This is part of Marc H. Ellis’s “Exile and the Prophetic” feature for Mondoweiss. To read the entire series visit the archive page.
So now we’re back to the status quo. Al Aqsa is open again for prayer. If you’re over 50.
Perhaps identification proving age will be required. Al Aqsa AARP?
The status quo is death for Palestinians. Before death, ethnic cleansing. Before death, ghettoization. Are we really supposed to celebrate occupied prayer at Al Aqsa?
I haven’t heard much from the Christian churches in the land and beyond about the Al Aqsa situation. Maybe they’re hunkering down so that their “freedom” to worship isn’t hindered. As if prayer without political freedom means much.
Prayer can be a form of politics – when political resistance is the watchword. But prayer for its own sake or the call to pray for the oppressed – prayer circles, prayer chains, prayer hours. Save it. Better to bury the dead and get on with it.
Liberation isn’t a spiritual affair and Allah isn’t going to save anyone, Palestinian or otherwise, from the Israeli occupation.
A saving God is an illusion.
All religion in the Holy Land – including Judaism – is occupied. The challenge for all faiths is to throw off the occupation. If prayer gives one strength to resist the occupation all well and good. But to argue for the freedom of religion simply to pray is to participate in a grand illusion.
It allows the political – and religious – authorities off the occupation hook.
That also goes for the far-flung churches that write and receive letters/statements – President Obama, Congress, United Nations, NGOs, the World Council of Churches. They’re occupied too. None are willing to sacrifice their own standing to move into solidarity with the Palestinian people. They’re still playing the political and religious game that hasn’t – and won’t – go anywhere.
Could it be that Israel occupies everyone? Or do these entities allow themselves to be occupied?
Maybe Al Aqsa should remain closed – by the over 50 group – who refuse to pray until freedom is on the way?
Occupied prayer. Prayer at the expense of freedom.
Prayer allowed – and participated in – that enables occupation.
Idolatry?
“I haven’t heard much from the Christian churches in the land and beyond about the Al Aqsa situation. Maybe they’re hunkering down so that their “freedom” to worship isn’t hindered. ”
There’s a convention of sorts between the 2 main Christian Churches and Israel whereby Israel provides them with a limited amount of autonomy to run their churches in exchange for not making too many waves about the ongoing conflict. The pope’s latest empty visit to Israel/Palestine did not result in getting them any more than just that.
That’s why you’re not hearing anything from the local churches, which of course is affecting a non-reaction from those beyond.
Al Aqsa is really the only functioning Palestinian institution in East Jerusalem.
The bots shut down everything else including Orient House. Al Aqsa has a special status as one of the main mosques in Islam which is why the Waqf is still in charge.
This picture is even worse than the one you used yesterday, Prof.
Again, I’ll repeat what I wrote:
“Praying under Occupation. Praying under the gun.
Obscene.”
Only 3 days have passed since the event, and the Christian population is miniscule, and normally Eastern Christian churches by default are not open in political involvement the way American ones are. And how do you know that no Christian figures there have not mentioned the Al Aqsa situation?
Their language is Arabic and they don’t exactly have the same broadcast volume some other folks do in US news and social media. I even question whether Palestinians get as much volume on their own issue as their non-Palestinian supporters do in the US.
And why put “freedom” to worship in quotes- is it not a fundamental right? You comment sardonically “As if prayer without political freedom means much”. Well yes, prayer without freedom still means very much, so much in fact that some people would rather be able to pray if it meant giving up political rights.
“Pope Francis on Saturday led prayers for peace and reconciliation in Jerusalem, where tensions between Israelis and Palestinians have mounted in recent days.
Israeli authorities closed the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem’s Old City on Thursday, following the attempted killing of a far-right Jewish activist. The Palestinian man accused of the crime was killed by Israeli police.
On Friday, the mosque was partially reopened.
“Today’s liturgy talks about the glory of heavenly Jerusalem,” Francis said after reciting Angelus prayers for All Saints’ Day from the window of his study, overlooking a crowded St Peter’s Square.
“I urge you to pray so that the Holy City, dear to Jews, Christians and Muslims, which has experienced several tensions in these days, may be more and more a symbol and a precursor of the peace that God wishes for the entire human family,” the pontiff said.”
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/1.623884