By Abbas Souleymane
GOMBAK, 19 September 2021: Two prominent Palestinian activists, twin siblings Muna and Muhammed El-Kurd, were listed in U.S news magazine TIME as among 100 most influential people of 2021.
Through social media posts and interview appearances the two were able to expose to the world the actual living condition of Palestinian people under occupation in East Jerusalem which included forced displacement, arrests and lack of security.
The twins and activists showed up when the Israel occupation decided to force the removal of dozens of families from the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood that included the Alkurd family.
The magazine said that Muna’s and Muhammad’s activities helped to transform the international discourse regarding Israel and Palestine.
For more than a decade, the El-Kurd family and dozens of their neighbours in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood have struggled against the possibility of their homes being forcibly evicted by Israeli settlers, it added.
The two activists have strong and daring personalities, and became the most famous voice for those who were threatened with losing their homes, especially in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood, the magazine wrote.
Muhammed El-Kurd commented on his Twitter that maybe this is a positive indicator towards the focus of the Palestinian issue in the global public space, but the symbol industry which unites the struggle of an entire people is not enough to support the Palestinians.
He further said that we demand radical change that ends the deviation of the media system including the TIME of Zionism.
Since the twins were in their teens, they began documenting settlers’ attempts to take over the homes in Sheikh Jarrah. They made a short film on YouTube while they were just twelve years old. The film tells the story of the struggle over the Sheikh Al-Jarrah neighbourhood.
The choice of the twins came along with leading personalities and leaders of countries in the world among them Prince Harry and his wife Meghan Markle, Okonjo-Iweala, Chinese President Xi Jinping, Taliban leader Mullah Baradar and former US President Donald Trump. ***