How did the clashes in Al Aqsa begin?

Yossi Schwartz, ISL – RCIT section in Israel/Occupied Palestine, 26.04.2022

The very long nose of Lapid

In a very famous children’s story Pinocchio, the wooden child lies and as he lies his nose becomes longer and longer. If this was true the nose of FM of Israel Lapid would be a few meters.

“Israel will maintain the status quo on the Temple Mount, Foreign Minister Yair Lapid said on Wednesday, pushing back against “fake news” spreading in the Arab world. “We have no intention to change the status quo or prevent freedom of worship, but we will keep the order in the capital of Israel,” Lapid stated “Israel is the sovereign and we can be the moderate force taking the public welfare into consideration. Our goal is for Jerusalem to be calm on the holiday…We will not allow fireworks to be thrown from the mosque at Jews on the Temple Mount or anywhere,” he added.” [i]

From the perspective of the interest of the international working class it does not matter how the clashes in the Al Aqsa Mosques began. The clashes are result of the resistance to occupation and repression and we stand unconditionally on the side of the oppressed Palestinians who heroically struggle for freedom against the Zionist’s apartheid. Nevertheless, the response of the Western imperialists to the struggle of the Palestinians against the Zionist armed forces reflects racist hypocrisy. This hypocrisy is even more noticeable when we compare the response of these states to the heroic struggle of the Ukrainian fight against imperialist Russia.

According to the Zionist press “Over 4,600 Jews visited the Temple Mount during the Passover holiday— a record number, which was twice as many as there had been in 2019 and seven times as many as there were in 2014. The vast majority of visitors are from the national-religious sector. Israel says it maintains the status quo, under which Muslims may visit and pray at the site while non-Muslims can only visit. But Diaspora Affairs Minister Nachman Shai acknowledged on Saturday that there has been “deterioration” and that Jews have been allowed to stop and quietly pray while circling the compound. Footage from recent years indicates that it is not a rare occurrence” [ii]

Why are thousands of Zionists allowed to visit the Al Aqsa compound known as well as al-Haram al-Sharif, protected by the police and pray there?

The Zionists believe that what they call the Temple Mount is where the First Jewish Temple built by King Solomon, in 957 BC, and was destroyed in 586 BC stood, and also the Second Temple was reconstructed in 516 BC, and was destroyed by the Roman Empire in 70 AD. According to a growing number of Zionists it is where the Al Aqsa Mosques stands that the third Temple must be built when the Jewish Messiah arrives.

In recent years, thousands of national religious Jewish pilgrims have ascended the Al Aqsa/al-Haram al-Sharif including groups of rabbis, women, Members of Knesset and soldiers in uniform.

The Temple Movement

Israel is claiming that it keeps the status quo but what is the status quo? “The current situation at the holy sites in Jerusalem is rooted in the status quo established during the Ottoman era. The overriding principle guiding worship arrangements over the past 500 years is the separation of worship sites: Muslims conduct their religious worship in Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock and Jews worship at the Western Wall. This principle was revalidated after Israel occupied the Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif in 1967. Ten days after the occupation, on June 17, Defense Minister Moshe Dayan and the members of the Higher Muslim Council agreed that IDF soldiers would vacate the Mount area and deploy around it, allowing internal supervision to remain under the purview of the Waqf and designating authority for external security to Israel’s security forces”. [iii]

The fanatic messianic Jews who pray in the al-Haram al-Sharif belong to a movement known as the Temple Movement.

Temple Movements” is an umbrella term for various Jewish groups whose specific motivations and agendas might vary to some degree but who are singularly united in their goal of overturning the status quo and reclaiming Jewish sovereignty over the Temple Mount. These groups range from those who are driven by the goal of increasing the Jewish presence at the site, to those pushing for a change of arrangements; to a third group that envisions the actual building of the Third Temple and attendant destruction of the mosques. Though the third group is perhaps the most ostensibly provocative, the danger of the second group should not be underestimated, particularly in light of its drive to replicate the Cave of the Patriarchs model in Hebron, where division of worship space and time has already been achieved. Such arrangements on the Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif would constitute a flagrant breach of the status quo and all but guarantee an eruption of violence in Jerusalem”. [iv]

Thus, by allowing the messianic Jews to pray in the Al Aqsa compound the Zionist governments has violated the status quo and has provoked the Palestinians time and again.

This year the Temple Movement called for scarifying animals in the compound.

Now we must sacrifice the Passover Lamb on the Temple Mount where the Holy of Holies still stands to put an end to the terror and make peace with the Most High G-d!.This is an actual appeal now spreading around the country by a Jewish movement called “Back to the Temple Mount” calling for the sacrifice of a Passover Lamb on the Temple Mount on Passover Eve, this Friday night as the Sabbath begins, April 15th…The movement is asking Jewish people to do everything possible to make the Passover sacrifice on the Jewish Temple Mount on the very spot where the Holy of Holies once stood 2,000 years ago. The group says that this is the only way to gain God’s favor and protection for the Jewish people from the plague of terror now hitting Israel, just like when God “passed-over” the Children of Israel in Egypt on the first Passover Eve.But making a sacrifice on the Temple Mount is not going to be easy. For a Jew to even go up to the Temple Mount, let alone while Muslims are at the same time celebrating their Holy Days of Ramadan, is not simple. But a Jew going up and sacrificing a live lamb on the Temple Mount at a time when Ramadan and the Jewish Passover collide? That by itself would be a miracle (and perhaps sign of the coming Messiah?)Anyway, the organizers understand the risks involved in getting a lamb up to the Temple Mount and making a sacrifice, so they are offering financial incentives to those willing to try.Anyone arrested while attempting this will receive compensation in the amount of 400 shekels ($125)Anyone arrested with a lamb will receive 800 shekels ($250(.And should anyone succeed in offering a Passover sacrifice on the Temple Mount, that person will be rewarded with 10,000 shekels ($3,125).” [v]

It is not difficult to imagine what would happen if thousands of Muslims would pray in the Western Wall and sacrifice a lamb there. A massacre of hundreds if not thousands of Palestinians.

The role of the UN

At UN Security Council on April 25 Israel’s right wing Ambassador Gilad Erdan “used the meeting to lambaste the international community for urging “calm from both sides,” during recent unrest in Jerusalem, insisting that Israel should not be placed on the same level as the “bloodthirsty terrorists” clashing with police on the Temple Mount” [vi]

“Palestinian Ambassador to the UN Riyad Mansour presented a different narrative, telling the Security Council in his respective address that Israeli police “stormed Al-Aqsa Mosque/Al-Haram Al-Sharif, shooting at worshipers and desecrating the mosque with military boots and violence” [vii]

The UN’s Middle East envoy “Wennesland pointed to the over 160 Palestinians injured during the clashes with the police that ensued, saying that the “conduct of Israeli forces has raised concerns about possible excessive use of force”. [viii]

“Police said three officers were lightly hurt after being pelted with stones, two of whom required medical treatment. The Palestinian Red Crescent emergency group reported 158 people were hurt in the clashes. It said the vast majority were treated at East Jerusalem’s al-Makassed Hospital or at a field hospital set up by medics, without giving details on the nature of the injuries”. [ix]

Thus, Israel using state terror cannot be placed on the same level as the Palestinians defending Al-Aqsa Mosque/Al-Haram Al-Sharif, clashing with the brutal Zionist police. The event brings to mind the story of David and Goliath.

“It is a story of a war between the Israelites and the Philistines. The Philistines had an enormous army, including a giant called Goliath who was 9 feet tall! He wore a huge helmet and armor all over his body. It was made of bronze and weighed 125 pounds. That’s heavier than a small child! On his legs, Goliath also wore bronze greaves and had a sharp javelin on his back. He was holding a sharp spear shaft too with an iron point. On the battlefield, Goliath said why do you come out and line up for battle? Choose a man and have him come down to me. If he is able to fight and kill me, we will become your subjects; but if I overcome him and kill him, you will become our subjects and serve us. Give me a man and let us fight each other.” For 40 days, Goliath went towards the Israelites to ask for a battle. A small shepherd boy heard this and decided he would be the one to fight Goliath. His name was David and he was one of the Israelites. He asked his leader, King Saul about this. Saul agreed that David would be the one to fight Goliath, and said: “Go, and the Lord is with you”. David said: “you come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I have the Lord on my side!” And all at once, he put one of the five stones into the sling, swung it around his head, and let the stone go. It hit Goliath’s skull and he fell face-down to the ground. Not even with a sword or armor, David had killed Goliath”

The David of these days are the Palestinians and Israel is the Goliath. The Palestinians use another analogy- The Battle of Khaybar (Arabic: غَزْوَة خَيْبَر) that was fought in 628 between the early Muslims led by Muhammad and a Jewish tribe living in Khaybar, an oasis located 150 km from Medina in the northwestern Arabian Peninsula. According to Islamic sources the Jews of Khaybar plotted to unite with other Jewish tribes from Banu Wadi Qurra, Tayma and Fadak as well as with the Ghatafan (an Arab tribe) to mount an attack on Muhammad and his followers living in Medina. The battle ended with the surrender of the Khaybar Jews, who were then allowed to continue living in the region but paying special tax until they were expelled by the second Rashidun Caliph, Umar. According to Islamic sources Umar deputed his son Abdullah to Khyber to collect the revenue. As Abdullah lay sleeping on the roof of a house in Khyber at night, his bed was overturned by the Jews causing him an injury in the arm. As punishment the Jews of Khyber were expelled.

According to this analogy the Israelis will be allowed to live in free Palestine unless they will rebel and plot to build another racist Zionist state.

“On 15 April, during the early morning hours, a large number of Palestinians gathered at the Al Aqsa compound. Some Palestinians threw stones, fireworks and other heavy objects toward Israeli Security Forces, and ISF used stun grenades, sponge-tipped bullets and batons, including against some bystanders,” Tor Wennesland the UN’s Middle East told the UN Security Council, during the forum’s monthly session on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict” [x]

What this account is missing why the Zionist police was storming Al-Aqsa Mosque/Al-Haram Al-Sharif compound? Clearly, they were not invited by the Waqf, which according to the status quo is in charge of internal supervision, otherwise King Abdullah of Jordan would not complain to Israel.

 “AMMAN, April 18 (Reuters) – Jordan’s King Abdullah said on Monday that Israel’s “unilateral” moves against Muslim worshippers at Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa mosque seriously undermined the prospects for peace in the region, state media said.The monarch, who was speaking with U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, blamed Israel for “provocative acts” in the mosque compound that violated “the legal and historic status quo” of the Muslim holy shrine” [xi]

At the UN Security Council, Wennesland lauds Israeli recommitment to the status quo. The question is why would he come with such a statement that is in opposition to the truth?

Mr. Wennesland is a career diplomat who joined the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1983. He earned a Master of Divinity from the Norwegian School of Theology, Religion and Society in Oslo. He was Adviser on the Middle East Desk in the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs during the process that led to the Oslo II Agreement. He also was Secretary-General’s Personal Representative to the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority. In other words, he has a history of serving Israel and the collaboration of the PA with Israel against the Palestinians. His appointment to the position of UN’s Middle East envoy reflects the UN role against the Palestinians from the days of the partition plan until today.

The UN is the form controlled by the imperialist states sitting as permanent members in the UN Security Councils. Until 1971 the five permanent members included (the Republic of China [Taiwan], France, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States).

The Security Council and its five permanent members reflect the power structure that existed at the end of World War II, when much of the world was under colonial rule. In June 1950, when the Russian Stalinists were boycotting the Security Council over the issue of China’s UN membership, it enabled the U.S. to pass a series of resolutions that authorized the use of military force to support South Korea in the Korean War. Troops from South Korea, the United States, and 15 other countries swelled the ranks of United Nations Command to nearly 1 million by the war’s end. Between 1987 and 2000 three dozen operations were approved, including those in the Balkans, Angola, Haiti, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Somalia. All of them in semi colonies.

 “On March 19, 2003, a coalition of states, led by the United States and including the United Kingdom, Spain, and Australia, initiated hostilities in Iraq. On March 20, 2003, the United States sent a letter (S/2003/351) to the Council notifying it that coalition forces had “commenced military operations in Iraq. These operations are necessary,” continued the letter, “in view of Iraq’s continued material breaches of its disarmament obligations under relevant Security Council resolutions, including resolution 1441 (2002).” According to the letter, the “actions being taken are authorized under existing Council resolutions, including its resolutions 678 (1990) and 687 (1991).” [xii]

Thus, the US imperialists attacked and occupied Iraq committed war crimes like Russia is doing in the Ukraine without being punished. Russia did the same in Syria without being punished.

In simple words the UN is controlled by a bunch of robbers and is the continuation of the League of Nations. “On January 10, 1920, the representatives of the victorious Entente launched the League of Nations. Essentially the same fraud was repeated on April 25, 1945, at San Francisco when the Anglo-American imperialists jointly with the Kremlin formed the “United Nations.” The League of Nations, according to Lenin, was a unification “on paper only; in reality it is a group of beasts of prey, who only fight one another and do not at all trust one another.”  [xiii] He branded the League as a Thieves’ Kitchen, a “piece of fakery from beginning to end; it is a deception from beginning to end; it is a lie from beginning to end.” [xiv] Lenin’s position was also held by Leon Trotsky. It was the position of the Communist International in Lenin’s lifetime.

The “United Nations” bears all the features of the source from which it sprang – the second world imperialist slaughter. It is calculated to counteract and to destroy any and all insurgent movements. It is aimed to perpetuate the existing inequality among nations.

On December 16, 1991, the UN General Assembly revoked resolution 3379, which had equated Zionism with racism. “Resolution 3379 was adopted, by 72 in favor to 35 against, with 32 abstentions, in November 1975, a volatile moment in Middle East history. Two years earlier, Israel had emerged victorious from the 1973 War, but at a heavy price which led many states to assume that Israel’s days are numbered. In 1991 it seemed that the US was the only superpower and Israel is a close ally of the US.”

The link between the Zionists and the Neo Nazis

The Zionists are very aware of the fact that a growing number of Palestinians and their supporters do not “buy” any more the deadly illusion of a two states solution. That against the reality of apartheid states from the river to the sea the pro-Palestinian rallies call for Palestine democratic and free from the river to the sea.

The Zionist’s response is to call the pro-Palestinian movement fascists. This is an old trick that Netanyahu used when he claimed that the Mufti of Jerusalem Haj Amin convinced Hitler to kill the Jews. This was an obvious lie (and holocaust denial) as the killing of the Jews began before the Mufti arrived to Berlin.

In the Jerusalem post of today we read: “A series of pro-Palestinian rallies have taken place in recent weeks in the US, UK and other countries in the West. These rallies increasingly appear to include fewer members of the Left and instead, the broad spectrum of anti-Israel activists has been replaced by mostly men who chant nationalist and religious slogans”… The rallies in places like the UK, Germany, the US and Canada increasingly illustrate how the scenes of Nazi or KKK rallies of old, with men holding their arms in fascist salutes, is now becoming part of the pro-Palestinian motif.” [xv]

To prove this fraud the Jerusalem post printed a picture from 2014 where we see women holding placards saying: “New Yorkers stand with Gaza “and “Israel=racism and genocide “.

Then the article says: “Another protest in Toronto includes a video of what also seems like a mostly male protest section that reportedly cheered rockets being fired at Israel and praised God for the attacks. Activists also wore shirts supporting “Intifada.” The usual calls by the aggressive protesters included claims that they will fight for every “inch” of historical Palestine”. [xvi]

“Many extremist groups in the Middle East have borrowed heavily from fascism in their salutes over the years. Although these rallies claim to be against “apartheid” and “settler colonialism,” the overall vibe is one that wants to see Israel, a country, destroyed. The use of the term “settler colonialism” to refer to all of Israel is in itself a term that seeks the destruction of a country… Under the guise of supporting Palestinians, the overall trend is now one of male aggression, support for militarism and chauvinism wrapped in nationalist, and far-right religious extremist rhetoric. While this was once supposedly a left-wing cause supporting “human rights”, “two states” and peace, the trend now is that protests appear to have abandoned any pretense of peace.” [xvii]

Besides the obvious lies this line of argument is a denial of the Jewish holocaust. Was Italian or German fascism an expression of oppressed nations fighting against apartheid states? You have to be the village idiot to believe in such nonsense. If fascism was an expression of oppressed nations fighting for their national liberation then the Jews were the oppressors. Thus, this Zionist filth only provides ammunition to the fascists’ propaganda.

What is common to the fascists and the Zionists is their Islamophobia that pushes them to join forces in different countries. On this the liberal Zionist daily Haaretz wrote:

“Israel Hayom was up in arms this week. In an interview with a Swedish daily, Israel’s new ambassador to Sweden had stated the obvious: Israel is shunning the Sweden Democrats, a far-right party with fascist and neo-Nazi roots that is still associated with similar positions. But for the Israeli Hebrew-language daily, this was a “controversial statement.” Why? Here is the wonderful explanation the paper gave: “In the past, the Sweden Democrats did adopt far-right positions, including sympathy for fascism and Nazism. However, in recent years it has become a staunch supporter of Israel.” That “however” says it all” [xviii]

In November 2017, the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) hosted a gala dinner in New York City honoring Stephen Bannon, US President Donald Trump’s then-chief strategist, a known right wing and Anti-Semite. The former Jerusalem Post editor-in-chief Bret Stephens wrote “Just as there are anti-Zionist Jews, there are also anti-Semitic Zionists,” Stephens wrote. He then went on to condemn Bannon’s indirect link to neo-Nazi Richard Spencer who, according to Stephens, advocates a “factitious theory that Israel is the sort of ethno-nationalist state he’d like to see America become.” [xix]

During the Ariel Sharon government in the early 2000s, Italian post-fascist Gianfranco Fini paid a visit to Israel. At that time Fini, the leader of the Movimento Sociale Italiano (Italian Social Movement), the ideological successor of the anti-Semitic Fascist Party, was trying to rebrand his movement. He was taken to visit Yad Vashem.

In 2017 the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party enthusiastically launched a campaign pushing for the recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, despite PM Angela Merkel’s opposition to it. [xx]

Down with the Zionist apartheid state and its lies!

For a Palestine red and free from the river to the sea!

Endnotes:

[i] https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-704714

[ii] https://www.timesofisrael.com/un-envoy-cites-israeli-account-of-how-temple-

[iii] https://www.ir-amim.org.il/en/node/2113

[iv] Ibid

[v] https://www.israeltoday.co.il/read/the-time-has-come-to-sacrifice-the-passover-lamb-on-the-temple-mount/

[vi] Ibid

[vii] Ibid

[viii] Ibid

[ix] https://www.timesofisrael.com/jerusalem-on-edge-clashes-break-out-between-police-and-palestinians-at-al-aqsa/

[x] Times of Israel April 25,2022

[xi] https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/jordans-king-abdulla

[xii] https://www.everycrsreport.com/reports/RS21323.html

[xiii] Lenin’s Collected Works, Vol XXV, p.297

[xiv] Ibid P. 97

[xv] https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/article-705127

[xvi] Ibid

[xvii] Ibid

[xviii] https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-neo-nazis-as-long-as-they-re-friends-of-israel-1.10335510

[xix] https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2018/7/17/an-unlikely-union-israel-and-the-european-far-right

[xx] https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2018/7/17/an-unlikely-union-israel-and-the-european-far-right

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