Mosque of al Aqsa The Status Has Already Changed

I doubt after Netanyahu's fairy tale at the World Zionist Congress, when he exonerated Hitler and laid the blame for the Holocaust on the Mufti of Jerusalem that anyone, bar the United States Congress, will believe him.  This should especially be the case with the Temple Mount and the Mosque of Al Aqsa.  The status quo has, as Ben White says, already been changed.

The Golden Domed Al Aqsa Mosque

Before entering the Temple Mount, there is what is known as the Wailing Wall, the Western Wall apparently of the second temple.  In 1967 the Israel invaders demolished the Moroccan quarter in front of the wall in order to allow greater numbers of Jews to pray there.

Police damage in Mosque

Imagine for one minute that Muslims started demanding the right to pray at the Western 'Wailing' Wall.  There would be riots.  But that is exactly what is happening at the golden domed Mosque of Omar, the most beautiful signpost to Jerusalem.  The heathens, because that is what they are, of the Temple Mount Institute and Ateret Cohanim, who openly wish to demolish the mosque and make way for the Third Temple, complete with animal sacrifices, otherwise known as the religious Zionist settlers, have forced their way into the Mosque accompanied by dozens of Israeli soldiers firing stun grenades, assaulting Muslims who are praying and causing extensive damage.

The Mosque is the property of those responsible for maintaining it, the clerics of Islam in Jerusalem.  If they don't want anyone from another religion to even enter the Mosque that is their business.  It's not a synagogue or even a church it is a mosque.  Imagine if a group of Muslims in Britain decided to force their way into a synagogue under some bogus pretext or other.  The fact that Jewish people and others can visit the Mosque is or should be a decision solely for those who run and maintain the mosque.  The 'status quo' was itself forced upon the Mosque in 1967 and has been the subject of consistent attempts to overturn it.

In fact Orthodox Jews won't go onto the Temple Mount for fear of trespassing on the Holy of Holies, a capital crime in the Jewish religion, since god is supposed to reveal himself there to the High Priest.  To the messianic madmen of the Jewish religion this injunction means nothing since their real idol is the land of Israel.

Tony Greenstein

Don’t believe Bibi – Israel has already changed the ‘status quo’ at Al-Aqsa

Ben White

Friday, 23 October 2015 13:23

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly stated that his government has no intention of changing the ‘status quo’ at Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, and that claims to the contrary by Palestinians are either mistaken, or acts of deliberate deception.

Let us put aside for now the fact that the Israeli government and Jerusalem municipality fund radical Jewish groups actively dedicated to the ultimate goal of building a ‘Third Temple’ after the physical destruction of Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Let us also put aside the fact that there is well-documented support for the demands of right-wing Jewish activists’ amongst Israeli politicians – including cabinet ministers.

Instead, let us look at two particular statistical trends: restrictions on access for Muslim worshippers and the number of visits by Jewish activists to the compound.

According to official data from the Israeli police, the instances of access restrictions to Al-Aqsa Mosque compound for Muslim worshippers shot up in 2014.

Border Police

In 2012, age restrictions were imposed on Muslim worshippers on just three occasions, a figure that rose to eight in 2013. In 2014, however, Israeli authorities imposed age restrictions for Muslim worshippers on 41 occasions – a five-fold increase from the preceding year.

In addition, Israel closed the compound to all Muslim worshippers and visitors for one day on October 30, 2014, the first such full closure in 14 years.

The data, published four months ago by Emek Shaveh, an organization of archaeologists and community activists, also shows that the most common age restriction was for men under the age of 50, which has occurred 34 times from 2012-2014.

Emek Shaveh note how in 2014, “the Israeli police imposed age restrictions on worshipers 41 times”, which “amounts to nearly 15% of the year.” Thus, the group concludes, “the feeling among Palestinians that Israel is changing the status quo in the area” is actually “backed up by police data.”

Meanwhile, the number of Jews visiting Al-Aqsa Mosque compound has markedly risen over recent years. According to official police statistics, the number of Jewish visitors to the site in 2009 was 5,658 – in 2014, this had almost exactly doubled to 10,906.

Responding to these figures in January, an official from the Temple Institute, a prominent extremist group, said that the trend “demonstrate that the Jewish people are undergoing a spiritual awakening, and reconnecting – not only to their most holy site, but to their own destiny.”

In the words of Emek Shaveh, there is thus “a direct link between rising restrictions on visitors in 2013 and 2014 and increasing attempts by right-wing groups to upset the status quo in the area.”

According to UN OCHA, for “three consecutive weeks” in late August-September, Israeli authorities prevented “all Palestinian women, as well as all men under 50, from entering Al Aqsa Mosque Compound during the morning hours, to secure the entry of settlers and other Israeli groups.”
Writing in Ha’aretz on October 19, former Israeli negotiator Shaul Arieli cited a 2014 report on changes at the compound, which noted “significant changes” to Muslim worshippers’ access to Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, in parallel to the increase in Jewish visitors.

This increase in numbers is accompanied by the presence of Israeli MKs and ministers, some of whom [then-Likud MK Moshe Feiglin and then-Housing Minister Uri Ariel] give media interviews on the Mount and/or authorize Jewish prayer near the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa Mosque – actions that were forbidden in the past, but are now taking place under the auspices of the Israel Police.

Netanyahu can claim ‘incitement’ all he wants – the numbers are clear. When it comes to Al-Aqsa, as across the rest of Occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank, Israel has already changed the facts on the ground, and shows no signs of stopping.

Destruction of Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa mosque is Israeli groups’ ultimate goal

Ali Abunimah Rights and Accountability 16 September 2015

Over the last three days, Palestinians have come under fierce attack as they attempted with their bare hands, sticks and stones to deter and prevent repeated violent assaults by Israeli occupation forces into Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa mosque compound.

The violence comes as Israeli-backed groups bent on replacing the mosque with a Jewish temple are asserting their presence ever more aggressively.

Dozens of Palestinians were injured by Israeli forces who fired stun grenades, tear gas canisters and rubber-coated steel bullets at worshipers, Ma’an News Agency reported.

Early on Monday, Israeli forces forcibly expelled Palestinians from the Bab al-Silsila entrance to the compound in occupied East Jerusalem, activist Khadija Khuwais told the local news agency Q Press.

The video at the top of this post, produced by Q Press, shows more of the violent attacks by Israeli forces against journalists and other civilians as well as the firing of stun grenades inside mosque buildings.

By Wednesday, confrontations between Palestinian youths and Israeli forces were spreading to other areas of occupied Jerusalem.

Palestinians have published many images and videos of the violence on social media.

Jewish temple plans

The increasingly violent Israeli incursions at one the most revered holy sites for Muslims have accompanied the rise in recent years of so-called “Temple activism” groups.

These are organizations whose ultimate and clearly stated goal is the construction of a Jewish “Third Temple” to replace the currently existing structures that make up al-Aqsa mosque.

A 2013 report by the Israeli research organization Ir Amim noted that “the Jerusalem Municipality and other government ministries directly fund and support various activist organizations driven by the mission to rebuild the temple.”

The Temple Institute, the leading extremist organization of its kind, has already formulated detailed blueprints for the new Jewish temple.

A leading figure in the Temple movement is Yehuda Glick, an American settler who was shot and injured by an unidentified gunman after he spoke last October at a conference titled “The Jewish people return to the Temple Mount.”

Hours after the shooting, Israeli forces extrajudicially executed Mutaz Hijazi, a 32-year-old Palestinian they claimed without presenting evidence had been Glick’s assailant.

The latest violence was provoked Sunday by the entry of Jewish extremists into the compound, among them Israeli agriculture minister Uri Ariel.

A prominent figure among Israeli settlers, Ariel called in 2013 for the building of a Jewish temple at the al-Aqsa compound, known to Jews as “Temple Mount.”

“We’ve built many little, little temples,” Ariel said, “but we need to build a real temple on the Temple Mount.”

Many Palestinians fear that the incursions are aimed, as a preliminary step, at changing the longstanding status quo at the mosque. Already, Israeli occupation forces shut the mosque to Muslim worshippers on certain Jewish holy days – Israel is currently marking the start of the Jewish new year.

The latest assaults also come as Muslims around the world prepare for the holiday marking Haj, the annual pilgrimage to Mecca.

One tactic Israel has used more frequently to facilitate the incursions is to issue banning orders against Palestinian volunteers, known as murabitoun, whose goal is to maintain a constant presence at the compound.

The next step many fear could be a physical partition of the compound between Jews and Muslims, following the model Israel imposed on the Ibrahimi mosque in Hebron after the 1994 massacre by an American-born Jewish settler of 29 Palestinian men and boys who were performing Ramadan prayers.

Dangerous precedent

There is a recent precedent for the destruction of a holy site of one religious group by supporters of another, with calamitous geopolitical consquences.

In 1992, Hindu nationalists in India destroyed the 400-year-old Babri mosque in the northern city of Ayodhya, which they believe was built over the ruins of a temple marking the birthplace of their god Lord Ram.

The violence this provoked killed thousands of people, exacerbating sectarianism and communalism in India to this day.

The destruction of the Babri mosque offers an ominous warning of what could happen if Israeli government-backed Jewish nationalists attempt to fulfill their desire to replace al-Aqsa with a Jewish temple.

But the violence it would trigger would have global consequences and likely make the bloodbath in India pale in comparison.

International inaction

Given what is at stake, the international neglect of what Israel is doing in Jerusalem is alarming.

Israel is testing the limits of what it can get away with.

Last year, for instance, during its 51-day assault, Israel destroyed the Omari mosque in Gaza, one of the most ancient in Palestine, with no international response.

Jordan, which maintains a nominal role in managing al-Aqsa since its 1994 peace treaty with Israel, has warned that Israel’s actions, if not stopped, will affect ties between the two countries.

But such warnings in the past have not resulted in any meaningful actions by the kingdom, which maintains close ties with the self-declared Jewish state.

The European Union issued one of its typical weak statements, failing to point to Israel’s primary responsibility for the crisis as the occupying power.

“The reported violence and escalation [at the site] constitute a provocation and incitement” ahead of important Jewish and Muslim holy days, European Commission spokesperson Maja Kocijancic told media in Brussels on Tuesday.

“It is crucial that all parties demonstrate calm and restraint and full respect for the status quo of the holy sites,” she said.

The UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Nickolay Mladenov warned the UN Security Council on Tuesday that recent events had “the potential to ignite violence well beyond the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem.”

But he too stressed that “all sides have a responsibility to refrain from provocative actions and rhetoric” – failing to call for the occupying power to be held accountable.

The US State Department said that it was “deeply concerned by the recent violence and escalating tensions.”

“We strongly condemn all acts of violence,” the US government said. “It is absolutely critical that all sides exercise restraint, refrain from provocative actions and rhetoric, and preserve unchanged the historic status quo on the Haram Al-Sharif/Temple Mount in word and in practice.”

The phrase “deeply concerned” is a formula the US has used routinely to criticize Israeli actions, such as the expansion of colonies on occupied Palestinian land.

In every past case it has meant, in practice, that the US will do absolutely nothing to restrain the Israeli aggressions it is condemning.

The Attack on Al Aqsa - as Settlers Plan its Division

Netanyahu seeks to impose a new reality at Al-Aqsa

Jonathan Cook

5 October 2015

Al Aqsa mosque

Since a boy named David slew the giant Goliath with a slingshot, the stone has served as an enduring symbol of how the weak can defeat an oppressor.

For the past month Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has tried to rewrite the Bible story by declaring war on what he terms Palestinian “terrorism by stones”.

Palestinian youth throw stones at Israeli police goons

There are echoes of Yitzhak Rabin’s response nearly 30 years ago when, as defence minister, he ordered soldiers to “break bones” to stop a Palestinian uprising, often referred to as the “intifada of stones”, against the Israeli occupation.

Al Aqsa Mosque

Terrified by the symbolism of women and children throwing stones at one of the world’s strongest armies, Rabin hoped broken arms would deprive Palestinians of the power to wield their lowly weapon.

Israeli border police thugs in action

Now the West Bank and Jerusalem are on fire again, as Palestinian youths clash with the same oppressors. Reports suggest soldiers killed one Palestinian youth and injured more than 100 others on Sunday alone.

The touchpaper is Israel’s transgressions at the al-Aqsa mosque compound, known as Haram Al Sharif, in Jerusalem’s Old City. During the weeks of Israel’s high holidays, tensions have risen sharply. Israeli government ministers and ever larger numbers of Jewish ultra-nationalists, backed by paramilitary forces, have been ascending to the mosque area.

Police and military deliberately damage mosque

In parallel, Palestinian access has been restricted and settlers have stepped up seizures of homes in occupied East Jerusalem to encircle al-Aqsa.

Palestinians believe Israel is asserting control over the site to change the status quo.

Israel refers to the Haram as the Temple Mount, because the ruins of two ancient Jewish temples supposedly lie underneath. As Israel has swung to the right politically and religiously, government and settler circles have been swept by an aggressive Jewish messianism.

Palestinian efforts to resist have been limited. Israel has long barred Palestinian factions and organisations from any dealings in the city it calls its “eternal capital”.

The situation at al-Aqsa has come to symbolise the Palestinian story of dispossession.

The mosque has also served as a red line, both because it is a powerful cause that unites all Palestinians, including Christians and the secular, and because it rallies the wider Arab world to the Palestinians’ side.

But like Goliath, the Israeli prime minister appears to assume greater force will win.

First, he outlawed last month a group of Islamic students, many of them women, known as the Murabitoun, stationed at Al Aqsa. They had not even resorted to stones. Their crime was to try to deter Jewish extremists from praying at the site by crying “God is great”.

Then, Israeli police stormed the compound to evict youths who had barricaded themselves in. Severe restrictions on access to al-Aqsa followed.

As youngsters took to the streets, Netanyahu authorised live fire against stone-throwers in Jerusalem, and minimum four-year jail sentences for those arrested.

Predictably, violence has not calmed but spiralled. On Saturday night a Palestinian youth stabbed to death two Jewish settlers who had been visiting the Western Wall, near al-Aqsa.

Israel has described such incidents as “lone-wolf attacks”. In truth, these unpredictable outbursts of violence are the inevitable result of the orphaned status of Palestinians in Jerusalem.

Israel responded with another unprecedented move. Palestinians were banned from the Old City for the following 48 hours unless they lived or worked there. Israel’s track record suggests this will soon become the new norm.

Netanyahu also approved fast-track demolitions of Palestinian homes, more soldiers in Jerusalem and even tighter restrictions at al-Aqsa.

So where is this heading?

Doubtless, Netanyahu is in part proving his credentials to an ever more religious and intolerant Israeli public. After Saturday’s deaths, Jewish mobs once again patrolled Jerusalem’s streets seeking vengeance.

But he is also cynically exploiting western fears to reinvent the David and Goliath story. He hopes the words “Islamic terrorism” – conjuring up ISIL’s threats to religious freedom – will scotch western sympathy for Palestinian youths facing armed soldiers.

Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, warned in his speech to the UN last week that Israeli measures were “aimed at imposing a new reality and dividing Haram Al Sharif temporally”.

These are not idle fears. In 1994 Israel capitalised on a horrific massacre of Palestinians perpetrated by a Jewish settler at the Ibrahimi mosque in Hebron to justify dividing it. Today, Jews have prayer rights at the site, enforced by Israeli guns, and central Hebron has been turned into a ghost-town – much as Jerusalem’s Old City looks since the weekend ban on entry for Palestinians.

Most Palestinians fear an Israeli-engineered spiral of violence will be used to impose a similar division at al-Aqsa. There is little Abbas can do. His Palestinian Authority is barred from Jerusalem and committed to helping Israeli security elsewhere. Like the Muslim world, he watches helplessly from afar.

Which is why Palestinian youths will continue reaching for the humble stone, exerting what little power they have against a modern Goliath.

Imagine if this were a synagogue

5,571182

Just imagine if this were a synagogue in say Iran (which has the largest Jewish community in the Middle East outside Israel).  Dozens of security forces invade the place of worship, fire tear gas and stun grenades, injure a number of worshippers and cause much destruction.

What would be the reaction?  Many people would undoubtedly start drawing an analogy with Krystalnacht, the Nazi pogrom in Germany in November 1938.  People would undoubtedly cry 'anti-Semitism' and quite rightly so.  We would have Obama, Cameron and other hypocrites decrying this attack on the right to worship of peaceful Jews.  Yet what is the reaction to what Israel has done?  Nothing, except silence.

Of course none of this excuses the murderous Saudi regime, busy slaughtering fellow Muslims in Yemen and causing an utter human rights catastrophe there.  They are supposed to be the protectors of Muslim places of worship but in practice their only concern is how best to loot Arab oil wealth and keep their own population and migrant workers under the thumb.

Tony Greenstein

Israeli forces, right-wingers storm Aqsa Mosque compound

July 26, 2015 10:04 A.M. (Updated: July 27, 2015 5:42 P.M.) 

(MaanImages)

JERUSALEM (Ma'an) -- Israeli forces broke into Al-Aqsa Mosque compound Sunday morning firing stun grenades and rubber-coated steel bullets at Muslim worshipers as they cleared way for right-wing Jews who were visiting the compound to mark a Jewish fast day, witnesses said.

Uri Ariel MK from Jewish Home was allegedly one of the invaders

Dozens of Palestinian worshipers were reportedly hit with rubber-coated bullets and suffered excessive tear gas inhalation, while Israeli police officers were reported to have attacked worshipers with pepper spray, rods and rifle butts.

At least three Palestinians were reportedly detained.

The officers entered the compound through the Moroccan Gate, Chain Gate and Hutta Gate and clashed with worshipers, witnesses said, before Israeli soldiers then shut down the compound’s gates with chains.

Israeli soldiers also reportedly stormed Al-Aqsa Mosque itself and fired rubber-coated bullets inside the holy site. The compound's Palestinian security guards were assaulted and prevented from moving, witnesses said.

Israeli police claimed that they entered the mosque after "masked rioters" threw stones at them, "with the aim of preventing further injury to police."

Israeli media reported that four police officers were injured, with two moved to hospital for treatment.

As the clashes subsided, right-wing Jews began to make their way into the compound in groups via the Moroccan gate.

Israel's minister of agriculture, Uri Ariel, was reportedly among the right-wingers to tour the compound under heavy police escort. Ariel is a member of Naftali Bennett's ultra-right Jewish Home party.

(Islamic Endowment)

(MaanImages)

Israeli police said that a young Jewish man on Sunday attempted to enter while wearing phylacteries -- small leather boxes containing sacred texts worn by Orthodox men at prayer.

When told to remove them, the man resisted and grabbed hold of railings, biting a policeman who tried to remove him before he was arrested.

Sunday marked Tisha B'Av, an annual Jewish fast day that commemorates the destruction of the First and Second Jewish Temples. The fast day is considered the saddest day in the Jewish calendar.

Earlier in the morning, Israeli forces imposed strict restrictions on entry of Palestinians Muslim worshipers into the compound.

Witnesses said that at dawn, Israeli officers allowed only women and men over the age of 50 to enter the compound. After 6:30 a.m. all Palestinians were reportedly denied entry.

The Al-Aqsa Mosque compound has seen rising tensions in recent days, with Jewish organizations calling for the compound to be open to Jews for the week after Tisha B'Av and others seeking to celebrate unconfirmed reports that Israel is negotiating the reopening of the compound to non-Muslim worship.

At the end of June, International Crisis Group reported discussions between Israel and the Islamic Endowment that controls the mosque compound on allowing non-Muslim worship at the site, although the move has not yet been confirmed.

The third holiest site in Islam, the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound is also venerated as Judaism's most holy place as it sits where Jews believe the First and Second Temples once stood.

Following Israel's occupation of East Jerusalem in 1967, Israel has maintained an agreement with the Islamic Endowment not to allow non-Muslim prayer in the area.

Jewish prayer is allowed at the neighboring Western Wall, which is the last remnant of the Second Temple.

However, Israeli forces regularly escort Jewish visitors to Al-Aqsa, leading to anger among Muslim worshipers.

The last time Israeli police entered the mosque itself, in November last year, Jordan -- one of the very few Arab states with diplomatic relations with Israel -- recalled its ambassador.

AFP contributed to this report.

Zionist Pogrom in Jerusalem

Israeli Police Tell Palestinians to Shut Their Shops as they Protect Settler Violence and Racism

Every year Jerusalem day is the pretext for an orgy of hate and violence from settler mobs, aided and abetted by the Israeli Police and Border Guards.  This year a legal attempt was made to secure an injunction by the Supreme Court rejected that, despite the video evidence from last year.  The Deputy Chief Justice confronted with the evidence simply expressed pious wishes that the Police would exercise zero tolerance towards those who chanted ‘Death to the Arabs’ and similar slogans. 

I’ve included a number of reports and videos from a variety of sources to show the flavour of the day.  

There was a contingent from Lehava, dedicated to preventing pure Jewish women being ensnared by wily, predator Arab men.  An image that is derived directly from the Nuremburg Laws 1935.  There have, of course, been no condemnations by ‘mainstream’ Israeli politicians such as Netanyahu.

As that great Orthodox scholar and Professor at the Hebrew University, Yeshayahu Leibowitz said, religious-nationalism is the direct opposite of religion.  He first coined the term ‘Judeo Nazis’ to describe the little pogromists that are evident in the videos.  Israel and Zionism have taken the Bible and fashioned it into a nationalist creed and used  the bits they agree with (never the Prophets!) to legitimise their racist and fascist sentiments.

Whereas previously, under Labour Zionism and Begin, there was an attempt to keep the racism hidden from view, today it is on display for all to see.  In some ways we should be grateful for the fact that there is no pretence anymore but Palestinians are paying a  high price for this.

Tony Greenstein

Video: Israeli mobs celebrate “Jerusalem Day” with anti-Palestinian rampage in Old City

Submitted by Ali Abunimah on Mon, 05/18/2015 - 11:48

Lehava' s gang, "Jerusalem day", 17.5.2015

Note: To see 
Thousands of young Israelis, many of them children, rampaged through the Old City of occupied Jerusalem on Sunday chanting “Death to the Arabs” and other racist and anti-Muslim slogans.
Some attacked bystanders and journalists and banged on the shutters of Palestinian stores that had been ordered to close at midday.

The mob march was the climax of “Jerusalem Day,” an Israeli national holiday to celebrate the occupation of the eastern part of the city in 1967. Zionist militias ethnically cleansed and captured the western sector of Jerusalem in 1948.

Under international law, Israel’s purported annexation of Jerusalem following the 1967 conquest is null and void and is not recognized by any country in the world.

Racist chants

Sunday’s violent scenes began as occupation forces allowed large numbers of religious and nationalist Israeli Jews to flow into into the area of the Damascus Gate in the late afternoon.
This is an entrance to the walled Old City that was long a bustling market for Palestinians from surrounding villages until Israel made access to the city virtually impossible for millions of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

Israelis, many chanting racist slogans, rally at the Damascus Gate before marching into Jerusalem’s Old City, 17 May.(Charlotte Silver)

Groups of young men and boys banded together in circles, chanting and dancing.

The atmosphere quickly shifted to that of an angry mob, which first turned on two women who held the Palestinian flag and then, with increasing frequency, toward random Palestinian bystanders and journalists, according to The Electronic Intifada’s Charlotte Silver, who reported from the scene.

Haaretz published a video of a mob attacking a Jordanian television crew and The Times of Israel captured video of young Israelis harassing a female journalist and preventing her from speaking to her cameraperson.

Many sang Bible verses set to popular music, often embellished or altered to justify Israeli rule over Palestinians. Among the numerous racist slogans was “A Jew is a soul, an Arab is a son of a whore.”
The frenzied, sustained and widespread nature of the racist vitriol is documented in a large amount of footage obtained by The Electronic Intifada, only a small part of which is included in this post. This video, shot by the Jerusalem resident known as Zalameh, provides a good sense of the mixture of Jewish extremism and outright racism on display:

Israeli mob chants anti-Palestinian slogans in occupied Jerusalem

The video also shows two women holding a Palestinian flag being verbally abused.
But Israeli Border Police on horseback, armed with sound bombs and guns, kept most Palestinians out of the Damascus Gate area. Police monitored the crowd, attempting to intervene when a pack of marchers would attack someone, Silver said.

“May they all die”

In this video, several youths who spoke to Silver make virulently racist comments. One says that they had come to celebrate the “liberation of Jerusalem from the Palestinians,” others chiming in with “may their memory be erased.”

"Jerusalem Day" at Damascus Gate (occupied East Jerusalem), 17 May 2015

“May they all die today, all together,” another interjects. A child asserts repeatedly that Jerusalem was “liberated” from “the donkeys.”

Similar expressions could be heard throughout the day from the chanting mobs.

Israel expert Dena Shunra notes that the curse calling for someone’s name or memory to be erased was typically used for enemies as despised as Adolf Hitler; its use by Jewish youths against Palestinians is an indicator of extreme levels of hatred.

While deeply disturbing, children cannot be held responsible for spouting such views. But the large number of children participating in the hate march underscores the systematic indoctrination and anti-Palestinian incitement to which Israeli youth are exposed.

Jewish women as Jewish “goods”

The marchers then entered the Old City, charging down the narrow streets which are usually full of Palestinian business owners and shoppers.

Members of the anti-miscengenation group Lehava, some again appearing to be very young, also took part in the march, shouting “Arab beware – my sister is not abandoned goods” (see video at the top of this post).

They also chanted, “Girls of Israel, for the Nation of Israel [Jews].”

These are warnings to Palestinian men to stay away from Jewish women who are described, in effect, as property exclusively available to Jewish men.

Religious hatred

The same marchers can also be heard singing “Kahane still lives” to the tune of a popular religious-nationalist song, “Our Father Still Lives” – which refers to Abraham.

Meir Kahane, the assassinated Brooklyn rabbi who founded the the Jewish Defense League, is thus elevated almost to the level of a biblical patriarch.

Kahane also founded Kach – an organization so racist and extreme that even in Israel it was outlawed and classified as a terrorist group.

He is most remembered for his demand that the entire Palestinian population be expelled from lands occupied by Israel.

Voices can also be heard chanting that the Muslim prophet Muhammad was a “homo” and a “son of a whore,” among other slogans calculated to provoke and denigrate.

The expressions of virulent, even genocidal, hatred for Palestinians are reminiscent of the “Death to the Arabs” marches in the city which culminated in the abduction and burning alive of Palestinian teen Muhammad Abu Khudair last July.

Demolish Jerusalem’s mosques

A leaflet distributed at a “Jerusalem Day” march calls on the Israeli government to “bring down” the al-Aqsa mosque so it can be replaced with a Jewish temple.(Charlotte Silver)

Jewish extremist organizations handed out leaflets demanding that the Israeli government demolish Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock to make way for a Jewish Third Temple in their place.

The destruction of the al-Aqsa mosque, one of the holiest places for Muslims, is a long-standing goal of some Israeli Jewish organizations backed and financed by the Israeli government.

The leaflet in the picture, collected at the Sunday march, states:

In honor of Jerusalem Day, we all demand of the Israeli government: to bring down the mosques on the Temple Mount so that we can build the Temple and renew the offering of sacrifices.

It is signed by an organization called “Returning to the [Temple] Mount.”

The atmosphere of intense hatred and religious-nationalist chauvinism was no doubt encouraged by a declaration from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that “Jerusalem was always the capital of the Jewish people alone – and not of any other nation.”

The march culminated in a mass rally at the Western Wall, attended by education minister Naftali Bennett, leader of the Jewish Home (Habayit Hayehudi) party among other government figures.
With thanks to Dena Shunra for translation and analysis.

Netanyahu: Jerusalem was always the capital ‘of the Jewish people alone’

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends the Jerusalem Day celebration at the Mercaz Harav yeshiva in Jerusalem, on May 17, 2015. (Photo: Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed Jerusalem has always been the capital “of the Jewish people alone, not of any other people” at a Jerusalem Day ceremony on Ammunition Hill, in Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem on May 17.

“Jerusalem won’t become once again a wounded and bisected city,” he continued. “We will forever keep Jerusalem united under Israeli sovereignty.”

Netanyahu pledged to “continue to build and nurture [Jerusalem], to expand her neighborhoods.”

The prime minister has long insisted that Israel must control East Jerusalem. In the same celebration in 2010, he maintained that “We cannot divide or freeze a city as vibrant and creative as Jerusalem – we will continue to build and be built by it” and averred “We are the generation which was lucky enough to see our holy sites liberated and returned to our hands, and it is upon us to transfer this right to our children.”

Jerusalem Day, celebrated every year on the 28th day of Iyar, the second month in the Jewish calendar, commemorates what Israel calls the “reunification” of  Jerusalem.

Extremist Israelis mark the day every year by marching through the Old City of occupied Jerusalem chanting racist and anti-Muslim slogans like “Death to the Arabs.”

Journalist Charlotte Silver, reporting from the 2015 commemoration for The Electronic Intifada, interviewed Israelis who proclaimed “May they all [the Palestinians] die today, all together.” A young Israeli applauded Israel for liberating Jerusalem from “the donkeys.” Another expressed hope that the memory of the Palestinians who were ethnically cleansed from Jerusalem will be “erased.”

Israeli leftists protest a Jerusalem Day march on 17 May 2015. (Photo: AFP/Gali Tibbon)

Several hundred Israeli leftists protested the march, chanting slogans such as “Jerusalem will not be silent, outlaw racism.” The activists, largely from the left-wing organization Jerusalem Won’t Tolerate Racism, dubbed the demonstration a “march of hate,” and held signs reading “Jews and Arabs refuse to be enemies” (red sign in Hebrew above) and “We are against incitement. We are against racism” (purple sign in Arabic above).

Decades of Illegal Occupation

Israel militarily occupied East Jerusalem in 1967. For decades, the United Nations has insisted that this occupation is illegal. “Israel’s unilateral annexation of East Jerusalem and the surrounding West Bank hinterland contravenes international law. It is not recognized by the international community which considers East Jerusalem an integral part of the occupied Palestinian territory,” the UN maintains, citing Security Council resolutions 252, 267, 471, 476, and 478.

“Since 1967, Israeli measures have altered the status of East Jerusalem and affected the residency status of Palestinians, their access to basic services, and their ability to plan and develop their communities,” the UN continues.

“Israeli settlement activity in East Jerusalem is illegal and occurs at the expense of land and resources for Palestinian construction and development, placing residents at risk of forced eviction, displacement and dispossession,” the UN also notes. “As the occupying power, Israel is responsible for administering the occupied territory for the benefit of the protected Palestinian population.”

Attacked Journalists

Palestinian photojournalist Nidal Ashtiyeh was shot in the face by Israeli occupation forces on 17 May 2015. (Photo: Ahmad Talat Hassan)

Israeli police assaulted and broke the cameras of Palestinian journalists who were filming the Jerusalem Day protests. The reporters say they had the proper accreditation to film the march, but were attacked anyway.

A journalist reported that Israeli police evacuated the area and refused to allow anyone except Israeli settlers in.

Just a few days before, on 15 May, Israeli occupation forces shot a Palestinian journalist in the face with a rubber-coated steel bullet. The man had been photographing a Nakba Day protest. He was wearing a gas mask, the glass of which the bullet shattered, wounding his left eye.

RT crew attacked by Israeli police in Jerusalem (VIDEO)

Published time: May 17, 2015 18:11
Edited time: May 19, 2015 06:30

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 a terrible time we had to pass through check points that they erected everywhere along the Old City, they asked us to move away from the Damascus gate point. They didn't do it gently, they pushed us and broke our camera,” RT Arabic reporter Dalia Nammari later told RT International.An RT Arabic TV crew was attacked by Israeli police while covering the Jerusalem Day march in the Old City. Although the journalists had all documents permitting them to cover the event, the police prevented them from going live.

The reporter added that other journalists covering the event were treated the same “brutal” way by the Israeli police.

Dalia Nammari and the cameraman Muhammad Aishu were filming the march of settlers, which they had been accredited to, when the police interfered with their work and took away the camera. The crew continued to report from the scene using a smart phone and going on air live via Skype, when the police attacked them again.

Screenshot from RT video

“They took away my earpiece ... they are demanding from everyone – even journalists, to evacuate the area. Even Palestinians who live in the city can’t be present here because of the settlers’ march,” Nammari said.

The Israeli settlers took to the streets of Jerusalem to mark the day when Israel occupied the eastern side of Jerusalem in 1967, Nammari reported. Many were carrying posters reading “Jerusalem for Israelis.”

Read morePolice fire tear gas during demo against racism, police brutality in Tel Aviv (VIDEO)

The controversial Israeli march through Jerusalem and its Muslim quarters is an annual event, marking the anniversary of Israel's capture of East Jerusalem. Police estimated that more than 30,000 Israelis took part in this year's rally, Reuters reported. They marched through the areas of the city, the overall population of which includes more than 30 percent of Palestinians.

The march resulted in confrontations, with mounted Israeli police clashing with dozens of rock-throwing Palestinians, who were protesting the Jewish nationalists march, Reuters reported. Two officers were injured and six Palestinians were arrested, police sources said.

The RT Arabic crew managed to film some of the clashes before being assaulted themselves by Israeli police.

Read more​RT office in Ramallah raided by IDF

Brutal attacks by Israeli law enforcement are “rare to be filmed, but not rare to happen,” Sarit Michaelli of the Israeli info center for human rights has previously told RT.

On Saturday, a Palestinian journalist suffered at the hands of the Israeli army, being shot in the eye with a rubber bullet. The photojournalist was taking pictures during a march to commemorate Nakba, or Catastrophe Day, when Palestinians were displaced in the creation of Israel.

“This is a usual behavior for the Israeli army against journalists and against peaceful non-violent Palestinian demonstrators,” Mustafa Barghouti, General Secretary of the Palestine National Initiative told RT.

“During the last attack on Gaza less than a year ago the Israeli army killed 18 journalists including an Italian journalist in their attack on the Palestinian people. So this violation of the freedom of expression and violation of the right of journalists to cover what happens is a frequent behavior of the Israeli army which respects nobody,” Barghouti told RT, adding that this time the clashes happened during celebrations of annexation of East Jerusalem, which is “considered illegal by every international law.”

Last year, Israeli forces raided a building in Ramallah where the offices of several media outlets, including RT's Arabic channel, were located. The troops broke down the doors of the offices, destroyed some of the equipment and confiscated records.