The day after Netanyahu declared the Ibrahimi Mosque/Cave of the Patriarchs holy site in Hebron as an "Israeli national heritage site", Mustafa Barghouti visited the mosque. After his visit, I caught Dr. Barghouti on film explaining how this decision to incorporate two sites in Occupied Palestinian Territory – this site and Bilal Mosque or Rachel’s Tomb in Bethlehem – continued the Israeli process of "gradual annexation" of the West Bank. I continued filming Dr. Barghouti as he exited through one of the checkpoints that Palestinians are required to pass through to visit the Ibrahimi Mosque.
While the New York Times and other major U.S. news outlets have highlighted competing religious claims to understand the tension arising from the "Israeli national heritage plan", Barghouti compellingly articulates the political rationale of the Netanyahu announcement. Barghouti called it a "clear cut provocation" and continuation of policy.
And what about the argument that this is simply "about renovating important historical and religious sites of the Jewish people," as Netanyahu’s spokesman Mark Regev has said, and affirming the importance of these sites to Jewish heritage?
The problem with this logic is that land in Hebron, Bethlehem, or anywhere else in the Occupied Palestinian Territories is not Israeli national territory. Israel has no more right to unilaterally nationalize Jewish heritage sites in the West Bank than it does to unilaterally nationalize The Great Synagogue of Florence in Italy. While no one would take seriously a unilateral Israeli decision to declare a synagogue in Europe as Israeli national property, such a declaration in Occupied Palestinian Territory inflames the conflict and jeopardizes the very notion of any prospects for future Palestinian sovereignty over Palestinian territory.
Barghouti points out that what is particularly provocative is the fact that this declaration comes after a series of Netanyahu’s claims of entitlement to annex Palestinian land:
Claim 1:
"Jerusalem is not for negotiations and it will remain unified as a Jewish city"
Claim 2:
"Settlement blocs will become part of Israel"
Claim 3:
After President Abbas warned that Israel’s nationalization of West Bank heritage sites could spark a new war, Netanyahu’s spokesman Mark Regev dismissed ascribing such importance to this declaration, stating that "this is not in anyway changing the status quo".
It remains to be seen whether Ibrahimi Mosque/Cave of the Patriarch’s status as an "Israeli national heritage site" will affect Palestinian access to the fourth holiest Muslim site in the heart of one of the largest Palestinian cities. Barghouti pointed out that the declaration was ominously made only four days before the 16th anniversary of the massacre committed by an Israeli settler who killed 29 Palestinians. After the massacre the Israeli government divided the mosque, prohibiting Palestinians from using the part that is now used as a synagogue outside of specified holidays.
But even if the decision doesn’t affect access, the Israeli nationalist claim is certainly a step Netanyahu has taken to further entrench the status quo where Israel controls all Palestinian access to a holy site deep in Occupied Palestinian Territory.
Katya Reed is the nom-de-plume of a journalist based in Bethlehem, West Bank, Occupied Palestine.
Good report, Katya. Thanks for relaying this information.
Anyone who thinks Israel will allow free access to non-Jews should look at the free access to the Christian holy places in Jerusalem during Easter, not to mention the regular restrictions of access to the Al-Aqsa Mosque.
Jewish interests will always and totally trump those of any other religion.
Please elaborate on these restrictions to Christian holy places in Jerusalem. Does it compare to the Jews being banned from the Western Wall between 1948 – 1967?
Do you mean these Christians?
link to ynetnews.com
SEE – JERUSALEM MUSEUM OF TOLERANCE TO DESECRATE MUSLIM CEMETERY, By Richard Silversein, 11/10/09
link to richardsilverstein.com
AND SEE – HALACHA AND DISHONORING THE DEAD: JERUSALEM MUSEUM OF TOLERANCE SITE, By Richard Silversein, 11/12/09
link to richardsilverstein.com
RE: “Richard Silversein”
SHOULD HAVE BEEN: Richard Silverstein
P.S. Do we need any further proof that Israel cannot be trusted with Jerusalem.
RE: “Does it compare to the Jews being banned from the Western Wall between 1948 – 1967?” – yonira
MY COMMENT: At least the Jordanians didn’t “bulldoze”* it! Was that their big mistake, yonira?
* dismantle it and sink the stones in the deepest part of the ocean
They would have bulldozed it if there wasn’t a very special mosque on top.
Your forgetting the 1400 years of time when Muslims allowed Jews to worship at the temple mount unhindered Yonira. Your also forgetting that it was these same pesky Muslims that allowed the Jews to return to Jerusalem after they were driven out by the Byzantines, and again after they were massacred by the crusaders.
The Jordanians blocked access to EJ for a mere 2 decades, and this was because Jordan was at war with Israel, and wouldn’t allow Israeli nationals to cross into their territory.
In any case the people whom are Palestinian today have a longer and better history of sharing the holy sites than do the Israelis who have made it virtually impossible for the majority of Palestinians to access their own holy sites in their own territory.
Seriously, drop the propaganda bullshit Yonira.
Speak of propoganda… Jews allow Muslims pray in each and every one of the mosques in Israel while Jews are not allowed to pray on Temple Mountain, the holiest site for Jews, a site which was holy for Jews 1600 years before Mohammed broke his treaty with the Jews who saved his life – and killed them.
I’m sure they still plan to, yonira … since the zio-fascist scum don’t care a whit that they are putting the world on the verge of WWIII with their endless war crimes and heinous selfish arrogant actions
Americans knew exactly what we were doing when we elected Barack Hussein Obama – we expect him to put israel in its place and there are some indications, finally, that he will do it … israel will comply with U.S. objectives and national interests and those agents and operatives of israel in the U.S. that work to undermine U.S. interests will finally be declared and treated like what they are: agents and operatives of a foreign government
The generals and Obama have come up with a plan – the U.S. will impose a peace arrangement upon israel and they will comply or we will cut off the money and weapons and if need be use force to impose our will
israel has caused enough trouble for too long
If this is so, what will the imposed terms be? Something like those of Taba?
Wrong as usual yonira. The mosque sits on top of a big strong rock that needs no support from that crummy old wall.
you guys are a walking contradiction, I am sure the Wafq doesn’t agree with you.
No, yonira, not those tourist Christians.
how bout these Christians?
keep digging potsherd…..
link to ynetnews.com
James, that’s a very good point. I’m glad you brought it up.
Did you see Juan Cole’s article about that very topic? I found it to be a great read and as you’ve already said, Muslims ALLOWED Jews to return to Jerusalem after the latter were massacred and driven out by the Crusaders. The same happened in Spain where Muslims actually protected the Jewish minority during the inquisition.
The bottom line any propagandist should take from this is that the rift between Jews and Muslims is a Zionist creation, a myth, conjured to facilitate colonialism in Palestine.
Only the ignorant and uneducated would continue to peddle the lies promoted by the Zionist movement.
Here’s Juan Cole’s great article about WHO’s got a better claim on Jerusalem:
Top Ten Reasons East Jerusalem does not belong to Jewish-Israelis
Right… and that’s why any time Israel is building in Jersualem, even if miles aways from Temple Mountain, Muslims start shouting that Israel is trying to make al-Aqsa crummble to the ground?
The Western Wall (the JEWISH Wall) is there for the sole purpose of holding the mountain in it’s place. It was built by Herod the Great, as one of four supporing walls, and then he filled the area between the walls with stone and sand. The entire platform on which the mosques stand was built so the Jewish temple can stand on it, and now you want to tell me this is a “natural terrain”?
RE:They would have bulldozed it if there wasn’t a very special mosque on top.
I REITERATE: At least the Jordanians didn’t “bulldoze”* it!
* dismantle it and sink the stones in the deepest part of the ocean
ALSO SEE: Israel ‘playing with fire’ with Western Wall construction, By Jonathan Cook, 03/25/10
(EXCERPT) JERUSALEM // The Israeli government has indicated that it will press ahead with a plan to enlarge the Jewish prayer plaza at the Western Wall in Jerusalem’s Old City, despite warnings that the move risks triggering a third intifada.
Israeli officials rejected this week a Jerusalem court’s proposal to shelve the plan after the judge accepted that the plaza’s expansion would violate the “status quo” arrangement covering the Old City’s holy places. Islamic authorities agreed to the arrangement after Israel occupied East Jerusalem in 1967….
…According to evidence presented to the Jerusalem court, Israeli officials used minor storm damage to a stone ramp leading to the Mughrabi Gate as a pretext to tear it down six years ago. The intention is to replace the ramp with a permanent metal bridge and then extend the Jewish prayer plaza into the area where the ramp was.
The scheme is the brainchild of Shmuel Rabinowitz, the rabbi in charge of the Western Wall, who declared the damage to the ramp in 2004 a “miracle” that had offered Israel the chance to take control of more land from Islamic authorities in the Old City….
….The judge, Moussia Arad, proposed in January that the ramp be reinstated, or at the very least that the bridge follow the exact route of the ramp, and that all prayer at the site be banned. That position won the backing of United Nations officials monitoring Israel’s work at the Mughrabi Gate.
The Jordanian, Turkish and Palestinian Islamic authorities have all expressed deep concern at Israeli excavations at the Mughrabi Gate that are seen as a prelude to the plaza’s expansion.
Observers had hoped that, faced with the danger of another row with the United States so soon after the diplomatic crisis sparked by Israeli settlement building in East Jerusalem, Mr Netanyahu might agree to the court’s compromise.
They have been proved wrong.
“Netanyahu has a history of trampling on Palestinian rights in the Old City,” Mr Sweid said. “There is every reason to be worried about what he plans to get up to this time.”
In 1996, during his previous stint as prime minister, Mr Netanyahu opened the Western Wall tunnel, another excavation close to the mosque compound, resulting in clashes in which 75 Palestinians and 15 Israeli soldiers were killed….
ENTIRE ARTICLE – link to thenational.ae
P.S. Israel has PROVEN that it should NOT be entrusted with Jerusalem. Jerusalem MUST be put under international administration!
yonira, your ignorance never fails to reach new depths. The reason Fayyad is talking to Christians, in Bethlehem, which is still in the WB, about Easter in Jerusalem next year, is that Israel prevents them from attending this year.
Jews weren’t banned from the Western Wall. Israelis were banned, or in fact anyone with an Israeli visa stamp in their passports. There are a tiny number of Jordanian Jews, a few more Egyptian, Iraqi, Yemenese, Syrian and Lebanese Jews. They weren’t banned, nor were Jews from other countries.
Israel is banning the only legal residents of the occupied territories, the only people who could legally reside in occupied East Jerusalem from visiting. While encouraging those who have no legal right to go there, Israeli Jews.
So what you’re saying is that it would be okay if Israel banned Palestinians from going to Temple Mountain, because we Israel and the Palestinians are officially at war?
Right now Israel IS allowing Muslims to go on the mountain, while imposing restrictions on Jews’ access to the mountain, and completely forbidding Jews from praying on the mountain – which is they holiest site to Judaism.
RE: “Israel has no more right to unilaterally nationalize Jewish heritage sites in the West Bank than it does to Israel has no more right to unilaterally nationalize Jewish heritage sites in the West Bank than it does to unilaterally nationalize The Great Synagogue of Florence in Italy.” – Katya Reed
MY COMMENT: It’s just a matter of time. Show me someone who says Netanyahu does not have the right to unilaterally nationalize The Great Synagogue of Florence in Italy, and I’ll show you an über anti-Semite! I’m confident that Abe Foxman and the ADL will back me up on this. Now, you can take your “Lawfare” (i.e. international law) and stick it right up your…….
P.S. “Everyone knows” that Netanyahu has a perfect right to unilaterally nationalize The Great Synagogue of Florence in Italy! He is Prime Minister of not just Israel, but of all the earth’s Jews!
FROM URI AVNERY: …According to the official doctrine, the State of Israel cannot recognize an “Israeli” nation because it is the state of the “Jewish” nation. In other words, it belongs to the Jews of Brooklyn, Budapest and Buenos Aires, even though these consider themselves as belonging to the American, Hungarian or Argentine nations…
SOURCE – link to tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com
As I have said before, if Israeli and Zionist claims about Jewish “nationality” are accepted, no Jew would be permitted to be a Member of Parliament in Australia. All members have to be of Australian nationality (and that is the word used) only. Those of us with dual nationality have to renounce our other nationalities before we can take up office.
“Israel has no more right to unilaterally nationalize Jewish heritage sites in the West Bank than it does to unilaterally nationalize The Great Synagogue of Florence in Italy.”
Shhh. For goodness’ sake, don’t give them ideas!
There will never be a real Palestinian state. Palestinians in the WB and Gaza have been effective Israelis for four decades. Now is the time to fight for their civic equality. (Which they should be entitled to regardless of any anticipated future partition.)
From there Israel can make the transition to a non-sectarian “state of its citizens” – with strong minority protections – through a peaceful, representative political process. Peace through cooperation for Israelis and the full restoration of human rights in their land for Palestinians.
Israel is not, and shouldn’t be, a “state of its citizens”. It is the state of the Jewish people. Minorities may live there, but they must accept it as a Jewish state.
The Israeli Arabs could have been the “bridge” between Israel and the Palestinians, but so far the Palestinians, and unfortuneatly many Israeli Arabs, failed to accept that, and that is why the Israeli Arabs are – and probably will be – percieved as part of the problem, and not a part of the solution.
You know, specifics would go along way in substantiating your argument instead of those broad meaningless platitudes you keep making.
When Israel annexes the entire WB without granting the Palestinians full citizenship rights, how will they manage to claim they are “the only democracy in the mideast”?
Is Israel a democracy now? Based purely on Ofernicus statement, it really isn’t already, if it ever was. An ‘ethnocracy’ at most. Even then, the use of extrajudicial murder, state sponsored kidnapping, detention without trial and ethnic cleansing puts it right in there with other democracies such as Russia and Iran.
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