Fear barrier broken despite hundreds of arrests in Jerusalem’

. Israeli forces are attempting to reassert their control over Palestinians in occupied East Jerusalem by arresting them.

Hundreds of Palestinians have been arrested over the past month and a half in occupied East Jerusalem, in what lawyers said was a direct response to the Israeli police force losing its standing. The escalation, which began after Israeli security forces banned Palestinians from accessing the Damascus Gate area, has spread to include violent Israeli repression of sit-ins in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood, a “Death to Arabs” march by Israeli settlers, several mass incursions into Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, a deadly 11-day Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip, mob attacks on Palestinian citizens of Israel, and a widespread arrest campaign that has targeted at least 2,000 Palestinians within Jerusalem and the occupied territories. Many of the arrests carried out in occupied East Jerusalem are based on what Palestinians published on their social media, particularly videos where they ridicule Israeli forces. According to lawyer Nasser Odeh, pursuing Palestinians because of what they post on their social media accounts is not new.

“We’ve We’ve seen it in 2015-2016 during the Abu Khdeir flare-up,” Odeh told Al Jazeera, referring to the outbreak of protests and escalations the city witnessed following the 2015 murder and burning alive of Palestinian teenager Mohammed Abu Khdeir by Israeli settlers. “After the Israeli government expanded its antiterrorism law in 2016, that gave Israeli forces more power to arrest Palestinians on the back of their social media posts, alleging ‘incitement’ or even ‘association with a terrorist group’.” Currently, this practice has intensified – and based on his experience with such cases in 2015

2016, some of which had stretched out for years after – Odeh is wary that the arrests will only increase.......