Middle East Monitor
clear
Free Subscription
Middle East Monitor

Creating new perspectives since 2009

Middle East Monitor

Palestinians are #not_budging from Al-Aqsa 

April 21, 2022 at 7:09 pm

An elderly Palestinian remains defiant in the face of Israeli forces who stormed Al-Aqsa Mosque, 17 April 2022 [abdalafo/Twitter]

An elderly Palestinian remains defiant in the face of Israeli forces who stormed Al-Aqsa Mosque, 17 April 2022 [abdalafo/Twitter]

Pictures of Palestinian worshippers staring down Israeli occupation forces during raids on Al-Aqsa Mosque while also looking bemused amid mass incursions by groups of illegal Jewish settlers in the occupied East Jerusalem have gone viral on social media.

The defiant look in a young Palestinians woman’s eyes as she stares at an armed Israeli soldier has prompted the phrase “not budging”, which comes from a popular Palestinian song by Kifah Zraiqi, called I am the son of Jerusalem, or Ana Ibn Il-Quds, to start trending.

In the song, Zraiqi says: “I am the son of Jerusalem, I’m not budging, I’m staying [sitting] right here.”

Social media users began capturing the powerful responses on Friday, when more than 150 Palestinians were injured at dawn as Israeli occupation forces stormed the courtyards of Al-Aqsa Mosque.

The Palestinians were injured by rubber coated metal bullets, tear gas and beaten by the Israeli forces who also fired a barrage of stun grenades.

In a statement, the Islamic Endowment Department in Jerusalem said that one of the mosque’s guards was hit in the eye by a rubber-coated metal bullet.

Eyewitnesses told Anadolu Agency that the Israeli forces pursued the worshippers and beat them in the mosque’s courtyards.

Thousands of worshippers were in the mosque where they were performing the morning prayer.

Another potent image that has been shared thousands of times is that of a Palestinian man calmly lying on his side watching a group of fully armed Israeli occupation soldiers stand in front of him.

Meanwhile, children have also bravely taken a stance against the violence inflicted by the Israel soldiers and settlers by sitting nearby and reciting the Quran.

Khair Eddin Aljabri, a senior producer at Arabic Post, wrote on Twitter: “Another thunder with a brave heart. A Jerusalemite child defies the settlers and sits in the path of their storming of Al-Aqsa masjid this morning.”

Tensions have been running high across the occupied Palestinian territories since the beginning of April amid repeated Israeli arrest campaigns in the occupied West Bank.

Muslim worshippers in the Noble Sanctuary, men, women and children, were attacked brutally by occupation forces again this morning.

The occupation forces besieged the young men within Al-Aqsa Mosque and fired rubber coated metal bullets and tear gas canisters at them. An elderly man was wounded by a rubber coated metal bullet. Journalists were kept outside the mosque.

Daily settler incursions at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound to celebrate the week-long Jewish Passover holiday have further inflamed the situation.

Al-Aqsa Mosque is the world’s third holiest site for Muslims. Jews call the area the Temple Mount, claiming it was the site of two Jewish temples in ancient times.

Israel occupied East Jerusalem, where Al-Aqsa is located, during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. It annexed the entire city in 1980, in a move never recognised by the international community.

Latest news

See all

RABAA

Engaging the World: The Making of Hamas's Foreign Policy

Trending