On 10th May 2021, the long running Israeli-Palestinian conflict erupted following a series of protests against the threatened evictions of Palestinian families in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood of East Jerusalem, to make way for settlers. These protests were met with a heavy handed police response. Scenes of police restricting access to, and using force against, peaceful protesters and worshippers within Al Aqsa Mosque further inflamed tensions and led to Hamas demanding the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Al Aqsa compound and Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood.
When this did not occur, Hamas and other armed groups launched a rocket strike towards Israel who responded with intense aerial, land and sea bombardment. When the ceasefire brokered by Egypt came into effect 11 days later on 21st May, the casualties were high; 242 Palestinians had been killed, 63 of whom were children, and an estimated 74,000 were displaced. Ten Israeli citizens were killed, including two children, with thousands forced into shelters. (May 2021) UN High Commissioner for Human Rights .
Arpillerista Linda Adams was incensed at the carnage she witnessed on news reports, “the bombing of people living in Gaza by the Israelis ...the city being destroyed … no safe place to hide and no-one to help with rescue”. She responded with needle, thread and fabric – as she did in 2014 with Gaza following the Israeli “Operation Protective Edge” in the Gaza Strip.
As she shaped scenes of destruction and desolation, once again she could not reconcile the historical experience of Israeli people with the present actions of the Israeli state: “after the way the Israelis suffered in the concentration camps I hoped they would create a place safe from persecution”.
As the task of rebuilding lives, livelihoods, communities and infrastructure proceeds yet again, Michelle Bachelet, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights states that “…A lack of accountability lies at the heart of the ongoing violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, sustaining a cycle of violence and deprivation which appears to have no end”. Her Office calls for “an immediate end to all human rights violations and abuses, and to all violations of international humanitarian law”.
(25 March 2022) Statement by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights at the Human Rights Council 49th Session, Geneva. | 
