Al-Quds losing its Islamic character

The announcement that Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah has approved a $200 million assistance program for Palestinian cities has come at a time when funds are badly needed for these cities.

September 09, 2013
Al-Quds losing its Islamic character
Al-Quds losing its Islamic character



Maha Akeel






The announcement that Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah has approved a $200 million assistance program for Palestinian cities has come at a time when funds are badly needed for these cities.



First hand observations by the Secretary General of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu during his visit last week to Palestine confirms the dire need of these cities for support in their resistance against Judaization by the occupying power Israel and maintaining their Arab and Islamic character.



The OIC-affiliated Organization of Islamic Capitals and Cities with the Islamic Development Bank and UN Habitat would implement the program, named after King Abdullah. The funding would help Palestinian cities resist infringements such as the construction of settlements; carry out maintenance and renovation work; expand drinking water, power generating and sanitary drainage treatment facilities; develop and expand hospitals; and maintain health, education and social service centers.



Eleven cities in the West Bank and Gaza Strip are expected to benefit including Al-Quds Al-Sharif (Jerusalem) and Hebron, which were the two cities that Ihsanoglu paid a special visit to.



We hear about the blockade imposed by Israel on the Gaza Strip for over three years now under which Palestinians are deprived of basic needs and services.



In the West Bank, which is supposed to be under Palestinian authority. But of course the reality is completely different, with Palestinians not faring much better under direct and indirect Israeli occupation of their land after 1967, especially East Jerusalem.



Only a day before Ihsanoglu’s visit, Israeli security forces shot and killed three Palestinian men when violent clashes broke out during a raid on the refugee camp of Qalandia that lies between Jerusalem and the West Bank city of Ramallah.



At least 15 others were injured, several seriously. Qalandia is in an area of the West Bank that is under full Israeli control, where the Palestinian Authority police cannot operate.



The raid was the deadliest episode in the West Bank in months and came less than a week after a Palestinian man was killed in the Jenin refugee camp in the northern West Bank when troops on a similar mission encountered protests.



Such incidents add to the strains on the resumed peace negotiations that are already strained by repeated Israeli announcements of plans for more settlement construction in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.



Ihsanoglu and his accompanying delegation, which I was privileged to be part of, visited Al-Quds Al-Sharif city and toured the plaza of the blessed Aqsa Mosque and Dome of the Rock Mosque. He also visited the Dar Al-Tifl Foundation (an orphanage and school established in the aftermath of Deir Yassin massacre of 1948) and Islamic Maqassid Hospital.



During his tour, Ihsanoglu examined the conditions endured by the inhabitants under the practices and violations of the Israeli occupation and the continued restrictions imposed on the city with the aim of changing its Islamic and Arab demographic character.



The Secretary General’s visit to Al-Quds comes at a time when unrest witnessed by several Middle Eastern States, diverted attention from, and obscured the images of, the sufferance of the city’s inhabitants, while the occupation forces exploit this situation to perpetrate further violations against the blessed Aqsa Mosque.



Just last Friday, September 6, Israeli police attacked Palestinian worshippers in Al-Aqsa firing rubber bullets, tear gas and stun grenades, injuring 55 people.



The OIC had prepared a report and strategic plan to develop the Holy City, which encompasses 12 vital sectors, at an overall cost of $500 million. The plan, which was presented to the member states at a donors’ conference in June 2013, laid particular stress on the need to support the educational sector in Al-Quds, which is facing a critical deficit in terms of financial resources with over 10,000 Palestinian schoolchildren in the occupied Eastern Jerusalem being incapable of attending school.



The health sector is faring no better, as hospitals and social clinics are faced with acute shortages in equipment and resources and are therefore unable to provide the required health services to the Palestinian citizens.



The report also indicated that the housing sector has become the target of many Israeli constraints aimed at creating a demographic Jewish outnumbering Muslims in Al-Quds. While the Palestinian inhabitants are in a dire need of no less than 1,400 housing units annually, the Israeli constraints would allow for the construction of no more than 400 units annually; at the same time, thousands of settlement units are being built around the Holy City of Al-Quds.



The biggest danger is what is happening around and under Al-Aqsa Mosque with excavations and demolitions, which threaten the foundations of the Holy Mosque. There are also plans to divide Al-Aqsa and control it.



In addition to imposing a siege on the Palestinian towns and forcing constraints on their trade exchange with the outside world, the occupation forces are withholding the customs and tax revenues due to the Palestinian people, thus further exacerbating the financial difficulties facing the Palestinian government and causing a severe curtailment of public services, jeopardizing the daily life of Palestinians in the occupied Palestinian territories.



Ihsanoglu also made the first visit ever by an OIC secretary general to Al-Haram Al-Ibrahimi in the city of Al-Khalil (Hebron), which is completely controlled by Israeli forces. He made a field tour of the city during which he took stock of the poor conditions of the inhabitants due to the separation measures imposed by the occupation forces.



The Palestinian mayor of the city, Kamil Hameed, explained to Ihsanoglu that there are streets where Palestinians are not allowed to walk in, raids made on their homes and the taking over of their homes by illegal means.



“All this to protect 400 settlers forcefully living among 250,000 Palestinians,” he said. The daily practices of settlers are intended to intimidate the Palestinian inhabitants of the city and the residents around Al-Haram Al-Ibrahimi and deport them from the city in order to occupy it.



Al-Haram Al-Ibrahimi needs to be secured from the intrusions and desecrations of the Israelis, he said. The mayor stressed that the city needs investments in industries rather than only infrastructure because factories would provide jobs and help families survive.


September 09, 2013
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