Children sit outside of Al Aqsa Mosque after being denied entry. Photo Credit: ISM
Israeli soldiers and police once again blocked the majority of worshippers from entering Al Aqsa Mosque on Friday, December 15th. Among those excluded were many young children who attempted to enter but were prevented by Israeli soldiers and police. The soldiers and police also pushed and beat many people away from the gates of Al Aqsa, down Via Dolorosa, out Lion’s Gate, and beyond, including shoving some women. At least one journalist was severely beaten as well and required medical attention.
An Israeli soldier violently assaults a Palestinian women attempting to attend the Mosque for prayer. Still from Video Credit: Silwanic.net
Israel has laid siege on Al Aqsa Mosque since October 7th. In multiple locations throughout Al Quds (the Arabic name for the city of Jerusalem meaning “the holy”), groups of people once again got as close as they were able to the Al Aqsa Mosque, laid down their prayer mats and prayed.
Palestinians pray surrounded by soldiers blocking their entrance to Al Aqsa. Photo Credit: ISM
At the same time that police and soldiers are denying worshippers entry to Al Aqsa Mosque for Friday prayers, they are desecrating other Mosques, such as the Mosques in Jenin where soldiers have spray painted Mosques, threw trash in them, and sang songs over the loudspeaker used to broadcast the call to prayer.
Graffiti on Mosque in Jenin. Photo Credit: ISM
Attacks on places of worship are against the rules of war, but thus far Israeli army and police have targeted mosques and churches in Gaza and the West Bank and done so without repercussions from international political bodies such as the International Criminal Court or United Nations.
It is nearing Christmas time in Bethlehem. And there is room at the inn this time.
A family from Gaza had to go to a far away hospital for their child’s illness. Then October 7th occurred, and then the genocide.
Nativity scene in Bethlehem
This Gazan family found refuge in a hostel in Bethlehem. They have been here for months already and will continue to be until it is safe for them to return. I spent one night in the same hostel. And the mother knocked on the bedroom door I was in. When it opened, I saw that she had made an extra plate of home-cooked food.
I couldn’t do anything but cry for the next hour, thinking to myself how the family most likely has no home to go back to, perhaps no neighborhood, perhaps no city, and in all likelihood have lost dozens of members of their extended family, and they still have the thoughtfulness, compassion, and grace to offer a stranger a meal.
It is not the first time a Palestinian has shown me similar care and generosity. Everywhere in Palestine I have been given tea, coffee, food, sweets, gifts of all types, embraces of friendship, and overflowing kindness.
In Masafer Yatta, the Jordan Valley, and other areas in Palestine, shepherding families and other villagers face threats of their whole communities being wiped out by murderous settlers who tell them they have 24 hours to leave or be killed. Still, these same families will spend the little money they have to supply their international and Israeli solidarity guests with tea, coffee, snacks, homemade bread and more.
Food shared by Palestinian villagers in Wadi Tiran.
In Gaza, I have heard there are thousands of open doors to the Palestinian homes that are still standing. Gaza families keep their doors open for when (not if) their neighbors’ homes are bombed and their neighbors are made homeless with nowhere else to go. And in the United States, where I am from, we lock not only the doors to our homes but our churches too. I pray that one day, Americans in peace and prosperity will have as much generosity and compassion to those made homeless as the Palestinian people of Gaza have even while experiencing starvation and genocide.
There is a poet in Gaza, Refaat Alareer, who was targeted and killed by a missile strike. He had written a poem about what he would like to occur in the event of his death. He asks us to make kites (white ones, with long tails) so that a child in Gaza can see them flying and think about how an angel is bringing back love.
Refaat Alareer’s Twitter (X)
If there is one thing right now that I wish the world could see through my eyes, it is the strength to love that I witness Palestinians still have even when they are experiencing a genocide. This humanity amid inhumanity breaks the shell enclosing my understanding and teaches me what holy is.
Mahmoud Darwish, the famed Palestinian poet, reminds us to think and say, “if only I were a candle in the dark”.
Mahmoud Darwish quote from Palestine Advocacy Project
Being in Palestine at this time, I see much darkness, but also many candles.
I can still see even after all the unspeakable crimes against humanity waged against the Palestinian people, how if settler colonialists would simply come as guests and friends, come as a brother returning home, instead of a conquerer laying waste to the land and its people, how there would be a table spread before them by Palestinians with so many wonderful things and an empty seat and a full plate waiting with voices reiterating again and again: ahlan wa sahlan, ahlan wa sahlan.
Palestinian people have been denied their right to return to their homes and land for over 75 years. They still have the keys. But these examples of boundless humanity in the worst situations teach me about a different kind of return. Palestinians offer me, other internationals, and their Israeli oppressors when they turn from their oppression, the right to return to their, to our, humanity.
Striking Palestinians across the occupied West Bank have been joined by millions in countries across the world for the Global Strike for Gaza, which was announced by a coalition of major Palestinian factions. The cadence of the strike declarations accelerated rapidly throughout the day in demand of an immediate ceasefire and an end to the genocide in Gaza.
The global strike action was coordinated in response to the dashing of efforts toward an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza. Comfortably seated with his arm stretched high, US Ambassador Alternate Representative of the US for Special Political Affairs in the United Nations Robert A. Wood lit a fire of rage and condemnation across every continent following his signaling that the United States would use its veto power to kill a UN resolution, supported almost thoroughly through the UN security council, to block an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza.
Entire nations shut down. A strike was born.
Sign on shop in Jordan announcing closure due to strike. Photo Credit: (MEE/Mohammad Ersan)
Across the territory, shops fell silent. Schools remained closed. Government offices shut down. Masses gathered in Ramallah’s Al-Manara Square for what was, by many accounts, the largest crowd gathered in protest in the area in some time. Palestinian children made art work and protestors carried a banner naming Gaza’s martyrs while large protests occurred simultaneously in al Khalil. Shops in occupied East Jerusalem remained shuttered through the day as the global strike action flashed across the planet with several countries joining in nationwide efforts to deal economic blows to the heart of the powers who profit from the continuation of occupation force’s genocide in Gaza.
Silence in the streets of Nablus. Photo Credit: [Zain Jaafar/AFP]Lebanon:
Secretary-general of Lebanon’s Council of Ministers, Mahmoud Mekkiya delivered the announcement to the nation; all governments and national institutions would be shuttered in solidarity with the global call out. In reports out of major Lebanese cities, “workers downed tools” and the call for global strike was supported in calls for nationwide solidarity by the ministers of education and culture and several heads of finance. People across Lebanon engaged in the strike in solidarity with Gaza as well as southern Lebanese villages which have also been impacted in occupation forces bombardment.
Streets were bare across Jordan as a stunning show of solidarity surged through “the transportation sector, aviation, trade, banks, ports, as well as schools and universities.” Thousands gathered in the streets of Amman and across Jordan in massive protests. Handmade signs announcing solidarity strikes were placed across hundreds of shops as the nation grinded to a halt in a powerful cry to end the continued atrocities being committed in Gaza.
Photo Credit: English News.cn (Photo by Mohammad Abu Ghosh/Xinhua)
In observation of the strike, the country saw abandoned streets throughout the day, with images circulating across social media of empty streets and gated shops in the typically bustling city of Istanbul.
Photo Credit: Palestine Online @OnlinePalEng
While many countries held full nationwide shutdowns in honor of the strike call, others which did not, saw massive protests in major cities across the world. Entire communities vocally joined the strike in solidarity. #StrikeForGaza was trending across social media, businesses announced individual shutdowns, millions across the world did not report to work or school and millions more refused all financial transactions for the day, no physical purchases, no shopping, no online orders. Boycott actions are a powerful tool to cost companies standing on the side of genocide, occupation and apartheid millions of dollars in profit. Momentum continues to build for an end to the bombardment which has now claimed nearly 20,000 lives. Thousands of the missing lie among the rubble.
One day prior to the global strike, the world marked the 75th anniversary of International Human Rights Day as the bombs continued to fall on Gaza.
7 December 2023 | International Solidarity Movement | Tulkarem
The fire of the war between Hamas and Israel since October 7 has not only burned the civilian population of Gaza. Palestinian civilians in the West Bank have tasted their share of it, too. On December 7, the Israeli occupation forces once again stormed the city of Tulkarem. They did so late at night, with dozens of military vehicles, including the D9 bulldozers that have been used by the Israeli army to destroy roads, streets and infrastructure in all previous incursions to Tulkarem camp, Nur Shams camp, Jenin camp and Balata camp.
The Israeli occupation forces (IOF) surrounded the Thabet Thabet Government Hospital in the city and obstructed the movement of ambulances. Ambulances were stopped and inspected after they managed to reach some of the injured Palestinians.
The IOF also stormed the Tulkarem refugee camp in the city, destroying the main street of the camp. But in this latest incursion, it was the population of the Nur Shams refugee camp — located three kilometers east of Tulkarem — that suffered the heaviest damage.
The Israeli occupation forces smashed the main entrance to the Nur Shams refugee camp for the seventh time this year. Eyewitnesses said that the occupation forces used bulldozers to destroy the infrastructure and roads in camp, including the main roads in the Al-Damaj neighborhood.
Vital civilian infrastructure, such water networks and sewerage were destroyed, as roads and streets became a dangerous zone for all residents of the camp, including women and children.
The IOF did not spare schools either. The main entrance to the UNRWA school in the camp was also destroyed, while another school saw its wall partially demolished.
In the meanwhile, residents of the Tulkarem camp buried the body of the martyr father Ayman Anbar, 47-year-old, who was wounded by a live bullet shot by an Israeli soldier during the second-last raid of the camp, which took place on November 14th. Abu Lamin stayed in the intensive care unit at the Nablus specialized hospital for almost three weeks before succumbing to the wounds. He leaves behind his wife and family, including Lamis, his 8-year-old daughter.
Lamis Anbar was joined by residents of the Tulkarem camp in mourning her father’s body and saying one last goodbye.
According to the latest statistics by the Palestinian Ministry of Health, the number of Palestinian martyrs since the beginning of this year has reached 18,019, while 55,069 Palestinians have been injured and 9,029 arrested.
According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, the number of martyrs of the West Bank since October 7th has reached 274.
The city of Tulkarm has recorded 44 Palestinian martyrs since October 7th
Jerusalem was originally split in two in 1948, the year of The Nakba, when Palestinians were ethnically cleansed from much of their ancestral land and the State of Israel was created, stealing pieces of the city for the settlement of newly arriving Jewish people. That original land grab has since grown through an illegal annexation and ongoing occupation of east Jerusalem. The Old City, the location of numerous holy sites relevant to Muslims, Christians, and Jews, is surrounded by an Ottoman aged wall that is often put to its use in constraining entry into the Old City by the Israeli Army and police. Al-Aqsa stands tenuously on the inside of the wall, while many of its worshipers live on the other side. The sentiment is that extremist, right wing, Jewish Israelis, and their empire, want to demolish the mosque and build a temple in its place.
Map of Old City of Jerusalem, from Jerusalem Story
As we walked down the warmly lit Via Dolorosa on December 8th, we buzzed with anticipation and shared stories of miracles in our own lives, sprinkled with small Arabic lessons; katir, a lot, sa’a ki, yummy, ektalal, occupation. Tears streamed down my face as I touched the ancient stones and walked along the same path of the infamous martyr. I used the ends of my head scarf to wipe my cheeks and tuck myself underneath its warmth. My body was tense with anticipation of hundreds of right wing, jewish extremists charging towards Al-Aqsa, a literal, and symbol of, land they wish to digest.
By the end of the last prayer for the day, around 6:30pm, the streets were empty aside from a few families still briskly walking to get home. It was clear that tonight was not the night to be alone outside the mosque. We encountered a family of 3 carrying copious amounts of oranges in a baby stroller and by hand. One of us offered to help and we were quickly swept back to their house through alleyways and over barricades. The Matriarch of the family peeled oranges and her daughter poured coffee as she explained how she tries to go every Friday to pray, but is always turned away by the Israeli military. She shook her head and closed her eyes as she recounted the tear gas they sprayed while she attempted to pray. I asked if she continues to go, even though she has been denied and she proudly replied “yes, of course”. We parted with sentiments of strength, gratitude, and sumud (resilience).
Empty via Dolorosa. Credit: ISM
As we left the forcibly silent Muslim quarter, we were bombarded by celebration, carelessness, and isolation just a few blocks over in a Jewish Neighborhood. People danced in the streets and young men laughed as they walked with assault rifles slung around their necks.
Young men walking through West Jerusalem. Credit: ISM
We all clenched our jaws, silenced our Arabic lessons, and I lowered my scarf to reveal my curls in a hopes to blend in until we swiftly arrived at our home base, astonished by the dissonance; just down the road, their neighbors, were confined to their homes for fear of destruction and extermination.
I was surprised by my shock. Living in the US supplies countless moments of dissonance among neighbors. From the Delmar Divide in St Louis to Skid Row to Chelsea’s 10th ave in NY, we watch as people are displaced, sanctioned, and murdered and their neighbors, with windows facing theirs, feast and dance on the graves of the community they pushed out. I had the same feeling of disappointment and anger walking through that Jewish neighborhood as I do when I walk to visit friends along the Delmar Divide and remember the names of the families that once lived on the south side of the street.
On Monday December 11th there is a call to action for everyone to stop, a total strike. For everyone, around the world to be faced with the stagnation of a mandated ceasefire and to feel the destruction of an entire people. To turn that rage into action.
