members of the Salhiya family, one of whom threatened to self-immolate if the evictions were carried out.

"The evacuation of the area has been approved by all the courts, including the Jerusalem District Court," the Jerusalem Municipality said in a statement on Wednesday.

The initial evacuation order had been issued in 2017, and the residents of the illegal structures "were given countless opportunities to hand over the land with consent," said the Municipality.

"Unfortunately they refused to do so, even after meetings and repeated dialog attempts by the Jerusalem municipality," the statement continued.

The city added that "the family's illegal takeover of public space prevented hundreds of children with special needs from eastern Jerusalem from receiving an educational service that the municipality seeks to provide."

Earlier in the week, police demolished the family's plant nursery and two storage structures on the property.

The plan for the property, shared by the municipality on its website, includes 18 classrooms and six kindergartens, sports fields and leisure facilities. The city said that the central location of the campus will facilitate the arrival of students from all the Arab neighborhoods in the area and will allow full accessibility and maximum convenience for parents and students.

"Despite the fact that the plan was approved and budgeted years ago, its implementation is severely delayed due to the takeover of the land by foreign parties," the municipality stressed. "The family who invaded the land has built a private commercial business on it and a temporary residential building. Contrary to the family's claim, the buildings they have erected were built illegally in recent years only."

The city also stressed that claims that the area will be expropriated for the purpose of transferring it to Jewish residents are "false and unfounded."

City Hall later said that Mayor Moshe Lion ordered officials to provide a rented home to the family at the city's expense.

A lawyer for the Salhiya family said they purchased the property before 1967, when Israel captured east Jerusalem from Jordan, and have been living there for over 70 years. Ahmed Kadamani says four members of the extended family of 15 were among those who were arrested.

Hagit Ofran, a researcher for the anti-settlement group Peace Now, acknowledged the family had been unable to prove ownership. But she said it was clear they have lived there for years.

She said the special-needs school could have been built elsewhere, including on a nearby plot given to an ultra-Orthodox Jewish boarding school. She also said the house could have been left intact since the new school is to be built on an adjacent plot of land.

"This expropriation could have been done without evicting them," she said. "It's in Sheikh Jarrah, it's in this very sensitive time, all the world is looking and the government didn't find the sense to stop it."

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas condemned the eviction, calling it a "war crime," and saying that Israel bears full responsibility for its "serious repercussions." In a statement from his office, he called on the United States to "intervene immediately to halt the continuing Israeli crimes against our people in Jerusalem."

US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield had called on Israel to refrain from evicting the residents of the illegal structures.

Speaking to the UN Security Council on Wednesday, she said: "To make progress, both Israel and the Palestinian Authority must refrain from unilateral steps that exacerbate tensions and undercut efforts to advance a negotiated two-state solution."

"That includes annexations of territory, settlement activity, demolitions and evictions – like what we saw in Sheikh Jarrah – incitement to violence and providing compensation for individuals imprisoned for acts of terrorism."

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Israel's Ambassador to the United States Gilad Erdan responded by saying the family "stole public lands for their own private use. This is a municipal issue that has gone through all the respective channels of the independent Israeli legal system."

Meanwhile, the foreign ministries of France, Germany, Italy and Spain all urged Israeli authorities on Wednesday evening to stop the construction of new housing units in east Jerusalem.

Earlier in the month, Israeli authorities approved plans for the construction of around 3,500 homes in east Jerusalem, nearly half of which are to be built in the areas of Givat Hamatos and Har Homa.

In a statement, the European countries said that the hundreds of new buildings would "constitute an additional obstacle to the two-state solution," referring to international peace efforts to create a state for Palestinians.

JNS.org contributed to this report.

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Israeli authorities on Monday morning attempted to evict the Salhiya family, Arab squatters living illegally since the 1950s in a home in Jerusalem's Shimon HaTzadik neighborhood, also known as Sheikh Jarrah. The day-long standoff ended without an eviction, though authorities did destroy a plant nursery on the premises as well as two illegal storage structures.

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Video and photos from the scene show the Salhiya family standing on the roof of their home with gas canisters. Mohammed Salhiya had threatened to set himself on fire if the eviction order was carried out. "We will not be evicted from the house," he threatened. "Either we will die or we will live. I am going to burn myself!"

Salhiya's family has been facing eviction since 2017, when the land where his home sits was allocated by the city for the construction of a school. The Jerusalem Municipality and the police said in a joint statement that the Salhiya family has ignored "countless opportunities" to vacate the land as ordered.

A delegation of European officials, led by European Union representative Sven Kühn von Burgsdorff, showed up in an apparent attempt to prevent the eviction. The official Twitter account for the European Union Delegation to the Palestinians said, "Imperative to de-escalate the situation and seek a peaceful resolution. Evictions/demolitions are illegal under international law and significantly undermine the prospects for peace as well as fuel tensions on the ground."

According to Avi Bell, a professor at the University of San Diego School of Law and at Bar-Ilan University's Faculty of Law, "the European Union's accusation that Israel is committing war crimes in Sheikh Jarrah by moving forward with plans to build an Arabic-language special-needs school for Israeli and Palestinian Arab residents of the neighborhood shows that European officials harbor equal contempt for common sense, international law and the Jewish state."

He further told JNS, "There is no international law that forbids Israel taking control of public lands to build a special-needs school" or that "gives Palestinian trespassers the right to block construction of a special-needs school."

He accused the EU delegation of "trying to obscure the bias displayed by its knee-jerk assault on Israel by making laughably inaccurate claims about international law."

The current area of Sheikh Jarrah encompasses Shimon HaTzadik and Nahalat Shimon, which were separate neighborhoods in the late Ottoman period and in Mandatory Jerusalem. Nachalat Shimon is a Jewish neighborhood built more than 130 years ago on empty land and still completely owned by Jews.

The British Consulate in Jerusalem also tweeted its concern and took the side of the Arab squatters while stating false interpretations of international law. "Evictions in Occupied Territory are against international humanitarian law in all but the most exceptional circumstances. The UK urges the Government of Israel to cease such practices which only serve to increase tensions on the ground."

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Even Internal Security Minister Omer Bar-Lev, no friend of the Israeli Right, acknowledged on Monday that the law is on Israel's side.

"The court ruled that this was an illegal invasion [by Arab squatters]. The area is intended for the establishment of classrooms and kindergartens for special education that are for the benefit of the neighborhood's Arab children. It is impossible to hold on to a stick from both ends – both to demand that the municipality act for the welfare of the Arab residents and also to oppose the construction of educational institutions for their welfare."

Starting in 1982, a number of Jewish owners brought their case to the courts to claim back land and homes Jordan had illegally confiscated in 1948. Palestinians have rejected these claims, saying their homes were legally purchased from Jordan.

Jordan, however, never legally owned the area of Sheikh Jarrah, having confiscated it in its war with Israel in 1948 and ethnically cleansed its Jewish residents from the very homes the Arab illegal squatters now claim as their own.

A number of court cases are currently pending as Arab squatters in Sheikh Jarrah battle Jewish owners over rights to the homes they occupy. One of them involves the Salem family, who also face eviction after squatting in a Jewish-owned home.

Eugene Kontorovich, a professor at George Mason's Antonin Scalia School of Law, specializing in constitutional and international law, told JNS that the only reason the Salem family is there is because Jordan seized the property and let them live there. In his view, this does not mean they have a title to it.

"The bottom line is: It's a Jewish-owned property," he said.

According to Chaim Rubinstein, an activist involved in assisting Jewish property owners to reclaim their land, the squatters "were aware they were on someone else's property from the beginning. They have been living illegally in someone else's property and not paying rent to the owners."

Reprinted with permission from JNS.org.

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A Palestinian facing eviction from the flashpoint east Jerusalem Shimon HaTzadik neighborhood, also known as Sheikh Jarrah, threatened on Monday to blow up gas canisters at his home rather than let his family be forced out.

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Scores of police in riot gear surrounded the property from early morning during an hours-long stand-off. Roads were sealed off around the area, about 1 kilometer (one-half mile) north of Jerusalem's Old City walls.

Jerusalem's municipality plants to build a school on the land.

"I will burn the house and everything in it, I will not leave here, from here to the grave, because there is no life, no dignity," Mahmoud Salhiyeh said as he stood on the roof of the building, surrounded by gas canisters.

Internal Security Minister Omer Bar-Lev said on Monday a court had ruled the case was one of illegal squatting.

"You can't hold the stick at both ends by both demanding that the municipality take action on welfare for Arab residents and oppose the building of educational establishments for their welfare," he wrote on Twitter.

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Authorities announced Wednesday that the woman who was stabbed earlier in the day in Jerusalem's Shimon HaTzadik neighborhood (also known as Sheikh Jarrah) is 26-year-old Moriah Cohen. She was attacked while walking her children to school by a 15-year-old girl who lives in the neighborhood.  

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Cohen's husband, Dvir, told Israel Hayom, "We will not leave the neighborhood. We believe in settling in east Jerusalem. We know that there are terrorists around us, but we will continue to settle Jerusalem until they understand one day that Israel is the one in charge.

"We are being threatened, and I have heard threats like 'I will kill you' many times. Such incidents happen daily, and there is also threatening graffiti. During Hanukkah, our menorah was extinguished and another one was broken. We live near terrorists."

Moriah "stepped out this morning and an Arab teenager who followed her stabbed her in the upper back. I was on reserve duty and my wife was alone with our five children. Someone who was there called an ambulance and she was taken to the hospital. She underwent some tests and thank God, her internal organs had not been injured."

When asked whether he knew the attacker, Dvir said, "It seems she is a neighbor of ours. She followed my wife. Moriah got to an intersection not far from our house. She told me that one of our sons screamed, 'Mom, you have a knife in your back.' It was a miracle.

"The terrorist was probably startled by the situation and fled, which was a miracle because our five children were there. Had she continued, I don't know how the situation could have ended. Ever since Operation Guardian of the Walls, our house was hit by 11 Molotov cocktails, and targeted by rockthrowers. We will continue to live here, that is part of our mission.

"Moriah is feeling well. The knife was long but did not injure internal organs. Please God, she will recover and be discharged from the hospital today."

In November, Israel Hayom interviewed Moriah and Dvir, who spoke about their lives in the flashpoint neighborhood. 

"My hardest moment here was on Jerusalem Day," Moriah said back then. "When I wanted to go home with the kids from the celebrations, and all of a sudden there was a siren. From afar, I saw thousands of Arabs facing our homes, whistling and dancing with joy, and I was cut off from reaching my home, the place that's supposed to be my safety and my defense. It was a terrible feeling."

For the couple's five children, the events in May were difficult. Nevertheless, they projected confidence in the children's presence. 

"We told them that the noises from the Arab attacks were noises from police actions that were defending us, but at one stage, our oldest child, Yinon-David, who's five, asked, 'Dad, if the police are protecting us, why aren't they here?' That's an emotionally healthy kid. When a guest asked him one time if he was afraid to live here, he said completely naturally and innocently, 'Why, are you afraid to live in your house?'"

Despite everything, Dvir and Moriah said that when things are calm, which is much more common than the days of rioting, "It's nice to raise children here. We returned to the Land of Israel and Jerusalem after 2,000 years."

The couple has been in the neighborhood for six years and came here after spending a few months living in Jewish homes in the Muslim Quarter of the Old City. 

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A 26-year-old Israeli woman was hospitalized Wednesday morning after she was stabbed near the grave of Shimon HaTzadik (Simeon the Just) while walking her children to school in the Shimon HaTzadik/Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of Jerusalem.

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The children were physically unharmed and were being supervised by police at the scene after their mother was taken to the hospital.

Magen David Adom paramedics who arrived on the scene found the woman in serious condition, provided her with life-saving treatment, and took her to Hadassah Mount Scopus Medical Center. After arriving at the hospital, her condition stabilized and her wounds were listed as minor.

Moshe Cordoba and Dudi Gur, the paramedics who responded, said that when they arrived, the woman was fully conscious and ambulatory.

"We rushed her to the hospital in serious but stable condition. She was able to communicate with us on the way. The children weren't hurt and stayed with police at the scene," the paramedics said.

Police swept the area after a young woman was reported fleeing the scene of the attack and within an hour arrested a 15-year-old Palestinian girl.

This is the third terrorist attack in the space of three days, after a young man was stabbed near Damascus Gate in the Old City of Jerusalem on Saturday night, and a 16-year-old Palestinian carried out a car-ramming attack at Te'enim checkpoint on Monday, wounding a security guard.

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With a High Court decision in the Sheikh Jarrah-Shimon HaTzadik eviction dispute still pending, another Arab family living in the same neighborhood has reached an agreement with the Jewish owners of their home to hand over the property.

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Under the terms of the agreement, the family – who are not part of the current appeal against a ruling by the Jerusalem District Court to evict the families living in the properties in question – will vacate the home, but not for several years.

The compromise, which was given the force of a legal ruling in the Jerusalem Magistrates Court a few days ago, could serve as a precedent for other local Arab families and is seen as a blow to the Palestinian Authority and Hamas, which are both pressuring Arab residents of Sheikh Jarrah-Shimon HaTzadik to refuse any proposed deals to vacate the properties.

Approximately a week ago, the PA and Hamas convinced the petitioners to reject a High Court compromise under which they would acknowledge that the properties in which they are living are owned by Jews but be able to remain in them as tenants under special protected status. Some of the families were willing to accept the compromise.

The agreement reached this week, first reported by Israel Hayom, pertains to a property in which an Arab family has been living since 1956 and was reached after the owners filed an eviction lawsuit. Under the terms of the deal, the tenants will pay rent and be allowed to stay on in the property, without special rights. This means the family now resident will not be allowed to transfer rights of tenancy to anyone else, including their own children or other family members.

The deal also determined that if the property owners are granted permission to add on to the home, they will be responsible for finding alternate accommodation for the family living there.

In any case, the terms of the deal state that "no eviction will be carried out before 10 years have passed since the date the agreement between the sides received the standing of a legal ruling."

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Palestinian families on Tuesday rejected an offer that would have delayed their eviction from the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah.

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The four families said their decision springs from "our belief in the justice of our cause and our right to our homes and our homeland." They said that rather than submit to an "unjust agreement" they would rely on the "Palestinian street" to raise international awareness of their plight.

The proposal floated by the Supreme Court last month would have made them "protected tenants," blocking any eviction and demolition order for at least the next 15 years, according to Ir Amim, an Israeli rights group that closely follows developments in the city.

The families would have been able to continue arguing their case in Israeli courts. But it would have forced them to at least temporarily attest to the Jewish families' ownership of the properties, which could weaken the families' case going forward, and pay rent to the Israelis.

The four families are among dozens in Jerusalem who face eviction in several cases that have been working their way through the Israeli court system for decades.

The families say the Jordanian government granted them the land on which their homes were later built in exchange for their refugee status after it assumed control of the West Bank and east Jerusalem in 1948. They have been living there ever since.

Israel has portrayed the matter as a private real-estate dispute, but the Palestinians and human rights groups view it as a coordinated attempt to push Palestinian residents out of Jerusalem and change the city's identity. The US has spoken out against the evictions, saying it undermines efforts to eventually revive the long-dormant peace process.

Israel captured east Jerusalem, along with the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, in the 1967 Six-Day War. The Palestinians want all three territories to form their future state and consider east Jerusalem their capital. Jordan supports their claims.

Israel annexed east Jerusalem shortly after the 1967 war and considers the entire city to be its capital, a claim not recognized by most of the international community.

The potential evictions were one of the main drivers of protests that erupted in Jerusalem in April and May. The city, with major holy sites sacred to Jews, Christians, and Muslims, has been the epicenter of several waves of unrest over the years.

The families' decision to reject the offer sends the matter back to the Supreme Court, which could approve the evictions and pave the way for them to be carried out in the coming weeks.

Ir Amim says the Israeli government has various tools at its disposal to delay or halt the evictions, but so far it has shown no indication it plans to do so.

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