Jerusalem Is Protected by Its People

by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem

Israel began its settlement activity in Jerusalem immediately after the occupation of 1967. It declared the city unified on 28 June 1967, and set about building settlements, moving steadily forward with the Judaization of the city. Since then, Israel has gone on notching up achievements, while we have gone on raising a great many cries and appeals. We have written a great deal about Israel’s Judaizing policy toward the holy city, we have cried out again and again, we have appealed to the Arab and Islamic states, to the Arab League and Islamic organizations, we have appealed to the countries of the world, we have traveled endlessly, leaping from one country to another, we have convened political conferences and academic symposia, we have written books, stories, and legends, and so on. We have wrested important resolutions from the UN General Assembly affirming that Jerusalem is an occupied city, and telling Israel that it has no right to alter the historic features of the city. We have worked to collect money to save Jerusalem; Arab states have contributed some funds, and Arab summits have earmarked sums for the city and its institutions.

None of what we have done has deterred Israel, and none of it has changed a thing in its policies, its plans, or its measures. It has continued along the very same policy since 1967, and we too have continued along the very same policy we have always followed. Israel achieves success, while we consume vast amounts of empty, fervent talk and hollow phrases of belonging that we have used across the years. I invite the reader to examine the matter closely, and he will find that we are faithful to our sterile methods, while Israel is faithful to its successful ones — and its unspoken message to us is: “Bark all you like; you are not even players.”

…so as not to insist on repeating failure, or on following the very means and methods he used on his way to it. He learns from his experience, and so he changes, adapts, and develops in order to succeed. And since we neither change nor adapt, we are either foolish failures, or else we simply do not want to succeed. I am inclined to think that we do not want to succeed, because our will is weak, and because the interests of our leaders take precedence over Jerusalem and the various causes of the Palestinian people. There is no doubt that the circumstances we face are harsh, but it is understood, historically, that the intensification of harsh circumstances raises the level of the challenge, and with it the level of creativity among those who face that challenge. And it seems that we do not want to be creative.

We should have calculated carefully from the very beginning, and we should have had in place clear, purposeful intellectual, cultural, and educational programs aimed at holding the Palestinian people together wherever they may be, and at reinforcing belonging to the people, the homeland, and its various national causes. It would have been more fitting for us to build up the human being and his capacity to endure and to sacrifice for the sake of a goal clear to everyone, rather than to acquiesce in dependence on others and follow policies of corruption and decay that destroy the social and moral fabric, and turn the people into mere individuals, each searching for his own private interest even at the expense of the al-Aqsa Mosque. Had we possessed a practical awareness of our historic role in preserving our identity and our homeland, Israel would not have accomplished what it has accomplished so far, and our condition would not have deteriorated to what it is now — because cohesion, clarity of purpose, and belonging reinforce the steps taken on the ground, and enable us to develop policies capable of curbing the ambitions of the occupation and encouraging other Arabs and Muslims to lend a helping hand. People of means increase their assistance when they are certain their money is going into trustworthy hands, and they hold back when they see their money evaporating with little good effect.

Source: Translated from the original Arabic, “القدس يحميها أهلها” by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem.