Israeli security forces have forcibly evicted two Palestinian families from a contested East Jerusalem neighbourhood.
The families have lived in Sheikh Jarrah since 1956 but an Israeli court ruled that the homes belonged to Jewish families.
Al Jazeera’s Sherine Tadros reports from occupied East Jerusalem.
JERUSALEM, July 22 (Reuters) – Israel will remove from school textbooks an Arabic term that describes the 1948 creation of the Jewish state as a “catastrophe”, the Education Ministry said on Wednesday.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said when he was opposition leader two years ago the word “nakba” in Israeli Arab schools was tantamount to spreading propaganda against Israel.
The term, which is not part of the curriculum in schools in Jewish communities, was introduced into a book for use in Arab schools in 2007 when the Education Ministry was run by Yuli Tamir of the centre-left Labour party.
The book was aimed at children, aged 8 and 9.
This is probably the coolest poster I saw in all of Palestine! (trust me, I saw a lot of posters)
"AlQuds/Jerusalem: Live, Protect, and Shop In It". Saw this right around the corner from Masjid Al-Aqsa and the Dome of the Rock.
AlQuds: Live, Protect, & Shop In It
Unfortunately today is my last day in Al-Quds. It’s actually quite depressing leaving this city after being in Palestine for a week and a half. I could seriously spend my entire summer in this city without regretting it, but my time here is almost up 
I’m sorry I know I’ve lagged on updating the blog. Haven’t had internet access every evening and those evenings that we have had access I’ve been dead tired to write up anything for the blog. So check this out I’m going to post our complete itinerary after this post so you can check out what we’ve been up to for the past week (I didn’t want to make this information public before because I wanted to get here safely before posting it on the world wide web… didn’t seem to help much though, I still got stuck at the border for an entire day going through background clearance and three different interrogations, more on that here).
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coming soon… (sorry, we’re moving so quick there’s no time to blog)
Masjid Ibrahim (الحرم الإبراهيمي) is a sanctuary for Jews, Christians, and Muslims alike as it contains the tombs of (1) Adam and Eve; (2) Ibrahim (Abraham) and Sarah; (3) Is’haq (Isaac) and Rebekah; (4) Yaqoub (Jacob) and Leah; and according to Islamic sources, Yusuf (Joseph) – (peace be upon them).
After the Six Day War, the area came under the control of Israel, and the restriction limiting Jews into the mosque was lifted. In 1994 Baruch Goldsteintook an assault rifle into the enclosure and killed at least 29 Palestinian Muslims at prayer (I heard something like 45 people were killed from a tour guide at the Mosque. Perhaps 29 immediately, and more later from injuries…?), as well as injuring 125 others, before being bludgeoned to death by survivors. The resulting riots left an additional 26 Palestinians and 9 Israelis dead, and the incident provoked national and international condemnation of Goldstein’s actions.
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coming soon… (sorry, we’re moving so quick there’s no time to blog)
The student delegation I’m actually here for begins today. So much has happened since I’ve been here that I can’t even believe I’ve only been away from home for 5 days. I’ll try to update the blog daily, but am finding it increasingly difficult to say so much in just one blog post.
We’re heading to Bethlehem in a few hours to visit the Badil Resource Center which works on surveying the Palestinian refugee community to keep up-to-date statistics, to Khalil/Hebron tonight (Thursday), and should be back in Al-Quds/Jerusalem on Friday.
I began taking some video footage of Masjid Al-Aqsa and The Dome of the Rock but I need to edit the videos, so I will try to upload those to youtube and post them on the blog soon inshaAllah/God-willing!
More pictures of the exterior of Masjid Al-Aqsa and The Dome of the Rock (Al-Sukhrah).
I’m planning on going inside The Dome of the Rock later today. Will update with pics if I’m allowed to take them inside.
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Jun 22
AlHamdulilah (All praise/thanks are to God)! I made it to Al-Quds/Jerusalem last night around 6:30pm. Spent about an hour and a half to find my hotel, took a shower, prayed my travel prayers, and headed straight to Masjid Al-Aqsa for Isha prayer (evening/final prayer of the day).
After such an exhausting day and everything I had been through at the border to get there, I can’t explain how amazing it was to finally see The Dome of the Rock (Al-Sukhrah, where the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, ascended to heaven with the Angel Gabriel nearly 1400 years ago) and Masjid Al-Aqsa (where the Prophet Muhammad, pbuh, prayed before his ascension).
Here is a picture I took after the prayer of exactly how I saw The Dome of the Rock for the first time:
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