Posted on: 1999

By Khalid Nusseibeh

Sometimes, ideas may be likened to a tent in a desert that houses the beliefs of a group, but at times, encounters a storm that partially changes the structure of the tent, perhaps some of the pillars on which it stands.

Tragically, the changed structure of the tent (which, in this context, corresponds to a group’s sense of the sacred, of what is true) becomes a harbinger of conflict among religious denominations, among tribes, even among civilizations… Likewise, oftentimes it creates a movement in a culture’s direction, which may have negative consequences for a society for many an era.

To extend the metaphor further, the truth that the ancestral patriarch of monotheists– Abraham– communicated was, in essence, human surrender to the One God, coupled with an adherence to His Revealed Doctrine and Law. In effect this basic doctrine or truth was disseminated and taught by Isaac, Jacob and Ishmael and many other Prophets, the seal of whom, according to Muslims, is the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him)– to whom was revealed the Holy Qur’an.

It is not a coincidence that the ummah (community) of God’s Final Revelation, to which any human being of any tribe, race or geographic location may belong– through witnessing that there is Only One God and Muhammad is His Messenger– became custodian of Mecca’s Sacred Sanctuary (built by Abraham and Ishmael), and of Jerusalem. To Muslims, the Arabization and Islamization of Jerusalem and Palestine represented the worldly vindication of monotheistic faith manifested in the governance of Islam’s tolerant and just system of Law and values.

The realization of these ideals in actual human reality (i.e. the Arab-Muslim history of Jerusalem)– in a multi-ethnic, multi-denominational urban setting– was a task that Arab and non-Arab Muslims undertook to perform with varying degrees of piety, political success, moral probity and judiciousness.

The opening of Mecca by the Prophet Muhammed and the faithful in AD 7th century (1st Hijri) and the purification of its Sacred Sanctuary was a crescendo in the human striving to demolish idolatry and to cleanse the House of Allah from its evil. Equally, the Arab Muslim conquest of Jerusalem in roughly the same period was a milestone in terms of ushering in the age of the political sovereignty of the Unitarian, Universal Caliphate of Islam.

The pact signed between the Patriarch Sophronious and ‘Umar Ibn Al-Khattab (the second Rightly Guided Caliph) on the hour of the Arab-Islamic opening of Jerusalem in AD 637 was an enduring framework for dignified coexistence between Christians and Muslims in the shadow of God’s Final Revealed Code. The liberation of Jerusalem symbolized, moreover, the vindication of early Christian and Jewish teachings insofar as Islam is the consummation and perfect elaboration of earlier monotheistic Revealed Religions.

Paradoxically, therefore, Islam was Heaven’s vindication of the Torah revealed to Moses (peace upon him), as it was a vindication of the original teachings and doctrines of Christianity (which prophesied the mission of Muhammad)– and yet, it was viewed by many churches, by many Jewish theologians as a heresy. Inevitably, this fostered much conflict through the prolonged wars of the crusades, and in the present day, through the Zionist occupation of Jerusalem.

Jerusalem is the Holy City of Peace or Salaam. Salaam is one of the Attributes of the One God who gives people the blessing of peace when the pillars of His Covenant with mankind are revered and observed: faith in the One God, His angels, His Revealed Books, His Messengers, the Hereafter and Divine Predestination—and observance of and obedience to His Merciful and Just Law.

The earth is in need of making peace with Heaven: to achieve that, its inhabitants must honor the pact with God which includes spreading justice, mercy and love on earth, and resisting oppression, corruption and bigotry. Then, the reasonable foundations of peace may be built.

(Indeed We have sent Our Messengers with the ostensive proofs, and We sent down with them the Book and the Balance, that man may uphold equity. And We have sent down iron, wherein is mighty power and many uses for mankind; that God may know who helps Him and His Messengers in the unseen). (Holy Qur’an, Sura 57, Ayah 25)

Mr. Khaled Nusseibeh is a translator and writer. He currently manages the Ubada Center for Writing and Translation Services in Amman. Born in Amman in 1961, he obtained his BA and MA from Columbia and Princeton Universities, respectively. Mr. Nusseibeh, who originates from Jerusalem, specialized in Near Eastern Studies with a focus on Islamic thought and studies.

Posted on: 1999

By Khaled Nusseibeh

When the expanses of existence, the glory of Divine Creation, and the twining of places of sanctity manifest themselves in the miraculous, a Muslim may think of the event of Al-Isra’a W’al Mi’raj.This event was the Prophet Muhammad’s (peace be upon him) trek by night from Mecca to Jerusalem, and from Jerusalem towards the outermost regions of the skies.

Al-Isra’a W’al Mi’raj was recorded in the Holy Qur’an in this verse: (Glorified is He who took His servant by night from the Sacrosanct Mosque to the Furthermost Mosque, the precincts of which We have blessed, that We might show him (some) of our signs. Truly He is the Hearer, the Seer) Holy Qur’an, 17:1, Tr. Dr. M. M. Khatib.

Inasmuch as this event represented a form of travel that defies the parameters of humanly knowable speed– or the physics of time and space– (considering that the trek was made to Jerusalem, and to the heavens in what is subject to experience), it also embodied a lasting bond between the Sacred Mosque of Mecca and the Aqsa Mosque of Jerusalem for the nation of the Arabs and Muslims. In fact, Al-Aqsa Mosque was the first Kibla (the direction of prayer) of the nation of Islam before the Ka’aba became the focal point of worship.

From the vantage point of Islam (which is a word that carries the meaning of human surrender to God, inasmuch as it carries the meaning of peace) the sanctification of the connection between Mecca and Jerusalem is like a blessed tree, watered by the strivings and yearnings and self-sacrifice of Prophets, saints, soldiers, artisans, women, and people of all walks of life and nationalities who revered Jerusalem as the Holy City of God and as a symbol of human submission to the One Creator.

It was with this spirit of faith and righteous undertaking that the ancestral patriarch of the nation of the Arabs and the Israelites, the Prophet Abraham, planted the blessed tree of monotheistic faith in Jerusalem and Palestine; indeed, Abraham (peace be upon him) watered the terrain of Egypt, Mesopotamia, the Arabian Peninsula with this blessed tree of submission to the One God through his sojourns and travels in these ancient lands where the cradle of human civilization had its earliest beginnings.

This message of human submission to God was shouldered by countless hordes of humans who were awakened to the significance of God’s Covenant with humanity’s collective ancestor (Adam), and who lived in accordance with the fundamental premise of this Covenant: that only God should be worshipped, and that only His Law should be observed. This message was communicated by the Prophets and sages and men and women of learning that belong to every tribe and race in every age of human history.

This message was likewise guarded and defended against the follies of corruption and oppression by the towering Prophets of the Israelites and the Gentiles- the seal of whom was the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), the unlettered orphan of Arabia to whom was revealed the Holy Qur’an- God’s final Revelation to the human race.

The Muslim conquests of the 7th century A.D. were to a great extent motivated by the strivings of a new universal nation, with a universal message of monotheistic worship and Law- to plant the seeds of faith and justice in the Holy Land. In this sense, the struggles of Abraham, David, Solomon, Jesus, and every righteous individual, to purify the Holy Land of profanity and corruption encountered great vindication when the Muslim-Arab army of liberation entered Palestine (with the consent of its Christian inhabitants) in the age of the Muslim Caliph ‘Umar Ibn al-Khattab.

Jerusalem was liberated in 637 A.D. It is said that the pious Arab Caliph ‘Umar, upon entering the City of Jerusalem, insisted on entering the city on foot out of a sense of reverence for its sanctity and meaning in Islam. It is also a fact of history that he refrained from performing prayers in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre out of a fear that Muslims would forcibly convert it into a mosque and thus infringe on the spirit of tolerance and justice that the Faith and Law of Islam enjoins.

Mr. Khaled Nusseibeh is a translator and writer. He currently manages the Ubada Center for Writing and Translation Services in Amman. Born in Amman in 1961, he obtained his BA and MA from Columbia and Princeton Universities, respectively. Mr. Nusseibeh, who originates from Jerusalem, specialized in Near Eastern Studies with a focus on Islamic thought and studies.

Posted on: 1999

By Khaled Nusseibeh

There are moments in the annals of human history when nations face, sometimes willfully– at others under compulsion– the bitter burdens of conflict. Each nation, in the ebb and flow of historical movement, has had a taste of both triumph as well as defeat. At each moment of such conflict individuals and states have grappled with the imperatives of an ethic of conduct, or have at other times been, to grave consequence, oblivious to the importance of a moral premise for behavior in times of war.

The modern world has, in this closing century of the second millenium, been profoundly shaken by the brutalities of modern warfare, the extent of which brutality and suffering has been unmatched in the preceding millennia of human civilization. The two world wars, the camps of incarceration of the Stalinist Soviet Union, Nazi Germany– and the multiple conflicts of this century have visited on both innocent and culpable life a heavy toll of suffering and death; likewise, the unfolding conflicts in Palestine, Iraq, Lebanon, and the Balkans have entailed a saga of oppression, the unethical targeting of innocents, the expropriation of legitimately acquired wealth and substantial abuses of human rights.

When children are targets of war, when the honor of women and men is a weapon in the arsenal of foes of dimmed moral vision, when the rights of civilian populations under military occupation are violated men and women of sense must pose the question: is there a code that can prevent human descent into the code of the jungle under conditions of conflict? Or have those participating in current conflicts forgotten the lessons of previous wars, or can’t they be awakened to a code of conduct, adherence to which, may be disaster preventive for future generations?

To speak in simple terms: there are ground rules for peaceful co-existence between states which may be enhanced when basic and politically tolerable restraint is shown by politicians and military personnel of all ranks in times of conflict. In other words, ethnic cleansing, attempting to starve a portion of a civilian population as a weapon of battle, rape of women, destruction of vital food crops, violence against children, plunder of the private property of a population under occupation, and degrading treatment of prisoners of war, all contribute to writing the following chapter of human conflict and suffering.

Islam has an ethic of conflict which is both humane, reasonable, and merciful to protagonists in a conflict: Abu Bakr Al-Siddiq, the first Caliph of Islam, captured an important part of this ethic in these words which he addressed to his troops in A.D. seventh century:

“O people, be alerted to ten matters, so learn them from me; do not betray.., do not cheat, do not defile dead corpses, do not kill a small child, or an aged man, nor a woman, do not cut or burn trees of palm, do not cut a fruit bearing tree, do not slaughter a sheep or a cow or a camel except for your nourishment; and you will encounter people who are dwellers of cloisters (i.e. monks and priests) so do not harm them…” (Quoted from: Mawsu’t Al-‘Alam Al-Islami/’Umar Al-Armuti, pp.205)

All of the preceding, in my view is relevant to the issue of Jerusalem which the One God of humanity has sanctified and blessed as the land of peace, holiness, and human surrender to Heaven. Such blessing is anchored in human striving to accept the races of earth, to build monuments of equity and tolerance, to defend what is inviolable in God’s Law, to water the plant of human glorification of God Almighty through deeds which do justice to an orphan, which support a righteous struggle to prevent the bulldozing of a home, which spread knowledge that is useful to people in their livelihoods– but which also helps people in their struggles for salvation in the hereafter.

It is very often a paradox that perpetrators of injustice and its victims are sometimes driven, through the blinding influence of power, or the sense of grievance at victimization– to unethical methods and views of struggle. In a word, any struggle that is injurious to Religion, property, inviolable life, the dignity of people, the integrity of the family is reprehensible– under circumstances of both military preponderance or under conditions of occupation; Muslims and people of goodwill will continue mourning the occupation of the Holy City of Jerusalem and will hopefully, continue to reform themselves and to strive that it is restored to righteous and tolerant sovereignty.

Posted on: 2000

By Khaled Nusseibeh

Palestinian Jerusalemites do indeed have a sense of the past. Arguably, any people do.  How can we begin to define the Palestinians’ sense of history? And can we speak about the existence of a collectively shared sense of the past?

In a sense, it is an objective statement to say that Palestinians are a people with historical belonging to the land of Palestine. It is, moreover, objective to observe that Palestinians share the Arabic Language and an experience of history that dates to biblical and pre-biblical times.

The mistake is sometimes made whereby Palestinian history is viewed as having a beginning in the Arab-Islamic conquest of the lands of Syria and Palestine in the 7th century. Perhaps the processes of conversion to Islam and cultural Arabisation began then- yet Palestinian history by no means started then.

Palestinians are an Arab, predominantly Muslim people with varied ethnic and cultural genealogies and who have inhabited Palestine for countless centuries (1). The various ethnic and cultural genealogies are attested to by the names of its hamlets and towns and through the archeological ruins that communicate a dazzlingly rich history of awesome and modest happenings alike.

The Palestinian, irrespective of his/her level of education, has a sense- intensified by the assaults on his/her land and identity- of belonging to a national community. But this national community accommodates other affiliations and identities such as the Jordanian national identity, the Lebanese national identity, the American national identity, etc.

This writer belongs to a segment of Palestinians who are aware of their being Arab and Palestinian, but who equally underpin this national belonging to a belonging to the community of Islam or the Ummah of Mohammed (Peace be Upon Him).

What does belonging to the Ummah of Islam mean? It means respecting, cherishing, and honoring one’s homeland and the near and distant kinship ties. However, it also means feeling a sense of brotherhood with all who profess the faith of Islam and who bear witness that there is no God but Allah, and that Muhammad is His messenger.

This sense of brotherhood/sisterhood transcends the boundaries of politics, ethnicity, geography, language, social standing, etc. Because it is a communal belonging that is based on the sense of our divine origin, the God who created mankind, the universe, the homeland, and history.

The Palestinians are a people with a land, with a history, with a faith, with a struggle, and with a future (God Willing).

Bibliography

(1)  Nakhleh, Issa; Encyclopedia of The Palestinian Problem; Intercontinental Books, NY, V. 1; 1991; p. 1

Mr. Khaled Nusseibeh is a translator and writer. He currently manages the Ubada Center for Writing and Translation Services in Amman. Born in Amman in 1961, he obtained his BA and MA from Columbia and Princeton Universities, respectively. Mr. Nusseibeh, who originates from Jerusalem, specialized in Near Eastern Studies with a focus on Islamic thought and studies.

Posted on: 2002

By Sami Rami

The Zionist movement

The Zionist movement faced rejection in the regions of the Ottoman state, but Jews enjoyed the same equal rights with others since the reign of Sultan Muhammad the 2nd(1808-1839) in the wake of his large-scale political and social reforms.

The equal rights decree was declared in 1839 by Sultan Abdul Majeed (1839-1861). Further details regarding the decree were made in 1856. A year earlier, in1855, the state cancelled the tax of tribute exacted from Jews.

The reforms’ movement culminated in 1876 when the empire adopted its first constitution. Meanwhile, Oriental Jews paid high attention to Palestine, for example started in the 17^th century turning to the book of prayers stipulated by Rabbi Ha’ari and his followers in Jerusalem and Safad instead of the classical book of prayers. Rabbi Youse Haiem, then leader of Iraqi Jews prepared a book of prayers in harmony of books of prayers approved by followers of the Cabbala’s sect in Palestine (Rabbis Ha’ari, Haiem Vetal and Shalom Shara’abi) who lived in Palestine between 16-18 centuries. The teachings of the Cabbala of Palestinian Jews have spread also into north Africa, Balkan’s states and Turkey. When Safad lost its religious significance in the 17^th century, other religious Jewish centers appeared in Jerusalem and Aleppo–many religious schools were founded in Jerusalem and the leader of this faction in Jerusalem, dubbed as Hereshon Lesion, enjoyed a prominent place among Jewish circles.

The Jewish community of Jerusalem has played a major role through its emissaries to the Orient in publicizing Rabbi Ha’ari’s thoughts of Safad School. The centrality of Palestine in the conscience of Oriental Jews surfaced since the 19^th century or more specifically the year 1840 and thereafter. Undoubtedly, various Political and geopolitical factors contributed since then in strengthening Oriental Jews’ bridges with Palestine, and activated the immigration’s movement between all Oriental countries. As a matter of fact, the stamina of Jewish colonization in Palestine increased during the reign of Abraham Pasha (1832 – 1840). Moreover, the official Turkish recognition in1840 of Herishon Lesion as religious leader of the Jewish community in Palestine, and granting him the title of Rabbi Pashi have contributed to the growth of Jewish power there. Consequently, the power of Rabbis in Palestine has appreciated not only as Jewish clerics, but also as clergymen enjoying wide-ranging authorities among the Jewish community. Attesting to the influence of Jerusalem’s Rabbis, Yemeni Rabbis, despite their commitment to Rabbi Moses Ben Meimoon’s teachings more than any other Oriental Jews, used to send them theological questions on Judaism.

Jerusalem Rabbi Jacob Shaol Alissar who occupied the position of Grand Rabbi in Palestine (1893-1906) was a prominent Oriental Rabbi. prior to his rabbinical job. He occupied many important positions among Jewish settlers; as a senior judge for Sephardim Jews in Jerusalem or as Jerusalem’s Grand Rabbi Deputy. Alissar was also close to Oriental Jews, who migrated to Jerusalem, occupying thus a prominent place among them.

Generally speaking, we can say that Jerusalem’s Rabbis, starting the sixteenth century, especially from the second half of the nineteenth century, constituted the highest spiritual authority to all Oriental Jews. This factor was not among important factors that encouraged Oriental Jews to immigrate to Palestine, but it contributed to the preservation of what they considered their nationalistic religious link to it, and to their wish to migrate to, depending on appropriate political and economic conditions. Oriental Jews viewed ,erroneously, Palestine as a land that they can live in, according to their traditions without problems. Therefore, no wonder that some oriental communities immigrated  to Palestine en masse

Posted on: 2002

By Sami Rami

Jerusalem, with its abundant Muslim relics and monuments, has occupied a Paramount place in Arab and Muslim glorious history since times immemorial. Arab tribes have flooded Palestine during successive waves of Semitic migration out of the Arabian Peninsula many Arab kingdoms flourished in the region before Christ. After the advent of Islam, Muslims were ordered to turn to in prayers before turning to Mecca.

Prophet Muhammad conducted, prior to the Islamic liberation of Palestine in 638, a miraculous spiritual nocturnal journey to al-Aqsa Mosque and his great vision of ascensión to heaven from the third shrine in Islam (al-Aqsa). Recognizing Jerusalem significance in Islam, all Arab and Muslim rulers gave the city a prominence and every attention it deserved as the first Qibla (where Muslims turned in prayers before Mecca).

Consequently, the crusaders were attacked and defeated by Saladin in 1187 and the city retained its Muslim façade. In December 12, 1516, the Ottomans entered Jerusalem, and two weeks later (Jan. 1, 1517) Sultan Salim I received the keys of Jerusalem.

Palestine remained under the Muslim Ottoman rule up to the end of WWI and the beginning of the British occupation of Jerusalem in Dec. 1918. A new chapter of colonialism and Zionism started with the British occupation to Jerusalem and the rest of the region. Many Palestinian revolts and mass rebellions erupted against the new colonial and Zionist invaders.

Posted on: 2002

By Sami Rami

Before the advent of Islam, Palestine and the rest of Bilad al-Sham (Syria, Jordan, Palestine) was populated by the Arab tribes of Ghassans, Kalb, Lakham,  Jutham and others. 

Ahead the of the Prophet’s Mission, Mohammad was in touch with those tribes twice during his two trips to Bilad al-Sham. He has foreseen them as backing up their Arab brothers in the Arabian Peninsula. Three forays, Zat Assalasil, Mu’ta and Tabuk, were launched in the Prophet’s time, enabled early Arab Muslims to stretch their sway to Bilad al Sham’s frontiers. The Prophet, himself, participated in the last foray.

No sooner had he ordered the preparation of a strong expedition, that his Companions, may Allah be pleased with them, were ordered to participate in it. The expedition was under the leadership of Usama Ben Zaid.

While everyone was readying himself to the coming mission, the Prophet died in 632. But the sudden death of the Prophet created the problem of the renegades and turncoats.  His successor, Caliph Abu Bakr, adopted a decisive policy in dealing with those who turned—after the Prophet’s death– their back to Islam. He ordered the army of Usama to move the Sham in fulfillment of the Prophet’s testament. Thus the Arab Muslim’s liberation of that land from the Roman invaders has begun and deepened in later years. But Abu Bakr died before the Arab liberation of Palestine was materialized. The sacred mission of Palestine’s liberation occurred during his Successor, Caliph Omar Ben Al-Khattab. During his reign, the fate of Egypt and Palestine was decided.

The Muslim, under the leadership of Abu Obeidah al-Jarrah, mover toward Jerusalem in It was winter, and the occupying Romans had the wrong impression that the Muslims couldn’t fight in severe cold weather. But the Muslim siege of Jerusalem continued four  months alongside daily fierce fighting between the two sides.

The Muslim historian, al Tabary, has described the then prevailing situation around Jerusalem, saying: “ When the Romans realized that Abu Obeidah was unswayable…they proposed to surrender to the Prince of the Faithful, Omar Ben Al-Khattab…Abu Obeidah agreed.” He wrote to the Caliph Omar: “ In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful, to Abdullah Omar, the Prince of the Faithful, from Abu Obeidah Ben Al Jarrah…we put up to the people of Eliya, they thought that in facing us they would be relieved, but God troubled them; they grew more bottlenecked, emaciated and humiliated. Realizing their predicament, they asked for the Prince of the Faithful to be the trusted and the writer [of their surrender’s terms]…. knowing that they accepted to pay tribute and have the same non-Muslims’ guarantees applicable to them…. if you see coming here do so as it is recompensed [by God]…God bless you.”

Posted on: 2002

By Sami Rami

The late Faisal Abd al-Qader Husseini, as the head of the Orient House in East Jerusalem–occupied by Israel in June 1967–and PLO Executive Member in charge of Jerusalem File, used to tell foreign dignitaries who visited him at his office in the Orient House– which Israel reoccupied on orders from Sharon in the summer of 2001– that Israel should ultimately accept the fact that undivided Jerusalem is the capital of two states: East Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine, and West Jerusalem—occupied by Israel in 1948 outside the UN partition plan of November 29, 1947—as Israel’s capital.

Husseini, more often reminded his visitors, including Israeli peace groups, that Arabs accounted for 70 percent of West Jerusalem’s property. The Arab residential quarters of Qatamon, Talbieh, Baqa’a, and the villages of Ein Karem, El Malha, and DeirYassin. Arabs remember the later village as the ground of a horrible and premeditated Zionist massacre against civilian population.  While Abd al-Qader Husseini was battling successfully the Haganah at the Castel, eighty Zionist terrorists from Irgun and Stern Gang, on orders from Menachem Begin, attacked in April 9,48 the village of Deir Yassin killing in cold blood at least 100 Arabs (reports at the time said as many as 250), including children and pregnant women. The gruesome massacre of Deir Yassin was widely publicized intentionally by the Zionists, causing a wave of unprecedented panic and demoralization to spread through Arab Palestine. About 60,000 Palestinians fled the western section of the City of Jerusalem.

But four days later Arabs retaliated. Palestinian irregulars ambushed Haganah escorted convoy to the Hadassah Hospital; 39 Jews and 6 Palestinians were killed.

Accordingly, the British authority in Palestine, and Jerusalem in particular, had totally collapsed. And on May 14 Sir Alan Cunningham, the British High Commissioner, left Jerusalem for the last time, and the mandate was terminated.

On May 16,1948 King Abdullah, overriding Brigadier Glubb (Pasha), the British commander of the Arab Legion, ordered the Arab Legion back to Jerusalem. The next day, he telegraphed to the UN Secretary General:

We were compelled to enter Palestine to protect unarmed Arabs against massacres similar to those of Deir Yassin. We are aware of our national duty towards Palestine in general and Jerusalem in particular and also Nazareth and Bethlehem. Be sure that we shall be very considerate in connection with Jews in Palestine while maintaining at the same time the full right of the Arabs in Palestine. Zionism did not react to our offers made before the entry of our armed forces.

At 11:30 a.m. on May 17, Glubb was ordered by King Abdullah to “ advance towards Jerusalem from the direction of Ramallah”. As a matter of fact, Jerusalem was the area in which the King turned down all British and Zionist attempts for reaching a compromise on its Arab identity.

A cease-fire agreement came into effect on November 30, 1948 giving the first acknowledgement of the de facto division of Jerusalem. An Armistice Agreement was formalized on April 3, 1949, but considered at the international level to have had no legal effect on the UN partition plan of November 29, 1947 under which Jerusalem and its surrounding villages were envisioned as acorpus separatum. 

According to the final report of the UN Conciliation Commission (UNCCP) Land Expert, the total area of Jerusalem Sub district (excluding Hebron and Ramallah) was estimated at 296,943 dunums of which 222,482 (74.59%) dunums owned by Arabs. The remaining was considered to be Government, public, and Jewish properties. The figures of UNCCP were not specific on Arab and Jewish properties of West Jerusalem, which came under Israeli control in 1948. The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) “ Village Statistics 1945” estimated the total area of Jerusalem, prior to 1948, at 20,790 metric dunums, of which 16,261 dunums (80.5 %) fell in 1948 under Israeli occupation.

Posted on: Jul 2004

By Khalid Amayreh

Israel’s Public Security Minister Tzahi Hanegbi has said hardline Jewish groups may be planning to carry out attacks on the two most sacred Islamic shrines in occupied East Jerusalem.

Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock are collectively known as al-Haram al-Sharif (Noble Sanctuary). Originally built in CE711 (AD711), al-Aqsa Mosque is Islam’s third holiest place, after the two Holy Mosques in Saudi Arabia.

Hanegbi said in a TV interview at the weekend that the goal of the potential attackers would be to thwart the Israeli plan for unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.

But a former leader of an armed Jewish group that sought to bomb al-Aqsa Mosque in the late 1970s, told Israeli state-run radio on Sunday the purpose of any “new action” would not have anything to do with the “disengagement plan”.

The Israeli daily Haaretz on Sunday quoted officials in the domestic intelligence service, Shin Beth, as saying there was a possibility of Jewish hardliners trying to destroy al-Aqsa Mosque by crashing a radio-controlled plane into it.

There are numerous Millenarian Jewish groups in Israel dedicated to the destruction of the mosque to facilitate the “rebuilding” of the “Third Temple” on the site.

Messianic Jews believe the destruction of the mosque and construction of the temple would expedite the appearance of a Jewish messiah, or redeemer, who would rule the world from Jerusalem and bring about the salvation of the Jewish people.

Ultimate red line

Muslim leaders in Palestine have warned of “unforeseeable consequences” and “horrible repercussions” all over the world in case “anything happened to al-Aqsa Mosque”.

“This is the ultimate red line. If Jewish terrorists embarked on such an act of sheer madness, they would trigger huge fires all over the world … . Only God knows how the fires would be extinguished,” said Kamal al-Khatib, deputy head of Israel’s powerful Islamic Movement.

Speaking to Aljazeera.net he said an attack on al-Aqsa Mosque would be viewed as an appalling provocation by the world’s Muslim population.

“If such a thing happened, God forbid, it would galvanise the world’s 1.2 billion Muslims, and there would be a backlash and anger all over the world.”

Al-Khatib said the Islamic Movement in Israel remained vigilant against the risk of an attack on the Islamic holy places in Jerusalem.

“We send thousands of people to the Haram al-Sharif every day to make up for the barring by Israel of our people from the West Bank and Gaza Strip from accessing the mosque … and we see to it that there are no loopholes in security arrangements,” he said.

Security pretext?

The highest-ranking Muslim cleric in East Jerusalem, Shaikh Ikrama Sabri, says Jewish extremists are capable of doing the unthinkable.

“We know quite well that they are conniving and coordinating their plans with the Israeli security establishment,” he claimed.

“We also know that the Israeli state uses the extremists as a supplemental tool to achieve its thinly disguised goals, including the destruction of Islam’s holy places in Jerusalem.”

But in the present contest, Sabri cautioned, Israel may be trying to gain a “foothold” inside al-Haram al-Sharif compound under the pretext of “ensuring the security of the place”.

He said after the 1994 Hebron massacre in which 29 Arab worshippers were killed by a messianic Jewish immigrant from Brooklyn, the Israeli army took over the town’s historic Ibrahimi Mosque and assigned the bulk of the holy site to Jewish settlers.

The “arrangement” then was justified by the Israelis on security grounds – to prevent a repetition of the massacre, Sabri said.

He claimed the Israeli authorities knew the Jewish hardliners individually, but did not take action against them for political reasons.

“Look, the police know them one by one, but the extremists have strong allies and supporters within the government, the Knesset and the security establishment, so much so that it seems as if they are the real rulers of Israel,” Sabri said.

Inspection tours?

The Israeli police currently permit religious Jews to enter al-Aqsa Mosque compound despite strong objection from the Supreme Muslim Council, which is in charge of the administration of the holy place.

Israeli officials, including security chiefs, say Jews have a right to visit the holy place they call Temple Mount just like anybody else.

However, Waqf officials, who are entrusted with the upkeep of the holy sanctuary, say trips by Jews are not simple visits, but in fact “inspection tours” aimed at drawing up destructive designs on al-Haram al-Sharif.

On Sunday, a Jewish rabbi allied with the messianic Gush Emunim movement which advocates the expulsion and extermination of non-Jews in Israel – told the Israeli army radio, Gali Tsahal, he fully supported the destruction of al-Aqsa Mosque.

“This is more than a positive thing – this is a desirable thing, and I am looking forward to seeing these mosques reduced to ruins,” said Yehuda Tzion, who in 1980 headed the underground Jewish group that had planned to bomb al-Aqsa.

Tzion has urged the Israeli government to “send army bulldozers to the site and destroy these buildings once and for all … and if the state is not willing to do so, let other Jews do it”.

One of the messianic Jewish groups that openly calls for the destruction of al-Aqsa is the Temple Mount Faithful, headed by Girshon Solomon.

A few years ago, he told Israeli television, with the golden Dome of the Rock in the background – that: “it is time this pagan edifice ceased to exist”.

Source:

AlJazeera

From The Encyclopedia of the Palestine Problem

By Issa Nakhleh

In 1516 the conquered Palestine, and the country was incorporated in the dominions of the Ottoman Empire. Local governors were appointed from Constantinople, to which annual revenues were sent. Various public works were undertaken in Palestine, such as the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem by Suleiman the Magnificent in 1537. Palestine remained under Turkish rule until World War II.

In the early sixteenth century, northern Palestine, as far south as Acre, was temporarily included in the Druse state established by Fakhr ud-Din and set up in defiance of Ottoman authority, but the new state did not last long.

Toward the close of the 18^th century Napoleon undertook a campaign in Palestine, capturing Jaffa, Ramle, Lydda, Nazareth and Tiberias in 1798, but his siege of Acre was unsuccessful. In 1831 Mehemet Ali of Egypt intervened in Palestine. Under his son Ibrahim Pasha, Egyptian troops captured Acre, but in 1834 the Palestinians revolted against the Egypticians. By 1840 the Ottoman authority was fully reestablish in Palestine, and the Palestinian played an active role in encouraging the political reforms in the Ottoman Empire of 1876 and 1908.

The territory of Palestine under Ottoman rule was composed of two areas. The Independent Sanjak (district) of Jerusalem was subject to the High Porte in Constantinople.  Rhe Sanjak extended from Jaffa to the River Jordan in the East and from the Jordan south to the borders of Egypt. The other area was part of the Willayat (province) of Beirut.

This part was composed of the Sanjak of Balka (Nablus) from Jaffa to Jenin, and the Sanjak of Acre, which extended from Jenin to Naqura.

His Eminence the late Haj Amin Effendi El Husseini, on behalf of the Arab Higher Committee for Palestine, testified on the 12^th of January 1937, before the Palestine Royal Commission sent by the British mandatory Power. He explained the position of the Arabs under the Ottoman rule as follows:

Under the Ottoman Regime the Arabs formed an important part of the structure of the Ottoman Empire. It is wrong to say that the Arabs were under the yoke of the Turks and that their uprising and the assistance, which was rendered to them during the Great War, were merely intended to relieve them from such yoke. The fact is that under the Ottoman Constitution provided for one from of government of all Ottoman territories and elements.

The Arabs had a complete share with the Turks in all organs of the State, civil as well as military. There were Arabs who held the high office of Prime Minister and Ministers, Commanders of Divisions and Ambassadors…. There were Arab ambassadors, provincial and district governors. There were two Parliaments, two Constitutions. One was made in the early days of the reign of Sultan Abdul Hamid, in 1876, and the other was made after the grant of the Constitution in 1908…but even in the Parliament under the first Constitution there were Arab representatives. In the first Parliament, you find the President of the Council  of the House of Representatives was a Deputy from Jerusalem, Yusif Dia Pasha Al Khalidi.  Moreover, the administration of Arab territories was entrusted to elected Administrative Councils. Those Councils were elected and existed in the provinces, districts, and sub-districts.

Those Councils were vested with extensive powers in all matters relating to administration, finance, education, and development, but, irrespective of all this, the Arabs were aspiring to he attainment of complete national independence and the regaining of the distinguished position which the Arab peoples had held in the past centuries, when the Arab peoples made the greatest contribution to civilization and to every phase of human activity.