Al Aqsa and How To Help Oppressors

Muslims were prevented from entering Al Aqsa for Friday prayers on November, 17 2023. According to Palestinians in the Old City of Jerusalem, this is the sixth week in a row that the majority of people coming to pray have been denied entry.

Israeli border police denied many worshippers entry into Al Aqsa Mosque and pushed them at multiple gates and checkpoints in the Old City.

Israeli Border Police repeatedly told worshippers that they could not enter the Al Aqsa Mosque and to go back to their houses. One elderly man said, “Even we elders cannot enter?” And a woman asked, “Not even a woman can enter?” The Israeli Border Police repeatedly said, “Go. Go. Everybody go.” The Border Police supervisor reiterated to his subordinates, “Everybody coming, just tell them to go.”

A Palestinian just denied entry explains the situation, “We try. We do the best to enter. We are not allowed because we are Arab, but we will do our best.”

Worshippers began to do their jum’ah (communal Friday prayers that are considered a religious obligation in Islam) as close to the Muslim Holy Site as they could get, but Israeli police attacked them there too as they kneeled in prayer.  

The loudspeaker from inside the Mosque can be heard reciting a Hadith, a saying of the Prophet Muhammad, familiar to many Palestinians experiencing oppression. According to tradition, Muhammad stated, “Help your brother whether he is an oppressor or an oppressed.” A man responded, “I will help him if he is oppressed but if he is an oppressor, how shall I help him?” The Prophet said, “By preventing him from oppressing, for that is how to help him.”

Al Aqsa Mosque is at the heart of the current escalation, termed a war by Israelis and genocide and ethnic cleansing, a continuation of the Nakba begun in 1948 by Palestinians. Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza have regularly been denied entry into Al Aqsa, but now Israeli border police are denying more and more worshippers entry, even those with the “right” documents. 

Israeli Border Police deny access to Al Aqsa Mosque

Israeli border police pushed worshippers attempting to enter Al Aqsa. Somebody cried out חילול השiם (chillul hashem) to those barring entrance to the Muslim Holy Site. Chillul hashem is Hebrew for desecrating the Name of God. In Judaism, Jews are supposed to be representatives of God and God’s moral code, so when a Jewish person acts in a shameful, oppressive manner, they have represented God poorly, thus desecrating God’s name. The concept of chillul hashem is prevalent in the Torah and Tanakh and is often referenced by Jewish people as a reason to uphold the highest moral standard.

Settlers regularly invade Al Aqsa flanked by heavily armed Israeli soldiers. Israel’s national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, has led settler incursions into the Al Aqsa complex on multiple occasions. 

In 1994 a settler from the Kach terrorist group opened fire on worshippers at the Ibrahimi Mosque in Al-Kahlil (Hebron) killing 29 people and injuring about 150. Afterwards, the mosque was divided in half, with half staying open to Palestinian worshippers and the other half turned into a synagogue, closed to Palestinians. 

Violent extremist Israeli settlers have made no secret of their plans to destroy Al Aqsa Mosque and the Haram-e-Sharif on which it rests, and replace it with a third Jewish Temple.

There has been a decentralized leaderless movement to defend Al Aqsa through sit-ins at the historic Mosque. But many of these Mosque protectors have been blacklisted and are now barred from entry.

As of this date, November 20th, 2023, the Israeli military has bombed at least 59 Mosques and 3 churches in Gaza and a Mosque in the West Bank since October 7th. 

Attacks on places of worship is prohibited under the Geneva Conventions, the Hague Convention, and is classified as a war crime under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. 

The escalation of Israeli crimes in the West Bank

Balata Refugee Camp
By. Diana Khwaelid
Israel is escalating and expanding its crimes in the West Bank, as well as in Gaza.
On the evening of Friday, November 17th, the Israeli occupation forces, in cooperation and partnership
with the Israeli Shin Bet, carried out an aerial bombardment on the Fatah headquarters in the
Balata refugee camp, targeting 4 Palestinian men wanted by the Israeli occupation forces.
The youngest of them was the martyr Mohammed Massimi, age 16.
An Israeli warplane fired an air missile at the Fatah headquarters in the Balata refugee camp
when it received information that the wanted men were inside. Israel has not
fired such kind of missiles through the Airplane since the AlAqsa agreement during the Second Intifada.
According to sources from the Red Crescent Society and eyewitnesses who were in the camp,
the four young men were found in horrible circumstances.
They are the martyr Mohammed Abbas, 20 years old, Mahmoud Zahed zoufi , 39 years old, Mohammed Hashash 18 years old and Mohammed Massimi, 16 years old.

The camp woke up to the sound of an explosion, around 11 o’clock at midnight, to be surprised
by the shelling of the Fatah movement headquarters in the camp, and they found 4 bodies
belonging to the four young men, and dismbeberd body limbs because of the intensity of the explosion.
The Red Crescent crews, with the presence of members of the Palestinian civil defense,
removed the four young men and the remaining body parts, and they were transferred to
Rafidia government hospital in Nablus.


But the Israeli occupation not only killed and targeted the 4 of them; Israeli snipers targeted
the young martyr Ali Faraj shoothing him on the neck. The number of martyrs of the Balata refugee camp increased to 5 martyrs in less than 4 hours.
The bodies of the martyrs were given to their families for a final farewell. A state of fear, horror and sadness prevailed in the Balata camp, until the day after the funeral of the 5 martyrs took place. Hundreds of Palestinians participated in the funerals, chanting words of anger and resistance, condemning the crimes of the Israeli occupation against Palestinians in the West Bank, especially in Gaza. According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, the percentage of martyrs in the West Bank has
reached more than 120 martyrs since October 7th.

We Are Our Mountains

A replica of the tatik-papik (տատիկ-պապիկ in Armenian) also called the Dedo-Babo (Դեդո-Բաբո in the Karabakh dialect) it translates to “Grandmother and Grandfather”. The original is a monument carved out of volcanic ash and represents Armenian heritage and identity as mountain people.

18 November 2023 | International Solidarity Movement | Al-Quds

“Welcome to Little Little Armenia”, we hear as we walk past the barbed wire and stone barricades in the Christian section of the Old City of Al-Quds (Jerusalem). Armenian flags fly from atop walls and mounds of rubble.

This land, the size of about a quarter of what is known as the Armenian quarter, is home to a seminary, homes, restaurants, shops, gardens, and a parking lot. On November 16 and 17, armed, violent extremist Israeli settlers attempted to storm the area. This follows violent attacks from two weeks ago in which settlers also attempted to seize the area armed with machine guns and dogs trained to attack. Among the settlers attacking the Armenian community was Saadia Hershkop, an associate of Mosque mass shooting terrorist Eden Natan-Zada and Israeli Minister of Security Itamar Ben Gvir. All three have previously been linked with the Israeli terrorist group known as the Kach Movement.

Damage left by Israeli settlers attacks.

Each time, the Armenian community has rallied, formed a human shield, and nonviolently repelled the attacks.

The Armenian community in Jerusalem is no stranger to ethnic cleansing. Although dating back to the 4th century, thousands of Armenians relocated to the area after 1915 amid the Armenian genocide which resulted in approximately one million people murdered. This, with the mass murder and expulsion of other Orthodox communities and churches, made way for the creation of the ethnonationalist Turkish state. Now, Armenians in Jerusalem are under attack.

A 24 hour camp has been established to protect their ancestral land and structures from being bulldozed by violent extremists who want to build a luxury hotel.

Israeli police sided with the armed settlers and refused to disarm or arrest them for the incursion. Four Armenian land protectors have been arrested thus far for calling the police on the violent extremist settler mob, telling the mob, “You are trespassing!” and other similar “offenses”.

In a press release, the Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem stated that this attempted land seizure and the associated settlers attacks is “the greatest existential threat in our 16-century history” and a “clear step taken towards the endangerment of the Christian presence in Jerusalem and in the Holy Land.”

Other Patriarchates of the Christian Quarter have expressed their solidarity with the Armenian community under attack.

For more information and to get involved in protecting the Armenian presence in Jerusalem visit Save the ArQ on Facebook. 

A statement from the Patriarch and Heads of the Churches in Jerusalem.

Armed settlers at Armenian Quarter’s Goverou Bardez (Cow’s Garden).

 

No to ethnic cleansing is spelled out in rocks in Armenian.

42 Days Transgressed: Legal Restraints on Life Support from Jenin to Gaza City

Medical workers being marched out of Jenin Hospital. Credit: Al Jazeera.

17 November 2023 | International Solidarity Movement | Jenin, Gaza

Through the war riddled lens of Palestinian journalists’ reports and social media posts, we have watched the crossing of an invisible line.  

As an American nurse doing human rights monitoring work in the occupied West Bank, I woke today to see the lens focused on a team of outfitted medical workers being marched out of Jenin Hospital in the night, arms in the air, as occupation bulldozers, drones and operatives draped the community in a spark-lit flash of raining bullets and blasts. Those who died bled in the streets where they have lived, likely discussing ‘the war’ on a daily basis.  

The question of where and what good is International Humanitarian Law has been posed by people and organizational bodies stretching back over decades. But it has been screamed into a void for 42 days of brutal bombardment in Gaza and through soaring instances of settler rampages and incursions against Palestinians in the occupied territory. 

For a foreign medical worker, it is hard to intimate this occurrence unfolding in the West. The same law limping through the fog of bomb blasts in Gaza would forbid it.  

The law is plain. Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions, not only demands that the wounded and sick be cared for but it is made wholly clear that medical units must be respected and protected at all times, and must not be the object of attack as announced in Additional Protocol II.  

From Shifa to Al Ahli to Indonesian to Al Quds Hospitals, the occupation army has stomped roughshod over what has been enshrined in these charters, an entitlement they have been granted through the arms and funding pipeline flowing from the United States.  

The law goes on to state that “under the Statute of the International Criminal Court, intentionally directing attacks against hospitals and places where the sick and the wounded are collected… in conformity with international law constitutes a war crime.”

An investigation into violations of these laws of armed conflict by Israeli occupation forces in Gaza was birthed amid the aftermath of ‘Operation Protective Edge’ during which countless instances of proportionality and discernment violations were committed.  Israeli authorities refused participation and forbade an official Gazan body to take part, blunting the teeth of the query.  

But to date through the courageous reporting of Palestinians on the ground, the grinding documentation of daily atrocities must continue to be spotlit in both humanitarian and legal contexts and given the breath that millions worldwide have thus far provided through ceaseless acts of resistance and blockade actions.  

An outcry to adopt universal jurisdiction through domestic courts may be another avenue to introduce justice into an area justice-deprived.  

According to the International Rescue Committee, “Prosecutions can also take place in some domestic courts that have adopted “universal jurisdiction.” That refers to courts deciding to prosecute a crime committed outside its country by people who are not its nationals–but where the crime is serious enough to warrant prosecution anywhere.”

If we are committed to action, not only to halt the atrocities animated for the world through a stop-motion flood of images, videos and audio from on the ground in Gaza City to Jenin and Masafer Yatta to Khan Younis, let us also relentlessly pursue the avenues where barriers can be torn down to allow the long delayed, long deprived justice that Palestinians running from occupation bombs and bullets at this moment deserve.  

The U.S. is a refuser of International Criminal Court participation but many other nations are members who can seek legal action against those recorded committing atrocities against the bodies of murdered Palestinians, likewise those seen marching medical workers at gunpoint out of Jenin Hospital last night. Those air striking hospitals. Those bombing schools and refugee camps.  

The Hague awaits the ‘moral army’ flying flags over Shifa Hospital in their brave defeat of an illegally targeted medical facility where injured children and civilians were robbed of the last bastion of security in the warzone that has been made of their home.

Masafer Yatta: Shi’b Al Butm villagers determined to stay on their land

16 November 2023 | International Solidarity Movement | Masafer Yatta

Shi’b Al Butm is a village on the side of one of the South Hebron Hills. It is  home to 18 Palestinian families with an illegal Israeli settlement close by, and a settler outpost sprouted by the main settlement even closer, very near the houses at the top end of the village.

When we arrived last night, the yellowish shine of the settlement lights looked too near for comfort. The white lights of the the Palestinian town of Yatta were far more distant. A modern settler road stretches along the other side of the village, cutting through the rolling hills and cutting Shi’b Al Butm off from Yatta.

Our host and his family were sitting around a massive burning log of an olive tree trunk, with tea and coffee repeatedly making the rounds. When the settlers’ drone went up in the night sky, we knew that they were keeping an eye on us and reminding us of their presence.

There was some movement in the direction of the outpost. Night sounds are obvious to those who lived there all their lives, but not to us unfamiliar with the area.

The consensus was that it was likely to be the settlers removing the tent nearest to the village houses. Why do that in the middle of the night? Israeli solidarity activists told us that a tour of the settlements was organised for the next day to show their peaceful nature and idyllic nature and having a tent as a sign of outpost extension on the verge of a Palestinian village could not be a part of that gaslighting tour.

The host and his sons told us that they would be staying awake in shifts through the night and we made a rota for us internationals to keep them company. A Los Angeles Times journalist, spending the night in the village, also joined the vigil.

During my night shift, all noises were a cause for alert.  Our host and his son again and again getting up, listening hard and shining a torch to make sure that there are no unwanted visitors. Then the dogs would start barking and our host’s son would venture in the dark to see what excited them.

Luckily the night was quiet, but with several men of the house hardly sleeping a wink. The idea was that they would all catch up on their sleep after the morning prayer.

An Israeli woman activist who spends lots of time in the area, staying in different villages, told me that the setters always come from the outpost just above the village. Last time, a few days ago, they came and told the entire village population to leave or they would kill them. But the villagers were not planning to leave, nor were they going to be caught asleep.

The Israeli activist said that that was the third in the wave of attacks since the start of the war on Gaza, with the previous ones ending in the entire contents of one home bring wrecked, flour spilled all over, flower pots smashed and a duck and chicken killed. She quoted the cynical remark of a villager: “Now that Palestinian lives don’t matter anymore, can someone at least try to protect the lives of animals?”