On Old Jerusalem: Chipping at foundations of belief

Excavations threaten mosque

Omar Ahmad

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Imagine if Iran decided to build a museum on the site of a 1,000-year-old Jewish cemetery, or if the Egyptian government threatened to destroy an ancient Jewish temple. Both scenarios would likely be met with outrage. Members of Congress might make indignant speeches decrying anti-Semitism. They might even threaten to tighten the spigot on aid to Egypt. They would be right to protest such acts.

Yet both offenses against another religion are being committed today -- by Israel. And the outrage is conspicuously missing.

The Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center has partnered with the Israeli government to build a new "Museum of Tolerance" in Jerusalem. According to former Jerusalem Deputy Mayor Meron Benvenisti, the museum site encompasses a Muslim cemetery seized by Israel in 1948 and long-since paved over. What does a shrine to tolerance mean when it is constructed -- literally -- over the dead bodies of a Palestinian population that was expelled from its homeland.

In the heart of Jerusalem's Old City, Israeli archaeological excavations threaten the foundation of the compound that houses the Al-Aqsa Mosque, Islam's third holiest shrine, and the Dome of the Rock, whose golden dome is the most striking feature of the Jerusalem skyline. For Muslims worldwide, these mosques hold enormous religious significance. Muslims, in fact, first faced Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa Mosque in prayer, only later facing Mecca.

My own parents, born in a Palestinian village a mere 12 miles from Jerusalem, spoke often of their trips to Jerusalem to pray at Al-Aqsa. In 1948 when Israel was established, my family was expelled and their village was destroyed. They fled to a refugee camp in Jordan where I was born and raised. Less than an hour's drive from Jerusalem, I could only dream of praying in Al-Aqsa. The religious freedom denied me in my own homeland was granted to me as an American "tourist." I traveled to Jerusalem for the first and only time as a young man in 1991. My prayers at the magnificent Al-Aqsa Mosque are perhaps the most emotionally overwhelming and fulfilling experiences of my life.

Since occupying Jerusalem in 1967, Israel has striven to solidify Jewish dominance over this city that is sacred to three faiths. Al-Aqsa stands as perhaps the most visible obstacle. In 1967, the Israeli army's chief rabbi, Shlomo Goren, urged Israeli forces commander Uzi Narkis, to use 100 kilograms of explosives to "get rid of" Al-Aqsa "once and for all." Narkis, as quoted by Israeli historian Avi Shlaim in "The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World," (W.W. Norton &Company, 2001) had the wisdom to refuse the rabbi's request.

Al-Aqsa has been set on fire, Jewish terrorists have entered the mosque and fired on worshipers, explosives have been planted and several plots to blow up the mosque have been foiled. In parallel with these unofficial acts, Israeli government excavations and construction projects continue to chip away at the mosque's foundation. In 2004, what is believed to be an ancient Muslim prayer room was discovered at the excavation site. For three years, Israel hid this spectacular finding from the world. Does this show respect for Jerusalem's Muslim heritage?

Muslim communities around the world feel the same pain and anxiety that Catholics would experience if the Vatican were being violated -- or Americans would feel if the Statue of Liberty were being systematically desecrated.

Here in the United States, American Muslims are gathering. They are asking how it is that -- after centuries of religious tolerance for all three great faiths -- respect for Islamic holy places in Jerusalem is now threatened. The Palestinians of Jerusalem, Christians and Muslims, are a living reminder that Jerusalem is a city that belongs to all.

Israel is the largest recipient of American foreign aid, yet she is violating American principles of equality for all religions. American leaders must insist that Israel's respect for Jewish religious sites extend equally to Muslim and Christian sites in Jerusalem, a city holy to billions of people around the globe.

Omar Ahmad is the founder and chairman emeritus of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). He is the CEO of a Silicon Valley technology company.

This article appeared on page B - 9 of the San Francisco Chronicle

‘East Jerusalem is occupied territory’

The first issue of Palestine Times to be sold in Israel ran a front page story called, ‘East Jerusalem is occupied territory’.

---

I made the front page!

This article originally appeared as the lead headline on the front page of Palestine Times, March 22.

Tony Blair: ‘East Jerusalem is occupied territory’

by Asa Winstanley

RAMALLAH – In a private letter to Morocco’s King Muhammad VI, British Prime Minister Tony Blair says his government “considers East Jerusalem to be occupied territory,” the Council for the Advancement of Arab-British Understanding (CAABU) said yesterday.

Working as chair of the Organization of the Islamic Conference’s committee on Jerusalem, King Muhammad had sent letters to various heads of state asking them to clarify their position on the status of Jerusalem. In his March 12 reply, Blair stated explicitly that Britain does not recognize Israeli sovereignty over any part of the city.

Leaked to CAABU, and passed on to Palestine Times, the letter represents the Prime Minister’s clearest ever statement on the occupied status of Jerusalem.

Chris Doyle, the Director of CAABU told Palestine Times over the phone, that it has been “a challenge to get any senior government minister to make such an official explicit statement” and that “to get Mr. Blair to say it has been impossible.”

Tony Blair typically avoids strong statements on Palestine-Israel issues, so the letter represents a radical departure for the Prime Minister. “Jerusalem’s status has yet to be determined, and should be resolved as part of a final status agreement,” says Blair in the letter. “Pending agreement, we consider East Jerusalem to be occupied territory. We recognize no one claim to sovereignty over the city. We do not support any action that predetermines final status negotiations on the future of Jerusalem.”

Although the British government has long officially held this position, it is the first time in a publicly available statement that a senior minister has made such an explicit statement in over a decade, and the first time ever for Tony Blair.

Doyle said that the last time a senior British minister had made a statement so clearly in opposition to the Israeli occupation of Jerusalem was Malcolm Rifkind back in 1995. His speech was made to the annual Medical Aid for Palestinians dinner when he was foreign secretary under John Major’s Conservative government.

Doyle said that Tel Aviv would not like the idea of Blair referring to the city as occupied, especially against the background of Israeli excavations near al-Aqsa compound.

Israel occupied East Jerusalem in 1967, and has claimed sovereignty over the entire city since then, though no other government recognizes the claim – including the United States. In 1980, Israel declared the city to be their “eternal, undivided” capital. The U.N. Security Council unanimously adopted Resolution 478 in response, declaring it to be a violation of international law.

Palestinians born and living in East Jerusalem have no citizenship in Israel, their status under Israeli law being similar to that of so-called “guest workers” from overseas. They are granted special Jerusalem ID cards but are not citizens of Israel with voting rights.

The Palestinian people consider East Jerusalem their capital, and the recently formed unity government, as other previous Palestinian governments, has spoken of the desire to establish an independent Palestinian state on all of the West Bank including East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, occupied by Israel since 1967, with East Jerusalem as its capital. The Arab Peace Initiative also endorsed this platform.

CAABU said in a letter to Palestine Times that it “was extremely concerned at ongoing Israeli activities to create facts on the ground in an attempt to predetermine the final status of the city.”

The UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, John Dugard, commented recently that “The Wall being built in East Jerusalem is an instrument of social engineering designed to achieve the Judaization of Jerusalem by reducing the number of Palestinians in the city.”

Israel Bulldozing Palestinian Occupied Homes in Jerusalem

Friday, March 23 2007 @ 01:30 PM EST

Tuesday, March 20 2007 @ 10:17 AM EST ISRAEL-OPT: Evictions continue in East Jerusalem BBSNews 2007-03-20 - EAST JERUSALEM, (IRIN) -- Two months ago, the 12 members of the Abdullah family awoke at 7.30am to find their home in East Jerusalem surrounded by 2,000 Israeli soldiers. Kazim Zohoudi Abdullah says the cold was too much for their three youngest children and the family is now split up. Image Courtesy: © Tom Spender/IRIN For the image shown above in a larger size, see Kazim Zohoudi Abdullah says the cold was too much for their three youngest children and the family is now split up. More BBSNews images are available in BBSNews Photos. They were hustled out as two bulldozers from the Jerusalem Municipality tore it down - leaving them to face the winter cold with just a canvas Red Cross tent for shelter. "We have no money to rent a flat here and no relatives who can take us in. Years of saving money and work disappeared in 30 minutes," said Milouk Abdullah, a 55-year-old scrap-metal dealer. Abdullah's house in Al Tur, on the city's hilly eastern outskirts, was officially demolished because the family built it without a permit - a rule that Israel insists applies equally to everyone regardless of race or religion. The Jerusalem Municipality and Sabine Haddad, spokeswoman for the ministry of the interior, said the law applied equally to all residents. In a statement, the Jerusalem Municipality said plans were under way to increase Palestinians' building rights and build a 2,700-unit neighbourhood for Palestinians in the Givat Hamatos area. It added that many illegal buildings were unsafe and as such constituted a risk to their inhabitants. Last year, about a hundred East Jerusalem families - more than 500 people - are estimated to have been left homeless after demolitions by the Jerusalem Municipality and the Ministry of the Interior, activists say. Most of those affected move in with relatives, rent alternative accommodation or wind up in camps in the West Bank. Almost their only assistance is emergency 'house destruction kits' from the Red Cross, which include mattresses and tinned food as well as a tent. The Israel Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD), a non-governmental lobby group says Israel has since built 90,000 homes for Jews in East Jerusalem, in order, they claim, to maintain a 72:28 percent majority of Jews over Arabs in the city. Tens of thousands more residents of East Jerusalem live under the threat of becoming homeless - 15,000 buildings in the area are considered illegal and have demolition orders hanging over them, although it is uncertain when or if those demolitions will take place. Meanwhile, Abdullah has put up a metal structure, with an ancient wood-burning stove, in which he hopes to build a small kitchen and bathroom - but nothing more. "If we just keep it at that then maybe the Israelis will turn a blind eye. If we make it a home they will just destroy it again," he said.