The increasing trend of Arab and Muslim visits to Al-Quds (occupied Jerusalem) has been criticized by Palestinians, who stressed that those coming to their city should only come to liberate it from Israeli occupation.
Share It :
“The Israeli permission is the ultimate problem with the visits,” Khalil Tafakji, who heads the Maps Unit at the Orient House in the occupied Al-Quds, told Gulf News.
“If Arabs were granted access to the holy city without the interference of Israel, we would not have any objections to the visits,” he added.
Orient House is the occupied Al-Quds headquarters of the Palestine Liberation Organization.
Debates on visits to Al-Quds erupted after Iyad bin Amin Madani, the Secretary General of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), paid a visit to the occupied city earlier this month.
The visit followed earlier calls made last May by Madani, urging Muslims from all around the world to visit al-Aqsa in order to "confirm that this mosque is a part of their faith."
Palestinians see the new visits play into the benefit of the occupation, by approving the current status quo.
These visits also legitimize the occupying power and normalize relations with the Israeli oppressor.
“Arab and Muslim visitors who fundamentally accept Israel as a matter of fact on the ground basically agree to the [claimed] Israeli sovereignty over the holy city,” he said.
“The timing of Arab and Muslim visits is critical and gives the Israelis huge room to make the world buy their rhetoric,” said Tafakji.
Entry into occupied Jerusalem also guarantees the visitor access to the rest of Israeli-claimed territory, including the Mediterranean city of Tel Aviv.
“What else can this be named if not normalization with Israel?” he said.
Recognizing Occupation
Fakhri Abu Diyab, a member of the Higher Committee in Defence of Jerusalem, said such visits provide a direct recognition of Israeli occupation, by forcing visitors to adhere to Israeli laws in territory it controls.
“This is a direct recognition of Israel and its occupation of the holy city,” he said.
“We do not want Arabs to come to [occupied] Jerusalem as visitors if it means forgetting and ignoring oppression and occupation. We want them to come as liberators.”
Jerusalemites asserted that Arab and Muslim visits were useless politically, economically and morally.
“Jerusalemites do not benefit at all from those Arab and Muslim visits,” he stressed.
“The Arab visitor should be aware of the fact that the authority that grants him entry permission and supervises his exit is the Israeli police officer and then decide by himself.”
Abu Diyab warned that any increase of the visits to the occupied territories will be a problem for Jerusalemites.
“To us, this is a scary issue as Israel will make the maximum benefit out of such an increase,” he said.
Mazen Abu Qalbain, a Jerusalem activist, wondered why Muslims were not treated in Al Haram Al Sharif the way Christian visitors to the Church of Nativity in Bethlehem are.
“Israel sends a clear message to the Palestinians, the Arabs and the Muslims that Jerusalem is theirs and that they are not ready to give up even a small part of it to the Muslims,” he said.
“According to them, those interested in visiting Al Haram Al Sharif should recognize Israeli sovereignty and occupation over the holy city and adhere to the Israeli rules and regulations and apply to get the necessary Israeli entry permits.”
Many Muslims have kept up an informal boycott of Al-Aqsa Mosque since Israel seized Al-Quds (East Jerusalem) and the West Bank from Jordan in a 1967 war, saying that visits to the shrine would amount to recognition of the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory.
In March 2013, Dr. Maher al-Huli, head of the fatwa department in the Palestine Scholars Association (PSA) issued a new fatwa banning visit to Al-Aqsa mosque, Islam’s third holiest shrine, while under Israeli occupation.
Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and Palestine Mohammad Ahmad Husein has issued a fatwa approving visits to Al-Aqsa Mosque.
But influential scholar Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi issued his own fatwa against foreign Muslims visiting Al-Quds. /SR
