If Al-Aqsa Is To Be Protected Long-term Israel's Occupation Must End
03 August 2017By Dr. Daud Abdullah
Palestinian resistance against Israel's brutal occupation is littered with
many setbacks. The latest confrontation over Al-Aqsa Mosque was, however, a
rare example of success. Israel's fifty-year efforts to change the status quo
in the Noble Sanctuary were dealt a major blow last week, one that highlighted
several important lessons for both the occupier and the occupied.
On this occasion, the Israelis clearly went one step too far in their
disregard for the religious sentiments of the Palestinian people and Muslims
the world over. The decision by the Netanyahu government to close Al-Aqsa to
Muslim worshippers after months of daily incursions by Jewish extremists had
set alarm bells ringing that something very sinister was afoot.
All across the occupied Palestinian territories, the reaction was decisive and
uncompromising: there will be no division or sharing of Al-Aqsa Mosque. The
matter of its ownership was never in doubt; it belongs to the Muslims and, as
far as the Palestinians are concerned, they were never going to betray their
sacred responsibility as its custodians.
This is the reality that the Israeli leadership ignored at their peril. In
fact, they overlooked the unifying potential of Al-Aqsa. Palestinians will
differ on many things, but if there is one issue that will unite them, it is
the centrality of Jerusalem and the Noble Sanctuary of Al-Aqsa in their lives.
The same, in fact, can be said about Muslims everywhere. Their political,
sectarian and other differences will always pale into insignificance when
their religious heritage and rights are threatened. Hence, the protests and
outpouring of anger in cities from south-east Asia to Africa to Europe.
Netanyahu and his government had, unintentionally, brought Muslims together
around a single cause.
The upshot of all this is that Israel will never have its way when
Palestinians and Muslims are united. In other words, Israel will only appear
to be strong when Palestinians and Muslims demonstrate weakness. Hence the
efforts made by the Zionist state and its supporters to keep Muslims divided
by sectarian and nationalistic in-fighting.
Another crucial lesson from the Aqsa standoff is the total insignificance of
the official Arab leadership. Despite the gravity of the situation, the Arab
League's response was pitiful to the point of irrelevance; it failed to meet,
even at a ministerial level, to address the threats to Al-Aqsa. Tellingly, two
planned meetings were actually postponed. This failure was reminiscent of a
similar farce back in 2009 in the wake of the Israeli military offensive
against the Gaza Strip, which led to the widespread destruction of property
and more than 1,000 civilians being killed. At the time, a call for a special
summit by the then Chair of the Arab League, Qatar, was rejected by eight of
the 22-member organisation. Unsurprisingly, Mahmoud Abbas was among those who
did not attend, citing his "inability" to be granted safe passage out of
Ramallah as his excuse.
The Palestinian masses have learnt from bitter experience that it is a waste
of time appealing to these regional leaders for sympathy, let alone support.
Eight years on from the Doha summit on Gaza, the self-acclaimed "moderate"
states have become even more aligned with Israel. Anyone who expected even a
token declaration of support about Al-Aqsa was thus seriously deluded.
Moreover, what transpired in Jerusalem in the past week confirmed the saying
popularised by former US President John F. Kennedy that, "Victory has a
thousand fathers, but defeat is an orphan." No wonder the regional media is
now awash with farcical claims by kings and presidents that they were
responsible for the reopening of Al-Aqsa.
Notwithstanding the truth or hollowness of these claims, there must be a sense
of appreciation about what occurred. If Palestinians can unite to protect
their religious heritage in Jerusalem, surely they can do the same to end
Israel's political dominance, military occupation and economic exploitation.
Indeed, there are other indignities and abnormalities in the Palestinian
reality that cry out for change. The inhuman blockade of the Gaza Strip stands
out painfully. In the same manner that national unity converged with
international solidarity to end the standoff in Al-Aqsa, they must now combine
to end the blockade of Gaza.
Finally, there must be no doubt about the direction that the conflict in
Palestine is taking. Israel's colonial-settler claims to the Islamic sites,
especially Al-Aqsa, are nothing new. The fact that the Netanyahu government
has backed off for now is not the end of the story. Israeli extremists will,
sooner or later, try again to change the status quo at the sacred site. The
threats to Al-Aqsa will remain for as long as the occupation exists. The
overarching lesson, therefore, is that for Al-Aqsa to be protected in the
long-term, Israel's brutal military occupation must end.
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