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JANUARY 20, 2022 | The Jewish Home
they were illegally occupying in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Shimon Hatzadik (Sheikh Jarrah). Police bulldozed the family’s plant nursery, but the Salihiya family barricaded themselves in their home, and one family member took a gas balloon with him up to the roof. Five Arabs were detained during the day-long standoff. As night fell, the police withdrew, without having accomplished their goal of evacuating the squatters. Most of the Arabs who stand to be evicted from Shimon Hatzadik are being evicted in private cases. However, the Salihiya family’s home stands on land belonging to the Jerusalem municipality, which wants to construct a school for special needs children, as well as several preschools. Last year, a Jerusalem court ruled in favor of the municipality, but the Arab family has refused to accept the ruling. In a statement, the Jerusalem municipality said, “Since the ruling, the family has been given countless opportunities to hand over the land by consent, but they have refused to do so, even after repeated extensions, meetings and attempts at dialogue.” In a video circulating on social media, Mahmoud Salihiya said, “We won’t leave. We’ll either live or die. I’ll burn myself with fuel.” Meanwhile, European diplomats protested the evacuation, arriving to show solidarity for the Arab family. In a statement, the European Union’s mission to the Palestinian Territories said it is “imperative to deescalate the situation and seek a peaceful resolution. Evictions/demolitions are illegal under international law and significantly undermine the prospects for peace as well as fuel tensions on the ground.” Public Security Minister Omer Barlev (Labor) tweeted, “You can’t have your cake and eat it too — to demand that the municipality act for the welfare of Arab residents and oppose the construction of institutions for their welfare.”
SCOTUS Stymies Vaccine Requirement
The U.S. Supreme Court has stopped a push by the Biden administration to require employees at large businesses to either get a COVID-19 vaccine or submit to regular testing and masking. Despite the ruling last week, SCOTUS is still allowing a vaccine mandate for most U.S. healthcare workers. According to the Court, the administration’s imposition of Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) demand that employees either be vaccinated or test regularly was overstepping its authority, the Court said. SCOTUS conservatives wrote, “OSHA has never before imposed such a mandate. Nor has Congress. Indeed, although Congress has enacted significant legislation addressing the COVID–19 pandemic, it has declined to enact any measure similar to what OSHA has promulgated here.” The court’s liberals wrote, “Acting outside of its competence and without legal basis, the Court displaces the judgments of the Government officials given the responsibility to respond to workplace health emergencies.” U.S. President Joe Biden said he was “disappointed that the Supreme Court has chosen to block com-
Did you know? One windshield or window frame of a Boeing 747-400’s cockpit costs as much as a BMW
