Al quds weekly report issue no 108

Issue no. 108 Date 14 Nov 2016

alqudsmalaysia.org

QFMalaysia

Media.QFM@gmail.com

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News

YAYASAN AL-QUDS MALAYSIA

Sheikh Raed Salah on hunger strike to protest isolation in Israeli jail

“Such oppressive measures 13 Nov 2016 The Palestinian Informa- against Sheikh Salah while he is behind prison bars are just tion Center unacceptable,” said Saadi.

Sheikh Raed Salah, leader of the Islamic movement in 1948 He spoke out against Isvisit-bans slapped occupied Palestine, announced, raeli Sheikh Salah. on Sunday, that he is starting a against hunger strike in an Israeli jail.

Saadi expressed his solidariLawyer Mohamed Ighbari- ty with Sheikh Salah, saying yeh said Sheikh Salah updated his hunger strike is legitimate. him on his decision to go on an open-ended hunger strike He added that Israel’s prosecuin protest at being mistreated tion of Sheikh Salah has nothing and locked up in an isolated to do with truth and justice and is cell in the Israeli Rimon jail. rather an embodiment of an Israeli preplanned policy against Head of the prisoners’ com- Palestinian leaders and activmittee in the Joint Arab ists in 1948 occupied Palestine.

List, MK Osama Saadi, denounced the Israeli crack- He urged the Israeli occudowns against Sheikh Salah pation to immediately cease both inside and outside prison. persecution and mistreatment of Sheikh Salah, who has al-

ways raised his voice to defend the holy al-Aqsa Mosque and the Palestinian people.

Sheikh Salah was kidnapped by the Israeli occupation forces on May 8 after an Israeli occupation court sentenced him to nine months in jail on allegations of incitement to anti-occupation protests in a Friday sermon known as Wadi al-Jouz sermon that dates back to 2007.

Last October an Israeli court turned down a petition lodged by the Mezan Center for Human Rights to end Salah’s isolation.

On November 16, 2015, the Israeli occupation government blacklisted the Islamic Movement in 1948 occupied territories as an “outlawed” group.

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News

YAYASAN AL-QUDS MALAYSIA

Datuk Bandar Zionis ugut halau penduduk Palestin di al-Quds

7 Nov 2016 Haluanpalestin

dari atas tanah milik penduduk Palestin, maka penduduk Palestin di alQuds juga harus dihalau keluar kerana Datuk Bandar Zionis di kota al- kononnya rumah mereka di al-Quds Quds, Nir Barkat, mengugut dibina di atas tanah milik Yahudi.

Peguam Negara Avichai Mandelblit untuk merobohkan rumah penduduk Penempatan haram Amona dibina sePalestin di al-Quds sebagai tindak jak 20 tahun lalu dan dihuni oleh 41 balas ke atas keputusan Mahkamah keluarga pendatang Yahudi. Mereka Tinggi mengeluarkan arahan supaya diarah keluar sebelum akhir Disember. penempatan haram Yahudi di Amona, yang dibina atas tanah penduduk Pertubuhan hak asasi Peace Now menPalestin, dikosongkan. dakwa pihak rejim kini sedang menyiapkan sebuah penempatan lain di satu Menurut Barkat, memandangkan kawasan yang lebih besar daripada pendatang Yahudi diarah keluar Amona untuk memindahkan mereka.

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News

YAYASAN AL-QUDS MALAYSIA

Rejim Zionis akan bahas undang-undang haramkan azan

10 Nov 2016 Pusat Berita Palestin

Israel, di Galilee, Gurun Naqab, alQuds, Tel Aviv-Jaffa dan beberapa kawasan di tengah Israel, secara ruJawatankuasa Kementerian Un- tin dan setiap hari menderita akibat dang-Undang Zionis dijadual mem- gangguan bising daripada laungan bahaskan cadangan bagi mengha- azan.� ramkan laungan azan menggunakan pembesar suara Ahad ini.

Sejak 2010, undang-undang seumpama itu pernah beberapa kali Undang-undang yang diusulkan dicadangkan kepada jawatankuaoleh Ahli Parlimen Motti Yogev sa tersebut, bagaimanapun ia tidak itu mencadangkan supaya laungan pernah dimasukkan ke dalam agenazan diharamkan di semua masjid da mesyuarat. Cadangan kali ini di wilayah Palestin yang didudu- mendapat sokongan padu daripada ki. Nota undang-undang tersebut tokoh-tokoh politik Zionis. menyebut, “Ratusan ribu penduduk

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News

YAYASAN AL-QUDS MALAYSIA

2 kanak-kanak Palestin dihukum penjara 2 tahun 9 Nov 2016 Pusat Berita Palestin haluanpalestin Kanak-kanak Palestin Shadi Anwar Farah dan Ahmad Ra’ed Za’tari, kedua-duanya berumur 13 tahun, dikenakan hukuman penjara dalam tahanan juvana Yarka selama dua tahun atas tuduhan “membawa pisau dan cuba membunuh.”

Hukuman tersebut akan bermula pada 29 November, bermakna tempoh tahanan mereka di pusat tahanan juvana Tamra sejak akhir tahun lalu tidak diambil kira sebagai hukuman.

Mereka ditangkap di sebuah perhentian bas di al-Quds pada bulan Disember lalu, apabila sekumpulan pendatang Yahudi memanggil polis Zionis supaya menyiasat kedua-dua mereka hanya atas prasangka kerana mereka berbangsa Palestin. Mereka ditangkap dan diinterogasi secara kesat tanpa kehadiran peguam, sehingga Shadi terpaksa membuat pengakuan cuba menikam seorang askar.

Ahmad Manasra dijatuhkan hukuman penjara 12 tahun 7 Nov 2016 Pusat Berita Palestin Mahkamah Pusat Zionis di al-Quds menjatuhkan hukuman penjara ke atas Ahmad Manasra, 14, selama 12 tahun atas tuduhan menikam dan cuba membunuh seorang pendatang Yahudi pada 12 Oktober 2015. Keluarga Ahmad turut dikenakan denda sebanyak 180,000 shekel (RM197,000).

Ahmad dituduh melakukan kesalahan bersama sepupunya Hassan Khalid Manasra, 15, yang ditembak mati ditempat kejadian berdekatan kawasan penempatan haram Pisgat Ze’ev. Manakala Ahmad cedera parah ditembak oleh tentera Zionis setelah dikejar oleh sekumpulan Yahudi dan dilanggar dengan sebuah kereta, diherdik dalam keadaan berdarah tanpa diberikan bantuan. Ahmad Manasra merupakan penduduk Palestin paling muda pernah dijatuhkan hukuman di sebuah mahkamah Zionis, di mana beliau berumur 13 tahun ketika dibuat pertuduhan.

Beliau disoal siasat dan dipaksa membuat pengakuan dalam keadaan sakit tanpa kehadiran peguam atau ahli keluarganya. Perbicaraan ke atas Ahmad ditangguhkan beberapa kali, dalam usaha pihak rejim untuk menunggu beliau mencapai usia 14 tahun pada bulan Januari. Undang-undang Zionis membenarkan penduduk berumur 14 tahun dikenakan hukuman penjara.

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News

YAYASAN AL-QUDS MALAYSIA

Pemimpin Zionis akan desak ubah status quo Masjid al-Aqsa

8 Nov 2016 Pusat Berita Palestin haluanpalestin Ketua Parlimen dan tiga menteri Zionis, termasuk Menteri Keselamatan Dalam Negeri Gilad Menashe Erdan, dalam satu perbahasan di persidangan Zionis berkata mereka akan berusaha untuk mengubah status qou Masjid al-Aqsa atas alasan status terkini tapak suci itu merupakan satu kezaliman ke atas bangsa Yahudi.

Persefahaman Israel-Jordan pada tahun 1993 memberi hak mutlak kepada kerajaan Jordan ke atas tapak-tapak suci di al-Quds, termasuk Masjid al-Aqsa.

Persidangan yang diadakan di parlimen dan dianjurkan oleh Ahli Parlimen fanatik Yehuda Glick itu membincangkan langkah-langkah untuk meningkatkan pencerobohan ke atas Masjid al-Aqsa.

Mereka turut mendesak supaya Ahli Parlimen Yahudi dibenarkan masuk ke dalam Masjid al-Aqsa serta semua pintu-pintu al-Aqsa dibuka kepada bangsa Yahudi.

Lazimnya pendatang Yahudi menceroboh masuk melalui pintu al-Magharibah, yang dikawal sepenuhnya oleh pasukan keselamatan Zionis.

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Infographic

Refugees constituted half of Gaza casualties

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Article

Israel’s ban on Adhan in Al-Quds is the tip of the iceberg Middel East Monitor

By Prof. Kamel Hawwash Something is in the air in Jerusalem and if Israel has its way it soon won’t be; the Muslim call to prayer — the adhaan — is under threat.

The state which is built upon the ethnic cleansing of the majority of the indigenous Palestinian people is inching its way towards banning the call for prayer, which was probably first heard in Jerusalem in 637 AD. That was the year in which Caliph Umar Ibn Al-Khattab travelled to Palestine to accept its surrender from Patriach Sophronius, bringing a six-month siege of the Holy City to a peaceful end.

The required respect for people of other faiths was exemplified by one of Caliph Umar’s first acts upon entering Jerusalem. He understood the sensitivity surrounding religious sites and the potential danger of changing the status quo. He thus declined an invitation from Sophronius to pray in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre lest Muslims turn it into a mosque. Instead, he stepped outside the Church to perform the midday prayer; a mosque named after him was later built on the site and exists to this day.

This is in sharp contrast to the establishment of Israel in 1948, when 750,000 Palestinians were driven from their homeland at gunpoint. Villages and towns were ethnically cleansed and wiped from the face of the earth, and their mosques were also destroyed or turned into synagogues or museums; at least two became cafes and one became a cowshed.

Israel captured East Jerusalem in 1967 and one of Israel’s first acts as the occupying power was to raze the 770-year old Moroccan Quarter of East Jerusalem in order to improve access to Al-Buraq Wall, which Jews call the Western (“Wailing”) Wall, in order to facilitate their prayers there. Just a year after issuing the Balfour Declaration in 1917, Britain had actually dismissed attempts by Chaim Weizmann to vacate the Moroccan Quarter and to place the Western Wall under Jewish ownership. Fifty years later, Israel had no qualms about bulldozing the Shaikh Eid Mosque which had stood since the time of Saladin.

Christian sites

tacks. There was a particular rise in these in the lead-up to Pope Francis’s visit to the Holy Land in 2014. A top Catholic official received death threats and Hebrew graffiti appeared on the wall of the Notre Dame of Jerusalem Centre, the local headquarters of the Roman Catholic Church: “Death to Arabs and Christians and to everyone who hates Israel”.

At the end of last month, the Israeli flag was raised at the Eastern entrance to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, enraging the Christian community and raising serious concerns about Israel’s commitment to protecting Christian sites.

The Church fought a two-year battle with its water supplier which threatened to cut the supply due to unpaid bills, which was settled in 2012. Add to this Israel’s restrictions on visits by Christians to the holy sites in Jerusalem, and on Christians from Gaza visiting either Jerusalem or Bethlehem, and the difficulties faced by Palestinian Christians becomes clear.

Churches continue to come under attack by the Israelis. Benzi Gopstein, the leader of extreme right-wing Jewish group Lehava, voiced support for arson attacks against Christian churches in 2015; he has also called Christians “blood sucking vampires” who should be expelled from Israel.

Jewish extremists have on a numMuslim sites ber of occasions targeted churches in what are called “price tag” at- The situation for key Muslim sites

Article in the occupied Palestinian territories is even more precarious than those of Christians. When East Jerusalem was occupied in 1967, the Israeli flag flew for a short time over the holiest site, Al-Aqsa Mosque. The mosque was set alight in 1969, reportedly by an Australian tourist; the damage included the complete destruction of a 1,000-year old pulpit.

An agreement between the Israelis and the Jordanian custodians of the holy sites, which covers the whole of the area on which Al-Aqsa Mosque stands, stated that the Jordanian Waqf would administer the compound and that Jews would be able to visit but not pray. The status quo has largely stood the test of time but in recent years has come under great strain, particularly since Ariel Sharon’s “visit” to the Noble Sanctuary of Al-Aqsa in 2000, which triggered the Second Intifada. The visit seems to have given Jewish extremists the green light not only to dream about praying on what they call the “Temple Mount” but also to plan to build a Jewish temple thereon; the plans include the destruction of Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock Mosque.

Recent years have seen an upsurge in the frequency and extent of incursions by extremists during which the use of the sanctuary by Muslim worshippers is restricted. This practice has increased tensions and prompted fears of a change to the “status quo”, moving the Jordanian government to act by withdrawing its ambassador from Tel Aviv in protest. Clashes have erupted frequently between Israeli security forces and Palestinians devoted to protecting their mosque. Israeli forces have also harassed worshippers, banning some from entering the Noble Sanctuary or with-

holding their Jerusalem ID cards, without which they struggle to move around the territories. Such practices were a major contributory factor to the ongoing yearlong uprising in which individual Palestinians have attacked mainly security forces but in some instances Israeli civilians in what has been termed the “knife intifada”.

Another city that has suffered disproportionately, probably due to its religious significance, is AlKhalil (Hebron). The city is home to 120,000 Palestinians whose lives are blighted by the planting of 700 particularly extreme Israeli settlers in the centre of the city; they are protected by hundreds of Israeli soldiers and a system of closed military zones and checkpoints. The city is home to the Ibrahimi Mosque which Jews call the Cave of the Patriarchs. The mosque was the scene of a terrorist attack in 1994 by a Jewish American-Israeli named Baruch Goldstein who killed 29 Muslim worshippers while they were praying; although the murderous attack was condemned by the Israeli government it was — and is — applauded by some Israelis, particularly the extreme right-wing settlers. Israel’s response was — perversely — to impose greater restrictions on Palestinians and to divide the Ibrahimi Mosque physically, as well as to open it up exclusively to Jews for ten days of the year and to Muslims for another ten days.

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2015 and 83 times last month.

The practice seems to be spreading to Jerusalem. Israel recently banned three mosques in Abu Dis from broadcasting the morning call. Lawyer Bassam Bahr, head of a local committee in Abu Dis, condemned the “unjustified ban”, saying that “Israel attacks Palestinians in all aspects of their lives.” It seems that the ban was a response to complaints from illegal settlers in nearby Pisgat Zeev who complained to Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat about the “noise pollution” coming from local mosques. Both Barkat and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are clearly set on applying the “unbearable noise” law to the call for prayer.

The mayor and prime minister know the importance of the call to prayer to the Muslim community; their plan to eradicate it from the air of Jerusalem to appease illegal settlers shows that neither has the wisdom of Caliph Umar. Their plan has not only enraged Palestinians, but also damaged yet further attempts to create a climate that will lead to peace; it is most definitely part of Israel’s attempts to Judaise Jerusalem and empty the Holy City of its Islamic and Christian heritage. The ban is, in fact, just the tip of the Judaisation iceberg.

As far the settlers objecting to the Muslim call to prayer are concerned, there is an easy solution.

They could leave the houses that they have built — illegally — on land stolen from its Palestinian owners and either go back to where they came from in North America or Europe or live within the internationally recognised borders of the state whose citizenship they carry. That would be the most moral

Restricting the call to prayer Israel’s restrictions on access to the holy sites in Jerusalem and Hebron have recently been complemented with bans on the daily call to prayer. In Hebron, the practice has been ongoing for a number of years and included the call being silenced 49 times in Janu- of solutions, although it is doubtful if ary 2014, 52 times in December they know what morality is.

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Press Release

Isi penting dalam ucapan ketua cawangan biro politik parti Hamas, Khaled Mashal dalam Forum Belia al-Quds di Turki sebentar tadi: > Kami katakan kepada Israel, kamu sedang bermain dengan api, AlQuds boleh menjadi kunci kepada kedamaian dan juga peperangan" > Al-Quda dan Al-Aqsa adalah milik kamu dulu dan selamanya. Dia adalah kebanggaan kamu. Jangan abaikannya > kita anak palestin adalah peneraju kepada kekuatan. Matlamat kita adalah untuk menyelamatkan Al-Aqsa. Kita tidak boleh melindungi Al-Quds kecuali dengan jihad dan intifadah > tentera Zionis mengubah struktur Al-Quds bermula dari bawah sehingga ke atas bumi melalui terowong ketika umat sibuk dengan hal masing-masing > peranan kita adalah untuk berpegang dengan Al-Quds, membebaskannya serta memerdekakan seluruh bumu Palestin

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Opinion

How do Palestinians and Israelis view Trump’s victory?

Middle East Monitor Motasem A Dalloul Once it was known for certain that Donald Trump had won the presidential election in the US, both Palestinians and Israelis expressed their hopes and expectations about a Trump presidency. With each side expecting that he will help them to achieve their goals, the clear differences in what this would mean in practice shows how far the conflict is from being resolved.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas congratulated Trump on his victory, saying that he hopes he will work to realise a “just peace”. Senior Abbas aide Nabil Abu-Rudeineh clarified what “just peace” means, telling the official PA news agency Wafa, “It has to be based on an independent Palestinian state within the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital.”

He stressed that solving the Palestinian issue is the key to solving all of the crises in the region. “The US administration should realise that achieving peace and security in the region will come by solving the Palestinian issue with a just and internationally legitimate solution, which will lead to the elimination of chaos and extremism in the world.” Veteran negotiator Saeb Erekat, another of the Palestinian president’s senior aides, expressed his hope that the Trump White House “will turn the talk about a twostate solution into a reality on the ground.”

“work together”? Netanyahu’s fellow right-winger and Education Minister, Naftali Bennett, explained that, “Trump’s victory is an opportunity for Israel to immediately retract the notion of a Palestinian state in the centre of the country, which would hurt our security and just cause.”

In the same statement, which was reported widely by the Israeli media, he made it even clearer: “The era of a Palestinian state is over. We are sure the special relationship between the United States and Israel will continue, and even grow stronger.”

Israeli Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked – another extremist – also expressed Israel’s expectations from Trump.

“This is an opportunity for the American government to move the US embassy to Jerusalem,” she said. “That would symbolise the close ties and brave friendship between the two countries.” This was echoed by Israel’s mayor of the Holy City, Nir Barkat, who tweeted, “I am confident that you [Trump] will continue to empower our city by reaffirming its sovereignty by moving the US Embassy to Jerusalem.” No country in the world recognises Israel’s illegal annexation of Jerusalem, nor its self-declared status as the “undivided capital” of the Zionist State.

Meanwhile, the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas — the other main player in Palestinian politics — expects Trump to be biased towards the Israelis. “He won’t bring anything new to the table, said spokesman Sami Abu-Zuhri. “Indeed, he will take the same path as his predecessors.”

Nevertheless, speaking to Agence France-Presse, Abu-Zuhri expressed the wish that President-elect Trump will “re-evaluate this policy and re-balance It is thus very clear that the Palestinians and Israelis have very different goals when it comes to solving the it on the Palestinian issue.” decades-old conflict, which most of the world hopes to Unsurprisingly, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin see come to a satisfactory end soon. Where exactly is Netanyahu also congratulated Donald Trump, say- Trump going to stand? He made it clear throughout his ing, “We will work together to advance security, campaign that he stands with Israel 100 per cent. The stability and peace in our region.” How will they Hamas spokesman seems to have hit the nail on the head.