PA daily op-ed: A new Intifada has begun and Palestinians “welcome” it, including stabbings and run-over attacks
Op-ed by Osama Al-Fara, regular columnist for Al-Hayat Al-Jadida:
“Whoever thinks the current events in occupied Jerusalem lack the characteristics of a full Intifada is wrong. So is anyone who thinks that the snowball that began rolling with the abominable crime the settlers perpetrated against Muhammad Abu Khdeir can be stopped without stopping its true causes. Likewise, whoever thinks the Intifada will be geographically confined to Jerusalem is also wrong, and whoever thinks it is the result of a decision, and that it can be contained with another decision, has not read the history [books] well. The events that have occurred in Jerusalem and its environs in the past few weeks, characterized by run-over [incidents] and stabbings, indicate that the Palestinian citizen can no longer tolerate the settlers’ riots and that the occupation government’s scheme to divide Al-Aqsa according to time and place has crossed all red lines, meaning that Palestinian action is inevitable.
What should make everyone pause and reflect is the fact that Palestinian society, with all its various political groups, welcomes these actions, and moreover, sees them as the beginning of a new phase forced on it by the occupation government’s ridiculous policy. Palestinian society does not need any Palestinian organization to take responsibility for these actions in order to express support for them. The extremism led by rabbis calling day and night for the murder of Arabs and for the defilement of the Al-Aqsa Mosque under the auspices of the occupation army are enough for all Palestinians to welcome this Intifada, seek its expansion and aspire to multiply its means… The occupation government will be adding fuel to the fire if it resorts to [adopting] aggressive responses against the Palestinian people... The Palestinian people has not much left to lose and to regret in the future – whether in occupied Jerusalem, which is undergoing a process of systematic and uninhibited Judaization, the West Bank, a large part of which has been bisected and swallowed up by the settlements, or in the Gaza Strip, which is still suffering from a siege in many aspects.”
Notes: Muhammad Abu Khdeir - Palestinian teen kidnapped and murdered by Israeli extremists in Jerusalem on July 2, 2014, in revenge for the kidnapping and murder of Israeli teens Eyal Yifrach, Gilad Shaar and Naftali Frenkel in the West Bank on June 12. Following Abu Khdeir’s murder, Palestinians took to the streets of East Jerusalem in violent and continuous protests. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli ministers immediately condemned the revenge killing in the strongest terms. Israeli police arrested six Israeli suspects on July 6th; under interrogation, three of the suspects confessed to murdering Khdeir.
The physical division and division according to time refers to a proposed law (May 2013) being reviewed in Israeli Parliament that would allow for both Jews and Muslims to pray on the Temple Mount. The law seeks to implement separate prayer times for Muslims and Jews at the site.
“Whoever thinks the current events in occupied Jerusalem lack the characteristics of a full Intifada is wrong. So is anyone who thinks that the snowball that began rolling with the abominable crime the settlers perpetrated against Muhammad Abu Khdeir can be stopped without stopping its true causes. Likewise, whoever thinks the Intifada will be geographically confined to Jerusalem is also wrong, and whoever thinks it is the result of a decision, and that it can be contained with another decision, has not read the history [books] well. The events that have occurred in Jerusalem and its environs in the past few weeks, characterized by run-over [incidents] and stabbings, indicate that the Palestinian citizen can no longer tolerate the settlers’ riots and that the occupation government’s scheme to divide Al-Aqsa according to time and place has crossed all red lines, meaning that Palestinian action is inevitable.
What should make everyone pause and reflect is the fact that Palestinian society, with all its various political groups, welcomes these actions, and moreover, sees them as the beginning of a new phase forced on it by the occupation government’s ridiculous policy. Palestinian society does not need any Palestinian organization to take responsibility for these actions in order to express support for them. The extremism led by rabbis calling day and night for the murder of Arabs and for the defilement of the Al-Aqsa Mosque under the auspices of the occupation army are enough for all Palestinians to welcome this Intifada, seek its expansion and aspire to multiply its means… The occupation government will be adding fuel to the fire if it resorts to [adopting] aggressive responses against the Palestinian people... The Palestinian people has not much left to lose and to regret in the future – whether in occupied Jerusalem, which is undergoing a process of systematic and uninhibited Judaization, the West Bank, a large part of which has been bisected and swallowed up by the settlements, or in the Gaza Strip, which is still suffering from a siege in many aspects.”
Notes: Muhammad Abu Khdeir - Palestinian teen kidnapped and murdered by Israeli extremists in Jerusalem on July 2, 2014, in revenge for the kidnapping and murder of Israeli teens Eyal Yifrach, Gilad Shaar and Naftali Frenkel in the West Bank on June 12. Following Abu Khdeir’s murder, Palestinians took to the streets of East Jerusalem in violent and continuous protests. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli ministers immediately condemned the revenge killing in the strongest terms. Israeli police arrested six Israeli suspects on July 6th; under interrogation, three of the suspects confessed to murdering Khdeir.
The physical division and division according to time refers to a proposed law (May 2013) being reviewed in Israeli Parliament that would allow for both Jews and Muslims to pray on the Temple Mount. The law seeks to implement separate prayer times for Muslims and Jews at the site.