By Serene Thabet
Behind the world’s normalisation of Zionist crimes is Israel’s whitewashing attempts.
Palestinians have long been concerned over possible attempts to partition the holy Al Aqsa mosque, as was the case with Hebron’s Al-Ibrahimi Mosque. Over the years, there has been a growing Temple Movement, mostly led by “the extreme nationalistic religious Jewish right” that seeks to change the status quo, a report by NGO Terrestrial Jerusalem reveals.
Some call for Jewish prayer on the holy compound, while others aim to build the Third Temple over the ruins of the Dome of the Rock, which according to messianic belief would usher the coming of the messiah. These activists believe allowing Jewish prayer at the compound and dividing the holy site between Muslims and Jews would be a step towards asserting sovereignty, and eventually attaining their ultimate goal of building the temple. Thinking they can confuse the world into thinking sharing the third holiest site in Islam is a step to peace, Israelis are discarding the severity of what destroying Al Aqsa would be whilst trying to complete their establishment of their state.
In recent years, an increasing number of Jewish visitors have been attempting to pray at the site in violation of the status quo. The normalisation agreements come as Israeli authorities recently installed loudspeakers on the eastern and western side of the Al-Aqsa compound last week, without the permission of the Waqf.
The holy compound is administered by the Islamic Waqf, seated in Jordan. According to the status quo, Israel is only responsible for security outside of the gates. “The Israel police said it’s for security reasons, but we don’t really see this security reason,” Omar Kiswani, director of the Al-Aqsa compound, told Al Jazeera.
Since 2003, Israel has allowed settlers into the compound almost daily. As of last week, hundreds of Israeli settlers forced their way into the flashpoint Al-Aqsa Mosque complex in occupied East Jerusalem, according to a Palestinian agency, Anadolu News Agency reports.
In a statement, the Jordan-run Islamic Waqf Department, which oversees the holy sites in Jerusalem, said at least 216 settlers entered the site in groups under Israeli police protection. One of the guards at Al-Aqsa Mosque confirmed that “the Occupation forces stationed at the gates of Al-Aqsa Mosque prevented those under the age of 40 from entering to pray in Al-Aqsa Mosque. They have crackdown even further.”
These massive numbers stormings into Al-Aqsa Mosque came on the second day of Sukkot, in response to the calls issued by the Israeli settlement temple associations. This holiday lasted until 17th October, but Israeli settlers storm Al Aqsa daily under the protection of Israeli forces without being called upon by international law.
The extremist Jewish groups worked to mobilise the largest number of settlers to storm Al-Aqsa Mosque in the form of large groups, and the extremist Temple groups demanded that the storming crowds read the Torah loudly inside Al-Aqsa. Some texts were circulated to them. On this holiday, extremist Temple groups try to bring plant offerings into the Al-Aqsa Mosque during the incursions, in addition to continuing to perform Talmudic prayers and rituals in the courtyards of Al-Aqsa.
All of this coincides with the escalation of confrontations and tension inside the occupied city of Jerusalem, due to the escalation of the Israeli aggression against the Palestinian citizens. They have also closed some areas as they search for the person who carried out the Shuafat operation on Saturday evening, which led to the killing of a female soldier and the injury of two other soldiers, one of whom was apparently seriously wounded.
On social media platforms, there is an admiration for the Israeli economic success story, despite being boycotted by its Arab neighbours since its establishment. While Egypt and Jordan make no attempts to acknowledge at home their diplomatic ties with Israel, the Emirati government is actively branding the normalisation deal, particularly pointing to Israeli technological advances and futurist initiatives that could hold future vast payoffs for its citizens.
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) Embassy in Tel Aviv in September last year celebrated the first anniversary of the normalisation of relations with Israel. Israeli President Isaac Herzog is scheduled to visit Ankara on March 9 and meet with Turkish President Tayyip Erdoğan, aiming to launch a process of normalisation of ties between Israel and Turkey.
Recently, the international community were left surprised after hearing that Australia no longer considered West Jerusalem to be Israel’s capital. Despite countries newly seeking normalisation like Turkey seeking to normalise ties with Israel, there are glimpses of hope for the worldwide activists pressurising their governments to take action against the apartheid state.
Normalisation can be defined as pursuing policies (at the level of governments) or actions (at the level of individuals and groups) that treat Israel and the Israeli people as a normal part of the Middle East, ignoring the role of the Israeli state and Israeli citizens in the ethnic cleansing and displacement of Palestinians. Normalisation would seek to move forward with connections to Israel and Israelis without holding them accountable for ongoing crimes against the Palestinian people, all whilst world leaders turn their backs to the daily crimes Israel commits against the Palestinian people.
As of recently, there has been a surge in Israeli raids on Palestinian towns and villages, leading to daily clashes and arrests. Night raids are one of the methods adopted by the Israeli army to terrorise the loved ones of Palestinian detainees in their own houses. They are a way to hammer home the idea that even their safest spaces are not off-limits for Israeli soldiers, according to human rights organisations.
But how is peace possible when Israeli settlements are covertly and rapidly growing amidst the increasing waves of settler violence?
Settler violence and IOF brutality is totally normal and a story of everyday life for the occupied, because of the normalised narration of these crimes by the mainstream media aimed at brainwashing the public in a manner that makes them seem like it’s not a big deal. What adds to the desensitisation of everyday crimes against Palestinians are the normalisation ties between Israel and the Arab nations.
The peace agreements that Israel signed with the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain, Morocco, and Sudan in the second half of 2020 were immediately hailed as “normalisation” agreements by then-United States President Donald Trump and then-Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The use of this term was no accident, as it was meant to emphasise that in contrast to the peace agreements with Egypt, Jordan, and the PLO, which have translated into a cold peace, the new agreements would be warm, featuring ties between not only governments but also peoples. More than a year later, it appears that there are indeed significant differences between the old and new peace agreements.
Israel’s peace agreements with Egypt, Jordan, and the PLO have also seen warm periods—mainly when diplomatic relations were established—but it appears that there is a profound difference in how the agreements are realised. In other words, a cold peace is not necessarily the only model, and Arab-Israeli relations have seen other models of normalisation as well.
Israel’s strategy has always been to retain a qualitative military advantage over its neighbours, which has had the effect of making those states ineffective in maintaining internal stability.
Iraq’s parliament has passed a law that makes it a crime to normalise ties with Israel, and violations of the law can be punishable with a death sentence or life imprisonment. The law, titled “Criminalising Normalisation and Establishment of Relations with the Zionist Entity”, was approved on Thursday with 275 legislators voting in favour of it in Iraq’s 329-seat assembly.
Zionists, in other words Israeli settlers, are increasing in their violence against indigenous Palestinians all whilst gaining more and more control over Jerusalem, in particular Al Aqsa. It is not surprising that they are regularly seen alongside Israeli forces provoking and attacking Palestinian citizens, their normalised violence are simply representing the state’s violence in their pursuit to make the land a home for Israelis only.
TAKEN FROM:
Arab Center DC, Al Jazeera, Al Jazeera, INSS, JPost, Middle East Eye and Middle East Monitor.
The Palestine Observer 