Israel Risks A Conflagration: Inciting
The Muslims - Pathetic Arab Impotence And
Powerlessness
05 March 2012
By Khaled Amayreh
Israeli attacks on the Al-Aqsa Mosque and attempts to
Judaise Jerusalem are risking the outbreak of violence
across the region, writes Khaled Amayreh in the
occupied Palestinian territories
Undeterred by the Arab world's reactions to repeated
Israeli provocations in Jerusalem, particularly the
recurrent encroachments by Jewish millenarians, the
Israeli government has accused the Palestinian
Authority (PA) of "inciting Muslims against Israel".
Israeli criticisms of the PA were stepped up this week
following a one-day conference in Qatar that discussed
Israeli measures to Judaise occupied East Jerusalem
and obliterate its traditional Arab-Islamic identity.
Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu lashed out
at PA President Mahmoud Abbas, describing him as a
"threat to Israelis and Israel" and claiming that the
Palestinian leader was adopting "extremist attitudes
that are harmful to peace".
In Doha, Abbas had reiterated the longstanding
Palestinian position that the PA would never sign a
peace treaty with Israel that did not include full
Israeli withdrawal from the occupied city.
Abbas also warned that the Israeli policy of allowing
Jewish fanatics to enter the Al-Aqsa Mosque and hold
rituals there amounted to playing with fire, saying
that this behaviour was creating a time bomb that
could go off at any moment.
Many of the Jewish individuals concerned are
affiliated with Jewish terrorist groups, such as Gush
Emunim and Kahana, which hold that the existence of
Israel is incomplete without the temple. The building
of the latter could herald the appearance of the
Jewish messiah or redeemer, they believe.
On 23 February, Jewish settlers attacked the court of
the Al-Aqsa Mosque while under the protection of the
Israeli security forces, which prevented hundreds of
Palestinian worshipers from accessing the Mosque to
protect it from the extremists.
The settlers came in part from the Israeli settlement
of Kiryat Arbaa near Hebron, which is considered to be
a hotbed of Jewish extremism. Earlier, calls were
issued calling on "Jews who love the land of Israel"
to march to the "Temple Mount" in order to "redeem it
from Arab occupiers."
A statement from the Al-Quds Foundation for Endowment
and Heritage condemned the latest assault on the Al-Aqsa
Mosque, the second of its kind in less than a month,
calling it "provocative and dangerous."
"Following the incursion by extremist Jews and calls
for more incursions into the Mosque compound, the
Israeli occupation's police and army tightened their
blockade of the Muslim sanctuary," the foundation
said.
The statement said that 65 settlers had attacked the
Mosque court in three groups, including a group from
the settlement of Kiryat Arbaa.
Last week marked the 18th anniversary of the Ibrahimi
Mosque Massacre in Hebron, when a Jewish settler
called Baruch Goldstein, also from Kiryat Arbaa,
attacked Arab worshippers praying at dawn in the
historic Mosque, killing 29 and injuring many others.
Instead of punishing the settlers, for example by
vacating them from Hebron, the Israeli occupation
authorities adopted draconian measures against the
Palestinians, including protracted curfews and the
forced closure of shops, as well as declaring large
areas of Hebron's old town off limits to Palestinian
traffic and individuals.
Following the Jewish encroachment into the Haram Al-Sharif,
or Noble Sanctuary, in Jerusalem last week,
Palestinian protests were held in many places in the
West Bank, including Hebron and Ramallah.
In Jerusalem, heavily armed Israeli paramilitary
police shot and killed Talaat Ramia, 25, in cold blood
as the Palestinian youth tried to repulse Jewish
settlers from desecrating Muslim holy places. As many
as 20 Palestinians were arrested by the occupation
authorities.
Last week, another group of Jewish settlers led by
Likud leader Moshe Feiglin urged supporters to flock
to the Al-Aqsa Mosque in order to "purify the site
from the enemies of Israel and build a temple on the
ruins of the Mosque."
The Israeli police reportedly confiscated leaflets
calling for the destruction of the Al-Aqsa Mosque.
Some millenarian Jews believe that igniting violence
at the Al-Aqsa Mosque will lead to death on a
genocidal scale in the Middle East and beyond, which
could hasten the appearance of the Jewish messiah.
Muslim leaders in Jerusalem and elsewhere castigated
the Israeli government's collusion with the settlers,
warning that Israel was playing with fire.
Adnan Husseini, a noted leader, accused Israel of
trying to drag the entire region, or even the entire
world, into religious wars that "have a beginning but
no end."
"Israel must rein in these fanatics who are playing
with tinder. However, what we are seeing instead is
the Israeli government colluding with them," Husseini
said. "Israel must know that any foolish act against
this Islamic shrine would put an end to all hopes for
peace. But is Israel really concerned about peace and
does it care about peace?"
Sheikh Mohamed Hussein, the mufti of Jerusalem, warned
the Muslim world that Israel was testing its
forbearance and trying to defeat Muslim feelings
toward Jerusalem.
"Israel is trying to get Muslims to be resigned to the
fact that the Al-Aqsa Mosque will be destroyed and
that Muslims will be powerless to do anything about
it," he said.
Meanwhile, Palestinian leaders scoffed at the
recommendations of the Doha meeting, especially the
decisions to complain to the UN Security Council and
to form a committee to look into Israeli actions to
Judaise Jerusalem and alter its cultural identity.
One Palestinian media columnist lamented "pathetic
Arab impotence and powerlessness", adding that "the
Security Council is part of the problem and not part
of the solution."
"Jerusalem doesn't need speeches, lamentations, or
fancy conferences," he said. "What it needs is another
Salaheddin," known in the West as Saladin.
Many Palestinians are convinced that the mediocre
outcome of the Doha meeting, coupled with the
increasing audacity of terrorist Jewish groups, will
eventually succeed in creating a conflagration.
The question may not now be if, but when, this
conflagration takes place. (end)
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