Al-Aqsa, Victim of Our Betrayals

by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem

I watch on television screens the Palestinian rituals of weeping and breast-beating over al-Aqsa, the holy places, Jerusalem, and all of Palestine, provoked by the intense and continuous Israeli assaults on al-Aqsa, the Rock, and the courtyards of Jerusalem. Anyone watching our tears and listening to our speeches might think that tomorrow we will mobilize commandos to attack and rescue Jerusalem and its sanctity.

Enough charlatanry and lying.

Whoever recognizes Israel does not want al-Aqsa, nor the Rock, nor the return of the refugees, nor the state, nor independence. When we recognize Israel, we thereby negate our fixed national rights in the land occupied in ‘48. And when we sign agreements with Israel without insisting that they include the right of return, the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with Holy Jerusalem as its capital, and the removal of the settlements, then all we are left with is lying to our own people through the media about our commitment to the Palestinian constants. Whoever does not insist on these matters is in fact confirming their abandonment of Palestinian rights, even if morning and evening find us drowning in blustering media statements and heated speeches.

… we normalize with it, consume its goods, turn our cheeks toward it, and contribute to building it up and strengthening its army and security apparatus. Among us are huge numbers of agents, traitors, spies, and collaborators, and they constitute a powerful asset for Israel. They are elements of corruption and self-destruction; they wreck our social fabric, demolish our moral edifice, drain our national and emotional energy, and destroy our feelings of belonging and our commitment toward ourselves, our people, and our homeland.

Our weapons are licensed by Israel, and they are put to work chasing down Palestinian resistance fighters, or anyone who might so much as think of resisting Israel. Weapons of thuggery, intimidation, and gangsterism are widespread, and all of it contributes to demolishing Palestinian morale and estranging the Palestinian people so that they abandon their homeland and their land.

And after everything we do against ourselves, against our people, and against our homeland, we stand without shame or fear before the television screens, beating our breasts. We are nothing so much as a chorus of paid mourners hired to perform the duty of wailing over the dead.

Israel has been assaulting Palestine since its founding, and the Zionist movement has never hesitated to commit aggression with the help of Britain and the Western states. The assaults on al-Aqsa have continued since 1967, and their pace increases every time the Palestinians retreat and Palestinian resistance retreats. We are in a state of decline and estrangement, and the climate is perfectly set for Israel.

So instead of weeping, wailing, and lamenting before the television screens, we must rethink what we are doing. We are in manifest error, and in a great betrayal that history will record as stains of shame upon our graves and our record. We must rise up against this repugnant condition in which we live. A small handful of compromisers and brokers are leading us to the abyss, and silence in the face of what they are doing is itself a great crime.

Al-Aqsa is groaning, but it cries out to us before it cries out to the Arabs and the Muslims. Where is the youth of Palestine?

Source: Translated from the original Arabic, “الأقصى ضحية خياناتنا” by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem.