Israeli security officers standing guard in a Palestinian neighborhood in East Jerusalem. (Photo by Alice Speri)
The spot where Mohammed Abu Khdeir was kidnapped in July and a monument in his memory, in Shuafat neighborhood. (Photo by Alice Speri)
While Jerusalem has always been one of the most intractable issues at the heart of the conflict — with Israel claiming it as its undivided capital and the Palestinians and the international community considering it under occupation — all recent wars have taken place in the West Bank or Gaza, where the Palestinian Authority and Hamas respectively remain in control.The second intifada of the early 2000s rocked west Jerusalem with frequent suicide bombings — but those attacks were normally carried out by Palestinians from the West Bank. Palestinian residents of Jerusalem — most of whom have municipal IDs and are subject to Jerusalem's Israeli authorities, but no Israeli citizenship — remained largely quiet at the time. That's no longer the case."The situation in Jerusalem is moving to a very dangerous place," Yousef Munayyer, executive director of the Palestine Center and The Jerusalem Fund, told VICE News earlier this month, joining the chorus of ominous security predictions. "The issue here is not just the spark that sets it off but that so much kindling has been built prior to that that leads the spark to turn into a massive fire, and that's what we are seeing today… This is potentially very, very destabilizing and it can go in that direction very quickly."'The issue here is not just the spark that sets it off but that so much kindling has been built prior to that that leads the spark to turn into a massive fire.'
Jewish settlers in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheik Jarrah. (Photo by Alice Speri)
A security guard at a railway station in East Jerusalem that has been a site of attacks. (Photo by Alice Speri)
Imitation has also spread to both sides of the conflict — with some Palestinians claiming the "run over" attacks were in response for settlers in the West Bank doing the same to Palestinians civilians, and Israelis responding to recent stabbings with more stabbings.'It's a question of individual acts and sometimes it unleashes something that cannot be controlled by anybody.'
Graffiti on the separation wall cutting across parts of East Jerusalem. (Photo by Alice Speri)