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| Jerusalem is seen as a city of three faiths, but political Zionism is fast destroying this. © Shafiq Morton |
THE
recent [18 October 2016] UNESCO resolution on Jerusalem and West Bank
historical sites – voted into being by 24 states with six against and 26
abstaining – in no way undermines Jewish faith, as is being claimed by the
Zionist government, and its international covey of shills.
Judging
by their pot-banging in the media, it’s almost as if they haven’t read the
document. For in its condemnation of Israeli violations in the Holy City and the
West Bank, it states specifically that Palestine’s historical sites are sacred to
Jews, Christians and Muslims alike.
This is something that needs to be brought forward in reports of UNESCO’s document 200 EX/25. To date, much of the commentary has been focused on the status of the western wall to create the false impression of Jewish victimisation.
In
fact, the UNESCO resolution merely raises questions that have been troubling
the international community for decades. What is really causing the ruckus surrounding
the resolution is the fact it is sensitive to historical truth. This is because
it states that the Al-Buraq Plaza – or the “Wailing Wall” – is Muslim property.
The
word Al-Buraq Plaza [named after the place where the Prophet Muhammad tied his heavenly steed] and the use of inverted commas when the Israeli term
“Western Wall Plaza” is mentioned in the report is what has caused hackles to
rise in Tel Aviv and Washington.
The UNESCO draft resolution – proposed by Algeria, Egypt, Lebanon,
Morocco, Oman, Qatar and Sudan – decries much-publicised Israeli aggression and
occupation in the sacred Al-Aqsa precinct.
The resolution expresses concerns about Israel preventing much-needed
renovations by the Jordanian authorities [who have legal jurisdiction over
Al-Aqsa] and the ongoing illegal excavations under the mosque.
The
resolution goes on to express its disapproval of the deliberate destruction of the
ruins of Ottoman, Mamluk and Ummayad mosques and buildings at the Maghribi gate,
which is the focus of illegal Israeli expansion. The report says the Maghribi,
or Moroccan, gate is an integral part of Al-Aqsa.
Adding
to Israeli discomfit is a statement expressing concern over the Gaza siege and
further clauses decrying belligerent Israeli interference at the Ibrahimi
mosque in Hebron, and the tomb of Rachel and the Bilal ibn Rabah mosque in
Bethlehem, which it says are all part of Palestine.
In
essence, the UNESCO resolution deals with the obvious. But it is, without
doubt, a critical juncture in the Zionist narrative – which because of its crimes
against Gaza and growing litany of human rights abuses elsewhere – is being
called out for its unwillingness to accommodate Palestinian nationhood.
Even
another, milder UNESCO resolution [passed on 26 October 2016] and submitted by
Lebanon and Tunisia on behalf of Jordan and Palestine, is accused of “ignoring”
Judaism’s connection to Al-Aqsa.
The
UNESCO resolutions have made it clear that the Zionist lobby will not be able
to bully countries on Israel so easily now, despite Mexico’s bizarre stand-down.
Significantly, two Security Council members, Russia and China, voted for the first
UNESCO resolution.
Indeed,
at the UN, Israel has either benefited unduly from US or European vetoes, or has
had to rely on lobbying, luck – and even skulduggery. For example, in 1947 when
the UN was proposing the Partition Plan, Zionist lobbyists were at edge of
their seats. The Plan – to create a Jewish
state on existing Palestinian land – needed a two-thirds majority to be passed.
It only squeaked through by three votes.
State
Department files reveal that it took 75,000 dollars to change a South American
diplomat’s mind, and that Harvey Firestone Junior had told the Liberian
government he would disinvest from its rubber industry if it voted against the
plan.
When
it comes to the question of the Al-Buraq Plaza and its environs, the fact is
that it is part of the Al-Aqsa waqf [a communal endowment], created by
Caliph ‘Umar in the 7th century and expanded by the Kurdish leader, Salahuddin Ayyubi, in 1187. When I was researching my book on Palestine, Surfing behind the Wall, I discovered that the Al-Buraq wall had
enjoyed no Jewish significance from 135 CE until the 16th century, a
period of over 1,400 years.
Prior
to that, worship had been conducted at the Mount of Olives, or on some rare
occasions outside the Golden Gate – but never at the western wall, whose
precincts had been a market during Herodian times.
The
instrumental figure in allowing Jewish worship at the wall was the Ottoman
Caliph, Suleiman the Magnificent. After the defeat of the Mamluks in 1517, he
allowed Jews to worship at the Buraq wall at selected times. The Caliph issued
a “firman”, and the agreement was that Jews could worship at a section of the
wall, but that it would remain Muslim waqf.
To
this effect, the UN Security Council document S/8427 [issued February 1968]
declares that the Buraq, or western wall, is Muslim property. The beef of
Islamic scholars today is not that Jewish worship takes place at the wall, no, but
rather the aggressive colonisation of a sacred space by political Zionism.
The
critical point – one that is spectacularly missed by Zionists – is that the
Islamic sanctity of the area has been violated by the architecture of occupation,
not by Jewish worship. It is political Zionism, hiding behind the skirts of religiosity,
which has ripped a centuries’ old agreement to shreds.
Indeed,
since the 19th century, the Al-Buraq wall has been at the centre of
Zionist-inspired conflict. In the 1870s both Baron Rothschild and the British
banking tycoon, Sir Moses Montefiore, tried to “buy” the wall. In 1929 efforts
to bring in furniture and screens on the back of Third Temple notions by the recently
immigrated Ashkenazim – all in violation of the existing waqf – fomented a
nation-wide uprising in Palestine.
Finally,
the UNESCO report’s concern at Israeli “archaeology” – which has damaged the
foundations of Al-Aqsa – is the most damning. A frantic 50 year dig for Jewish
evidence of hegemony in Jerusalem has revealed no corroborating evidence whatsoever.
The Ummayads, who built the Dome of the
Rock and the Al-Aqsa mosque, were great builders and most times, it is Ummayad ruins
that emerge from the centuries of silt.
