Why do the Zionists raid al-Aqsa every Ramadan?By Abdullah Ibn Muhammad, islam21c.com, 09/04/2023
While the occupation continues its pattern of violence, a brewing recipe for disaster may signal imminent collapse of the apartheid state's house of cards
The brutal assaults on al-Aqsa Mosque, illegal raids in the West Bank, and the airstrikes on Gaza by the apartheid state’s military have unfortunately become an all-too-familiar pattern during the holy month of Ramadan.These crimes have been happening perpetually for decades, but every year during Ramadan, ‘Israel’ seems to make a concerted effort to double down on its oppression.
Passover meets RamadanThis year, Passover happened to fall within Ramadan, which only served to increase tensions at al-Aqsa.
Zionist mercenaries frequently escort groups of settlers into al-Aqsa compound to visit the Temple Mount, especially on Jewish holidays. The Temple Mount, which is the holiest site in the world for Jews, apparently contains the foundation stone where Jews believe the creation of the world began.
There are many Zionist organisations that call for the demolition of the Dome of the Rock and the building of the Third Temple on the site. [1]
A sacrificial lambOne of the traditions of Passover is to offer a sacrificial lamb at the Temple. However, today, most Jews do not partake in this ritual in the absence of the Temple. [2]
In spite of this waning ritual, many Zionist settlers have tried to take lambs into the Temple Mount to make the Passover sacrifice in an act of defiance. Indeed, some settler groups have even set up bounties and cash rewards for any individual who tries, is successful, or even gets arrested while attempting to sacrifice a lamb on the Temple Mount! [3]
The ideology of Zionism is widespread amongst so-called Israelis, both secular and religious. [4] However, these religious Zionist settlers are known to be some of the most racist, violent, and inflammatory groups within ‘Israel’. They hold the belief that it is their religious obligation to steal the land and settle in it at any cost. [5]
Theft of the land, brutalisation of the PalestiniansUnusually, Zionist mercenaries have actually arrested some of the aforementioned settlers and prevented them from getting onto the Temple Mount when attempting to make a Passover sacrifice. [3]
Of course, this may come as a surprise, as the same armed thugs support and turn a blind eye to many of the vile crimes committed by these same settlers in other instances. [6]
In reality, the Zionist state’s leadership knows that if it pushes too far, it will provoke a response that it does not want to deal with. With this in mind, they keep pushing their boundaries just enough to where the cost/ benefit analysis is in their political favour.
Broader pictureThis is all part of the co-ordinated Zionist effort to methodically continue their occupation, land theft, and brutalisation of the Palestinian people, while managing their standing with the rest of the world and their ability to fight against the Palestinian resistance. To fully understand this pattern of Zionist state oppression, let’s take a step back and look at how this calculated, political move by Zionist leaders fits into the bigger picture.
To start, one must understand some of the basic history of how the apartheid state developed. Before the Zionist entity, Jews were much more spread out than they are today. In fact, only 0.3 per cent of the world’s Jewish population lived in Palestine in 1882. [7] And the overwhelming majority of Jews who inhabit the Zionist state today are immigrants and descendants of immigrants who came from Europe, Russia, the United States, North Africa, a variety of Arab countries, and other places around the world. [8] Today, the apartheid state is home to almost half of the Jews in the world, but it is by no means a monolithic society. [4] [9]
Diversity & tensions among Jewish sectsThe Zionist state’s demographics reflect its origin story.
There are a plethora of different Jewish ethnic groups, including Sephardic, Mizrahi, and Ashkenazi, as well as religious groups such as Haredim, Datiim, Reform, and even secular Jews. [4]
In fact, almost half of the Jewish population in the apartheid state self-identifies as secular/ non-religious, which is surprising for a nation-state that was established as, and claims to be a Jewish state for the Jewish people! Even some of the most prominent leaders in the history of so-called ‘Israel’, including David Ben-Gurion and Golda Meir, were outright about their disbelief in God. [10] [11]
This diversity has led to many societal tensions within the apartheid state. For example, there is tension between the Haredim (ultra-Orthodox Jews) and other subgroups. The Haredim are one of the only groups within the state that are exempt from serving in the military and are actually subsidised by the regime to support their intense study of the Torah. Many within the Zionist entity accuse the Haredim of taking advantage of taxpayer money while not serving their state. [12]
On the other hand, religious Jews from various groups have developed tensions against the more secular, left-leaning segments of the population for violating Jewish law and adopting practices and values that conflict with traditional Jewish practice. [4]
Extreme right-wing Zionist regime leadersThe above context sets the scene for the apartheid state’s current regime.
Its parliamentary democracy requires a party to control 61 seats in the Knesset (the legislature) in order to select a Prime Minister. Only once in the history of the entity has a single party been able to control 61 seats on its own – meaning that aside from that instance, all of the regime’s iterations since 1948 have been coalitions composed of a variety of parties.
As politics has become more polarised around the world, the Zionist entity’s parliamentary democracy system has become more and more tense, resulting in some unprecedented coalitions.
One of the most notable is the current, the 37th coalition, which is led by Benjamin Netanyahu and composed of some of the most extreme right-wing, Zionist, and religious figures in the history of Israeli politics. [13] Some of the more prominent regime leaders include Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich. Although, to call figures like Ben-Gvir and Smotrich right-wing is an understatement.
Ben-Gvir’s first date with his wife was a visit to the grave of Baruch Goldstein, the Israeli terrorist who killed 29 Palestinians and injured 125 others in the Cave of the Patriarchs massacre in 1994. [14] Indeed, Ben-Gvir had a photo of Goldstein hanging in his living room until recently, when his presence in the media spotlight started to grow.
In another instance, Ben-Gvir was asked by an Arab parking attendant to move his car after parking in a prohibited space. Ben-Gvir proceeded to pull out a firearm and start brandishing it at a number of other Arab parking attendants while shouting insults at them. [15] And having touched on Passover further up, Ben-Gvir even tried to sneak onto the Temple Mount with a group of settlers in 2006 to sacrifice a lamb for Passover! [16]
As for Bezalel Smotrich, when advocating for the segregation of Jewish and Arab women in hospitals, he tweeted,
“It is natural that my wife would not want to lie down next to someone who just gave birth to a baby that might want to murder her baby in another 20 years.” [17]
In another instance, when referring to Ahed Tamimi – the 17-year-old Palestinian girl serving an 8-month jail sentence for a confrontation she had with a Zionist mercenary – he said that she:
“…should have gotten a bullet, at least in the kneecap.” [18]
And it is no surprise that a full list of racist and violent comments made by Smotrich could warrant an entire article on its own.
Mutual admiration for ultra-nationalist Meir KahaneLike Baruch Goldstein, both Ben-Gvir and Smotrich inherit the ideology of Meir Kahane. He was an Israeli terrorist who is the namesake of the ideology of “Kahanism”, and founder of the Kach political party and the militant group called the Jewish Defense League. The Kach party and Jewish Defense League were so extreme that even the United States designated them as terror groups. [19]
Although the Zionist entity banned the Kach party in 1994, new political parties in the land have sprung up with the same ideology, including Otzma Yehudit and Tkuma, which are headed by none other than Ben-Gvir and Smotrich, respectively. It is telling that both of these parties are part of the current coalition regime. [20]
Benjamin NetanyahuThis is Netanyahu’s sixth term as Prime Minister. He is the longest-tenured leader in the short history of the Zionist state, having ruled for over 15 years. [4]
Since the 1990s, he has faced a number of scandals related to his marriage and corruption, yet he still manages to repeatedly secure power and political success. Officially charged with corruption in 2020, and after being ousted by Naftali Bennett and the collapse of his coalition, he was determined to regain the regime’s top spot. [21] [22] This is one of the catalysts that led to the terrorist-led coalition regime led by Netanyahu today.
Botched judicial amendmentsIn early 2023, the extremist regime made a push for various judicial reforms within the Zionist state. These reforms would have limited the power of the supreme court and the judicial branch of the Zionist regime, arguably “maim[ing] democracy.” [23]
Other criticisms include the fact that these changes would essentially have given Netanyahu a way out of his ongoing corruption trial, and that they would empower the extremist right to unilaterally enforce some of their policies within the state.
This planned constitutional reform was hugely unpopular, resulting in a series of the largest protests in the history of the state, some of which turned violent.
On 25 March, over 630,000 attended rallies against the planned changes. [24] The failed reforms clearly served to further amplify the tensions within the Zionist entity’s various political, ethnic, and religious groups.
How does all this relate to al-Aqsa?
Palestinian abuse is a key tool in Zionist politicsLooking at the recent attacks on al-Aqsa, Gaza, and the Palestinian people, historically, one of the strategic levers that Zionist politicians have used to divert public attention is brutalising the Palestinian people. [25]
By no means are Israeli politicians surprised by the results of their provocations. When they storm al-Aqsa or commit an atrocity towards the Palestinian people, they know it will trigger a response.
This playbook of escalation is used in order to shift the public’s attention and unify the Israeli people against a “common enemy”. The entity’s politicians bask in the publicity boost and appearance of strength when they attack the Palestinians, especially during the holy month of Ramadan.
Netanyahu recently made a public appearance where he alluded to his unpopular standing and tensions created by his judicial reforms while saying,
“The internal struggle in ‘Israel’ will not stop us from responding wherever and whenever is necessary … [and] in moments of truth, the citizens of ‘Israel’ stand united and unified and support the actions of the army and the security forces to defend our country and our citizens.” [26]
This dangerous and misleading rhetoric has, and continues to work well for Netanyahu and other apartheid state politicians. However, as part of their calculus, they also take into account the response that they will provoke from Palestinians.
This time around, it seems that they have miscalculated the consequences of their transgressions as they have been facing retaliation in an unprecedented way across many fronts, including Gaza, the West Bank, Jerusalem, Lebanon, Syria, and even the occupied interior. [27]
Strength of Palestinian resistance organisationsThe resistance forces within Palestine, unlike before, are decentralised and do not answer to a single figure or central authority. [28]
Palestinians have grown disillusioned with the likes of Mahmoud Abbas and other political figures who have come to be seen as corrupt, greedy, apathetic, and treacherous towards the Palestinian cause. [29] Due to this, the popular support for some of the grassroots Palestinian resistance movements has grown.
Global rise in pro-Palestine supportIn addition to all of this, global opinion and sympathy for the apartheid state has been steadily declining.
For example, a Gallup survey this year showed that for the first time ever, the majority of US Democrats sympathise more with Palestine than with ‘Israel’. [30]
This is in large part due to on-the-ground voices and accounts of Zionist state crimes that have been amplified through social media. [31] This relatively new form of news has acted as a release from the choke-hold on reporting that mainstream media used to have.
High-wire actNetanyahu and the rest of the Israeli top brass are in a very precarious balancing act. They have managed to upset people from every corner of Israeli society, as well as trigger an unanticipated response from Palestinians.
Between their judicial reforms and the drama around them, the pressure from religious Zionist settlers, Netanyahu’s corruption charges, decreasing global support, and a Palestinian resistance that they considerably underestimated, the apartheid regime may have bitten off more than they could chew this time around. The outlook for the regime is bleak.
This Ramadan, we are praying – not only for peace in al-Aqsa during the holy month but also – for justice for a people who have been systematically stripped of it for almost a century.
Source: Islam21c
Notes
[2] Ki Ṭov, E. (1978). The Book of Our Heritage:The Jewish Year and Its Days of Significance. Feldheim Publishers.
[4] https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2016/03/08/israels-religiously-divided-society/
[5] Samson, D., & Fishman, T. (1991). Torat Eretz Yisrael. Torat Eretz Yisrael Publications.
[6] https://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/docs/12session/a-hrc-12-48.pdf
[7][7] https://www.jstor.org/stable/23524099
[8] Kaplan, E., Penslar, D. J., & Sorkin, D. J. (Eds.). (2011). The Origins of Israel, 1882–1948: A Documentary History. University of Wisconsin Press.
[9] https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2012/12/18/global-religious-landscape-jew/
[10] Segev, T. (2019). A State at Any Cost: The Life of David Ben-Gurion (H. Watzman, Trans.). Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
[11] https://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/14/books/so-was-it-odd-of-god.html?pagewanted=all
[13] https://www.timesofisrael.com/netanyahu-announces-his-sixth-government-israels-most-hardline-yet/
[14] https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/02/27/itamar-ben-gvir-israels-minister-of-chaos
[15] https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2021-12-22/ty-article/.highlight/israeli-kahanist-lawmaker-pulled-his-personal-gun-in-encounter-with-arab-guards/0000017f-db1d-d3a5-af7f-fbbfc3560000
[19] https://2009-2017.state.gov/documents/organization/45313.pdf
[20] https://www.timesofisrael.com/the-extremist-who-could-bring-kahanism-back-to-the-knesset/
[21] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jan/28/netanyahu-withdraws-immunity-from-prosecution-request
[26] https://youtu.be/gXXvgvcr6gM
[27] https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/4/9/israel-launches-artillery-attacks-on-syria-after-rocket-fire
[28] https://youtu.be/V1IabpQlBGw
[29] https://www.trtworld.com/magazine/what-s-behind-palestinian-frustration-with-mahmoud-abbas-46895
[30] https://www.axios.com/2023/03/16/democrats-sympathize-more-palestinians-israelis-gallup
[31] https://www.vox.com/22436208/palestinians-gaza-israel-tiktok-social-media
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