By Dr. Noman Hanif
In the name of Allah, the Most Beneficent, Most Merciful
The city of Al-Quds has been the scene of several acts of aggression by
the soldiers of occupation and Jewish settlers since the beginning of
the month of Ramadan, especially in the neighborhoods of Bab al-
Amud and Sheikh Jarrah whose residents are threatened with
eviction for the benefit of the settlers. The attacks against the
Muslims in Al-Quds intensified in the last week of the blessed month
of Ramadan. Several states have expressed their concern and
denounced the incidents of Al-Quds, especially in respect of evicting
the residents of Sheikh Jarrah from their homes to make way for
Jewish settlers. The US called for “calm” in Al-Quds and for avoiding
evicting Palestinian families to handover to “Israeli” settlers in
reference to the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood. State Department
spokesperson Jalina Porter told reporters that Washington was
“deeply concerned about the potential eviction of Palestinian families
in the Silwan neighborhood and in Sheikh Jarrah, of course, many of
whom have lived in their homes for generations. But again, as we
have consistently said, it is critical to avoid unilateral steps that
would exacerbate tensions or take us further away from peace, and
that would include evictions, settlement activity, and home
demolitions.”
This American standpoint reveals that although the Biden
administration has been seeking a de-escalation in order to allow the
issue of keeping Al-Quds as the capital of “Israel” to pass, it has
however at the same time profited from this tension on the ground to
prove that “Israel” is incapable of protecting the rights of the
Palestinians and the right to worship for non-Jews in Al-Quds,
generate an international climate pressing for internationalizing the
sacred precincts, and throw dust in the eyes of the Muslims with
regard to “Israel’s” ownership of Al-Quds and adopting it as its
capital.
However, “Israel” had anticipated this step and set about besieging
Al-Quds with settlement belts, focusing on usurping the land,
expelling Muslims through the “annexation” law, and demolishing all
the monumental buildings adjacent to Al-Aqsa Mosque in order to
Judaize the city and seize the sacred precincts. On the other hand,
Netanyahu is attempting through these aggressions to gain the
support of the parties in favor of such acts so that he may stay in
office, with the collusion of the Arab states whose ambassadors and
diplomats attended, so disgracefully and humiliatingly, and in the
midst of this shameless aggression, an Iftar banquet hosted by the
“Israeli” foreign minister, and the collusion of Mahmoud Abbas, Abu
Mazen, who had not wished for any Palestinian elections
undermining the position of Fatah within the Palestinian Authority to
take place; and this is what happened.
America for her part had been hoping for the Palestinian elections to
be a platform for her plans for Al-Quds and regional peace; hence,
she exhorted the European states to exert pressure on the Palestinian
Authority and the Jewish entity to hold the elections, but they failed.
On the other hand, the Jordanian foreign ministry declared on 29
April that it had provided the Palestinian foreign ministry with 14
ratified agreements meant for the people of the Sheikh Jarrah
neighbourhood in support of their claim of their lands and property.
This manoeuvre by Jordan was viewed as an attempt to absolve itself
of blame and wash its hands of the issue’s fallout, but the “Israeli”
court refused to accept all the documents submitted by the residents
under the pretext that the submissions “arrived late”.
Through these circumstances and the escalation against the people of
Al-Quds by the herds of settlers, who have never intensified their
aggression against the courtyards of Al-Aqsa during the last ten days
of Ramadhan before, and with the backing of the “Israeli” courts and
police forces, it seems clear that the “Israeli” authorities have
initiated a host of physical steps in an accelerated manner to
complete Judaizing Al-Quds and expelling the Palestinians from its
districts, in line with the outcome of Donald Trump’s decision, just
like what they did with the Maghrebi Quarter in 1967.
The Zionist entity is taking advantage of the political cover provided
by the Arab normalization and alliance, Mohammed bin Salman’s
yearning for power and his desire for normalization, the Palestinian
Authority’s craving to resume to recover the legitimacy it has lost due
to the divisions among its ranks, the quarrelling of its leaders over the
booties, and its failure to exact its false legitimacy through elections.
It is also taking advantage of the frailty of the Jordanian regime
which has been seeking foreign backing after it had lost its domestic
one, especially following the recent saga between the king and his
brother Hamza and as the voices calling for stripping the palace of its
authorities grew louder.
Although all stakeholders have hastened to invest in these events, it is
however certain that the events in question fall under the Zionist
entity’s race against time to impose the realities of Judaizing the city
of Al-Quds and deeming it as the perpetual capital of “Israel”, forcing
this subterfuge as a fait accompli in the face of any anticipated move
pertinent to the negotiations, and shoring up Netanyahu’s domestic
position in the face of his opponents. This narrative was corroborated
by “Israeli” law institutions by announcing that the eviction orders
fall within the plans to Judaize the city of Al-Quds, in addition to
demolishing the homes of Palestinians and confiscating their lands. It
was also corroborated by the call of a host of directed columnists and
political leaders such as Iraqi prime minister, Mustafa al-Kadhimi,
and former Lebanese foreign minister, Gebran Bassil, to establish a
transboundary and transreligious “Eastern League” under economic
and counterinsurgent themes to withstand the quagmire of
“Balkanisation” in which the region has plunged during the “Arab
Spring”, to efface the borders and redraw them on nationalistic and
sectarian grounds, thus allowing minorities such the Shia, Kurds and
Amazigh to demand federal independence, and to remove the deepseated
obstacles to the plans to integrate the Jewish entity within
Greater Middle East.
Against the background of all this, escalating and expanding the
circle of aggression and confrontation in Al-Quds to include Al-Aqsa
Mosque will pave the way for the usurpation of the sacred precincts
(Haram Sharif) through their internationalization by the Muslims,
especially as the reaction of the Christians in the city of Al-Quds since
the events erupted with the calls of their priests for defending Al-
Aqsa, in addition to the denationalization of the arrests of their
followers, serve the notion of the “Abrahamic religion” sponsored by
the US, “Israel”, and the rulers of the UAE and Saudi in particular,
through which they hope to secularize the solution, considering that
secularism upholds an indiscriminate standpoint to the three
religions according to their allegations. Internationalizing the holy
precincts and placing them under international custodianship with
“Israeli” sovereignty on the ground and Jordanian guardianship of
the residents, solving the issue of the refugees through resettlement
and the crisis of Al-Quds which impinge on the efforts to generate a
political solution, is designed to settle the Palestinian issue once and
for all. This will bulwark the usurping entity, secure international
protection for it, guarantees the Jewishness of its state, and turns the
liberation of Al-Quds into a rebellion against international law and
consensus and the price of liberating Palestine would be a
confrontation between the Muslims and the entire “international
community”.
Although pictures and video clip recordings of the clashes and
aggression against Al-Quds and its residents calling upon the passion
of Muslims, and warranting their pride and chivalry, have been
swarming social media, and their echoes reached the four corners of
the world, the reaction of the Ummah’s children was confined to the
expressions of incapability which neither befit the legacy of the best
nation sent to humankind, nor the standpoint Muslims should adopt
towards the sanctity, blood and honour of their brethren lingering in
prison for decades; nor do they befit the issue that concerns the rights
of Muslims and their presence in the usurped city of Al-Quds and its
Islamic identity, considering that they are the Ummah of Jihad and
that we are in the month of Jihad and victories.
The point at issue is not merely a piece of land usurped by the enemy,
but rather an issue of a war whose soldiers are the collaborating
rulers and their regimes, and whose commanding officers are the
Western powers headed by America and the international
institutions.
So whilst the rulers in the Muslim countries have no issue with
sending their armies on behalf of their American masters to invade
and destroy Iraq, fight against fellow Muslims in Yemen, or to
intervene against each other in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq etc, they stand
idle whilst the Zionist entity slaughters the Palestinians and violates
the sanctity of sacred Al Aqsa.
The Arab and Muslim armies are more than capable of facing the enemies of Islam.
There is no point in asking the so called international community led by America, for only
a mad person cannot comprehend that they are the very reason for
the establishment of the Jewish entity and its protection. From its
creation to its consolidation to its arming and then to its Judaization
of the land. Not only has it protected Israel but legitimized its
genocide, territorial expansion, only recently handing it Jerusalem
and legitimizing its occupation of the Golan Heights. All of this is
complete violation of so called international law and the multitude of
UN resolutions. Yet despite this, the Muslim leaders and those
Muslims enamored with Western hegemony, continue like slaves to
call for “UN” and “American” intervention, knowing full well who
they are turning to and what will be the outcome. Nothing.
The Muslim world is seething with anger and the role of their leaders
on the instructions of the Americans is to crush this sentiment and
divert it away from material action. For they know that the Muslims
lack neither fervor nor bravery to uproot the illegitimate incursions
against the Palestinian people.