Israeli soldiers detain a Palestinian. PHOTO: REUTERS
Darn it! Even if Hamas got Palestinians to protest, it’s human life we are talking about! And this too one day before the start of Ramazan. “Many came to the border ready to die, for they have little left to lose,” say many analysts who blame Israel for making lives of 2 million Gaza residents a living hell. “Gaza is an open prison, only few can enter or leave; the lack of electricity, drinking water, scare resources, and joblessness fill the air with despair and despondency.”
Shame on the Muslim world for its silence on the suffering of fellow-Muslims. Turkey is the only country to respond to Israel’s mass massacre. It expelled the Israeli ambassador and recalled its envoys to Israel and the United States. Trump’s blatant support for Israel has emboldened Israel’s President, Netanyahu. He attacked Turkish President Erdogan on Twitter, saying that he “is one of the great supporters of Hamas, and there is no doubt that he understands terror and the massacres well, and I suggest that he not preach morality to us.” Erdogan had vowed to “annul” Trump’s plan to accept Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. But today, his is the lone voice among the spineless Muslim leaders. Shame on the Palestinian Authority headed by the senile 82-year-old Mahmoud Abbas who has left the hapless citizens of Gaza in the lurch just because he hates Hamas which controls Gaza.
Since December last when Trump announced moving the American Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem thereby recognising Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, more than 100 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli soldiers and more than 4,000 injured. Almost the whole world termed Trump’s reckless move “dangerous,’’ “catastrophic,” and “irresponsible.”
My friend Amal Habibi, the owner of a hotel in East Jerusalem where I stayed three years ago, wrote to me lamenting how Donald Trump had forever killed their hopes of having East Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine: “He’s converted our Holy Land into a war zone.” Each fasting month, my guide Ramazan who took me around Jerusalem, Hebron and Bethlehem, writes to me. While I wait to hear from him, allow me to reproduce his email sent in 2016: “Dear Friend, Ramazan is upon us. Once again I fear violence and bloodshed. How ironical that our holiest month should witness a clash between the Muslims and Jews. How unfortunate that we who have lived in Jerusalem for decades should be barred from visiting the holiest of the holy sites during this month just because we are Muslims. You were lucky to sit amidst cedars and olive trees breathing the sacredness of a divine presence inside the Holy City of Jerusalem. We sat on a bench looking straight at the grandeur of Al Aqsa Mosque, the actual site where Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) prayed before ascending to Heaven.”
Ramazan rightly reminded me that Israeli occupation of Jerusalem was criticised by foreign countries, “it’s America, where you presently live, that stands solidly behind Israel.” Israel receives the highest military aid from the US. Not surprising, the ISIS jumped in and threatened to attack Israel to ‘free’ Jerusalem. “It’s not good news for us Muslims who are already treated with hate and suspicion by the Israeli police. Imagine what will happen if the ISIS was to infiltrate into Israel. It will be a double whammy for Arab-Israelis like us. We don’t want these thugs to come and occupy us!”
Published in The Express Tribune, May 20th, 2018.
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