Every step towards normalisation between the Arab states and Israel is a bullet aimed at Al-Aqsa Mosque and an incentive for the occupation authorities to make more efforts to Judaise the area. These efforts have targeted the oldest Islamic building in the Muslim world. This is how the Israelis are reading the events in Warsaw, and this is also how it read all of the previous normalisation initiatives. They were infiltrating and encouraging all of the Arab countries as soon as they took a step towards a deal with Israel.
At the height of the Israeli discussions with Egypt in 1978, Israel invaded Lebanon. Only one year after the King Fahad initiative, the Israeli enemy was attacking Beirut, while there was increased pressure on Israel to negotiate, the Al-Aqsa Massacre was committed in 1990. What happened this week at Al-Rahma Gate (Gate of Mercy) is a result of the Israeli occupation’s sense of some Arabs supporting and aligning with its policies at the Warsaw Summit last week.
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Israel knows that its excessive power is temporary and that what it has achieved on the ground cannot be considered a victory unless it has caused the complete breakdown and collapse of the defeated party. This is indeed what the Oslo normalisers have said: “We were defeated and now we have come to do what the victor wants.”
They are rushing to write the final scene in the play, but are announcing the death of the nation. However, this contradicts with reality and what they see with their own eyes, as the nation’s pulse is strong enough to mobilise thousands as well as resistance fighters to prevent the Palestinian cause from dying, despite the conspiracies plotted against it for over 100 years. We will not hear a word from the Warsaw normalisers or their mouthpieces about what is happening at Al-Rahmah Gate, as they are not only silent but also colluding with the enemy.
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I wish these normalisers would read a letter written over 800 years ago by Salah Al-Din Al-Ayyoubi and sent to Richard the Lionheart before the latter left Palestine: “Jerusalem is holy to us as well as to you, and more so, seeing it is the scene of our Prophet’s journey and the place where our people must assemble at the Last Day. Think not that we shall go back therefrom, or that we can be compliant in this matter. And as for the land, it was ours, to begin with, and you invaded it: nor [would you have taken it] but for the feebleness [weakness] of the Muslims who then had it; and so long as this war lasts God will not permit you to set up a stone in it. And as for the Cross, our holding it is a point of vantage [advantage or bargaining chip], nor can we surrender it except for some benefit of Islam.”
If they had read this letter, they would have known that the power of any occupation does not last forever and the truth always triumphs. They would also know that all of Jerusalem and its sanctities will return to those defending them today.
This article first appeared in Arabic in the Palestinian Information Centre on 21 February 2019
The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.