Mohammad El-Kurd: We Demand A Radical and Tangible Change by Mainstream Media

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TIME released its full list of 100 most influential people of 2021 with two Palestinian activist siblings featured in this year’s list.

Mohammad and Muna el-Kurd have long showcased to the world the harsh reality of living under Israeli occupation in Al-Quds.

Responding to the Time’s listing of his and his sister’s name, Mohammad el-Kurd tweeted the following statement:

“Being chosen among Time Magazine's '100 Most Influential People of 2021' List might be a positive indicator towards centering the Palestinian cause in the international public discourse.  Yet, the making of Icons- which depreciate the struggle of an entire nation in one face- is not enough to back the Palestinian people.

What we demand is a radical and tangible change by the mainstream media (including Time Magazine) to end its bias to Zionism, pushing it to be bolder in addressing liberation movements and Palestinian resistance in all its forms. This new era is the outcome of cumulative efforts and determination of Palestinians who fought the colonial system for seven decades without recognition or gratefulness.”

بيان. pic.twitter.com/UNpYZL4HdZ

— Mohammed El-Kurd (@m7mdkurd) September 15, 2021

For more than a decade, the El-Kurd family, along with dozens of their neighbors in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, has been fighting against forced evictions from their homes by Israeli settlers.

Mohammad el-Kurd explains the rejected attempt by israeli courts to make Sheikh Jarrah's Palestinians pay israelis rent for their own homes pic.twitter.com/CL0EamKOC4

— Sarah Wilkinson (@swilkinsonbc) August 3, 2021

In an exclusive interview for Al Mayadeen, Nabil El-Kurd, Muna's and Mohammad's father,  affirmed that  'We will never leave our land'.

The 77-year-old added that each time he wrote this slogan on the wall, the Israeli forces erased it.

المقدسي نبيل الكرد في رسالة صمود عبر #الميادين من حي #الشيخ_جرّاح المهدد بالتهجير.#القدس المحتلة pic.twitter.com/gpRbu95usf

— قناة الميادين (@AlMayadeenNews) March 19, 2021

The arrest of Muna and Mohammad

Last June, the Israeli occupation forces took Muna el-Kurd in handcuffs from her home in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood.

#WATCH: Jerusalemite journalist Mona Al Kurd was arrested from her home in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood. #منى_الكرد #SaveJerusalem #SheikhJarrah #Palestine pic.twitter.com/ahkYDsH79j

— Al Mayadeen English (@MayadeenEnglish) June 6, 2021

At the time, the occupation forces had also summoned her brother Mohammad for exposing the Israeli occupation's attacks in Al-Quds and the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood.

Muna and Mohammad were shortly freed after their arrest.

"We are free and unafraid. They cannot intimidate us," Mohammed El Kurd wrote on Twitter after his release.

The story of Sheikh Jarrah

Earlier this year, the Israeli Central Court in Al-Quds approved a decision to evict four Palestinian families from their homes in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood.

Amid heated demonstrations, the decision was delayed.

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If the Israeli court rules in favor of the Israeli settlers, the Palestinian families will be evicted from their homes.