In 2009, when he was only eleven years old, Mohammed el-Kurd’s life in Sheikh Jarrah changed forever. A group of settlers forcibly took over half of el-Kurd’s family’s home, throwing their possessions onto the streets and setting fire to his three-year-old sister’s bed. He watched the same thing happen to his neighbors, as Israeli forces forcibly evicted dozens into the streets to be replaced with Israeli settlers. The front section of his family’s home is still occupied by settlers, some of whom hail from the United States.

Kurd, who has returned to New York for graduate studies, grew up with constant reminders of the violence of Israeli settler colonialism all around him. From the large Star of David graffitied on the entrance of his home to the Israeli settlers who march confidently down Sheikh Jarrah’s streets — always strapped with M16s — and into the homes of his now expelled neighbors, Kurd has lived with the ever present awareness that he and his family could be targeted next.

It was no surprise when the twenty-three-year-old, along with his twin sister Muna, rose to international prominence over the summer — since Kurd was a child, he has been a vocal spokesperson for his community. He has always ferociously defended his family’s and neighbor’s homes from Israeli settlers — settlers who have been attempting for years to transform Sheikh Jarrah, along with other Palestinian areas in Jerusalem, into a Jewish neighborhood.