LONDON: Palestinian rights activists and twins Muna and Mohammed El-Kurd have been named in TIME magazine’s 2021 list of the 100 most influential people in the world.
For the past few months, the 23-year-old twins have provided the world with a window into living under occupation in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in East Jerusalem, becoming the faces of a global campaign to halt forcible displacement.
The siblings, along with their family, were threatened with forceful removal from their home in Sheikh Jarrah by Israeli settlers last April, an action which sparked the following tension and conflict that unfolded in Palestine.
In June this year, the siblings were temporarily detained and questioned by Israeli forces over their activism.
A month before that, tensions in Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood spilled into the nearby Old City, where Israeli forces attacked worshipers at the Al-Aqsa Mosque. Hamas militants in Gaza responded with attacks on Israel.
“Through online posts and media appearances, sibling activists Mohammed and Muna El-Kurd provided the world with a window into living under occupation in East Jerusalem this spring — helping to prompt an international shift in rhetoric in regard to Israel and Palestine,” TIME said.
Mohammad El-Kurd, took to twitter to say that although being named to the list was a “positive” development, “symbolism is not enough to truly support the Palestinian cause.”
Recently, Mohammed El-Kurd was named the Palestinian Correspondent for The Nation magazine in the US after urging the publication to start a Palestinian bureau.
