Dr. Ali Al-Ghamdi

 

ISRAEL’S aggression in Jerusalem has led to a confrontation between  unarmed Palestinians and the Israeli army, which is using all kinds of weapons. The army is greatly emboldened by  instructions from its extremist racist government whose head recently announced that he will arm all Jewish settlers who have come from all parts of the world to replace the original Palestinian inhabitants of Jerusalem.



The Israeli government is working to drive Palestinians from their land with the demolition of their homes, the bulldozing of their land and the building of new settler homes. Apart from this, the Israeli regime has enacted unjust laws to confiscate the homes of all Palestinians in Jerusalem who are away from their homes or those who have secured the nationality of another country or those whose family members own a house outside of Jerusalem. The law also prevents Palestinians from carrying out any renovation work on their homes or from constructing any annexes or additional rooms. It also allows the Jewish authorities to demolish any home if its Palestinian owner tries to build even a single additional room.



At the same time, the construction of new Jewish settlement buildings as well as new housing units in existing settlements continues. Israel pursues this aggressive policy in defiance of the protests of Palestinians and other Arabs and even the objections of some Europeans and Americans who consider this as an obstacle to peace.



The Israeli occupation authorities also prevent Palestinians under the age of 40 from performing prayers at Al-Aqsa Mosque but at the same time allow Jews to desecrate the holy mosque amid plans to divide the visiting time between Muslims and Jews. All of this is taking place while the entire world watches as mute spectators. Neither the United Nations nor those countries which claim to work for restoring peace to the Middle East have lifted a finger. Unfortunately, the case is the same with Arab and Islamic countries. None of them have even called for the convening of a meeting of the UN Security Council to condemn the atrocities and unjust practices being perpetrated by Israel against Palestine and the Palestinians.



The right-wing racist Israeli government is using excessive force to demoralize Palestinians in Jerusalem and to exert pressure on them to leave their homes and land in order to implement its plan to Judaize all of Jerusalem while at the same time brazenly declaring its willingness for peace through negotiations, which have not moved an inch forward since the signing of the Oslo Accords.



The US, which promised to halt the construction of Jewish settlements and to work to solve the issue on the basis of a two-state solution, has neither been able to put an end to the building of settler homes nor to pressure Israel to accept a two-state solution. The US always mounts pressure on Palestinians to continue negotiations and at the same time refuses to condemn Israeli crimes against the unarmed Palestinian people. Whenever Palestinians and Arabs want to go to the UN Security Council, they find an American veto. Whenever they want to go to various international organizations to win their support for regaining their usurped rights, they find Americans threatening that such action will be harmful to the peace process.



Some Palestinians have resisted occupation while others have been ready to accept the promises offered by mediators that the issue should be solved through negotiations. There have been many negotiations but they have never led to concrete results. Whenever Palestinians make any move to halt negotiations until the construction of Jewish settlement is stopped, American mediators intervene to put pressure on them to resume negotiations. It is obvious that this cycle of negotiations will continue nonstop until there will be nothing left to negotiate about.



Muslims were outraged at the burning of Al-Aqsa Mosque, the first Qibla (direction that should be faced when a Muslim prays) and Islam’s third holy mosque, in 1969. As an aftermath of the burning of the mosque, Muslim leaders met in Rabat, Morocco and established the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) and decided to make Jerusalem its headquarters with Jeddah its temporary headquarters until such a time as Jerusalem is liberated. Unfortunately, this no longer seems to be a concern of Muslims today. As for the OIC, which was created for the sake of Al-Aqsa Mosque, it has been transformed into a bureaucratic organization which seems to be more concerned with its own affairs than with those  of Al-Aqsa Mosque.



During the period of the former secretary general, the OIC’s name was changed to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and that was the major achievement during his tenure. After the expiry of his term and his return to his country, he underlined the need for taking a neutral stand between Palestinians and Israelis as if the two sides were equal forces.   

 

— Dr. Ali Al-Ghamdi is a former Saudi diplomat who specializes in Southeast Asian affairs. He can be reached at algham@hotmail.com