Sheikh and Bishop.. and Palestine is the title

You rarely find a religious man, Muslim or Christian, who leaves the space and walls of his mosque or church, as two sacred places in which they practice their religious role in preaching, guidance, direction, and calling for adherence to virtue and morals, and to love, tolerance, and brotherhood, and helping the poor and needy, and supporting the oppressed and persecuted, in order to combine their religious and national role.

This is not an easy matter, as there are restrictions and obstacles related to and connected to the occupation, and its use of its authority and powers to oppress the clergy.

Here, personal and religious aspects and considerations, the degree of belonging, awareness, and integration with the people’s concerns and issues, and the oppression, persecution, and flagrant violation of rights to which this people is exposed, also come into play.

Before discussing Sheikh Akram Sabri and Bishop Atallah Hanna, and their religious, national, societal, moral, ethical and humanitarian role, we must touch on two models similar to Sheikh Sabri and Bishop Hanna.

Aleppo sent us Bishop Capucci, the Arab nationalist resistance fighter, as Bishop of Jerusalem, and its sister city Latakia sent us the resistance fighter Sheikh Izz al-Din al-Qassam, a revolutionary and fighter for Palestine.

The injustice, oppression and persecution of the occupation forced the Sheikh and the Bishop to leave the mosque and the church, in order to practice struggle, resistance and resistance alongside our Palestinian Arab people, and for Sheikh Al-Qassam to fall as a martyr in the forests of Ya’bad, and for Bishop Capucci to die in forced exile far from his beloved Jerusalem, that Jerusalem which opened his eyes to the extent of the injustice and persecution to which our Palestinian people are subjected, and for a Bishop who was raised on pride and dignity cannot watch the persecution of his flock and remain silent, and as he said upon his entry into Jerusalem, the Palestinian people have become my flock.

Sheikh Dr. Akram Sabri, head of the Supreme Islamic Council, preacher of Al-Aqsa Mosque, and secretary of the pulpit as he is known or called, is one of the sheikhs who have distanced themselves from sectarian strife, despite the great pressures it is exposed to, in order to be at its heart. The issue of Jerusalem, Al-Aqsa, the holy sites, the Jerusalemite community, and the Palestinian community were not the only concern of this sheikh, but his voice was heard in the Arab and Islamic world, and because he practiced preaching and stood by the defenders of Al-Aqsa, and always urged people to travel to it in order to protect it from the incursions of extremists and settlers, with the participation of their rabbis, members of their church, and their ministers, in order to remove it from its purely Islamic sanctity, and transform it into a joint Islamic-Jewish holy place, and then exploit the appropriate circumstances and time in order to cross it from its Islamic era to its Jewish era. In all the battles to defend Al-Aqsa and the Arabism of Jerusalem, you find Sheikh Akram present and leading the scene, and the issue of Al-Aqsa and the holy sites was not the core of his concern, but rather the issue of the city that is being slaughtered from vein to vein, and is intended to be destroyed. And the destruction of its social and family fabric, and emptying its youth of their national content, within the systematic occupation attack on our people in the city, and therefore he was always calling for unity, cohesion and cooperation between all components and components of society, and blocking the path of those who incite sedition and tribal and clan strife, and he did not leave an event or activity without being present in it and participating effectively, even occasions of joy and sorrow, and these activities, events, participations, sermons, invitations and meetings, and the participation in them by His Eminence the Sheikh, despite his advanced age, was exposed to a series of punishments and harassment from the occupation security services and its settlers, as hardly a month goes by without him being summoned to the Maskoubia investigation center for investigation, and handing him new orders either to prevent entry to Al-Aqsa, or to prevent travel, or to prevent entry into the West Bank, or to detention and arrest, and the occupation’s punishments and pressure on Sheikh Akrameh and incitement against him and the persecution of the settlers for him, in order to harm his life, and the hanging of posts and advertisements by them, demanding to get rid of him and expel him His imprisonment did not stop, and the matter reached the point of restricting him in life and personal aspects, as the occupation municipality in Jerusalem issued an order to demolish the building in which he lives in the Al-Suwaneh-Al-Tur neighborhood, under the pretext that the building was not licensed. The targeting, harassment and incitement against Sheikh Ikrima increased after the Friday sermon in Al-Aqsa on Friday 2-8-2024, in which he mourned the leader Ismail Haniyeh, who was assassinated by Israel in Tehran on 31-7-2024, from the pulpit. Immediately after the sermon, the occupation Interior Minister Moshe Arbel demanded that Sheikh Ikrima Sabri’s Jerusalemite identity be revoked, on the pretext of committing “security violations” and “breach of trust.” He said that Article 11 “A” of the Entry into Israel Law gives him the right to cancel his permanent residency permit for an act that constitutes a “breach” of trust.

The so-called Israeli Minister of National Security also called for Sheikh Ikrima to be tried and eliminated. Meanwhile, extremist groups launched a broad incitement campaign against Sheikh Ikrima, calling for him to be attacked in his home. They published a video of Haniyeh’s obituary in Al-Aqsa on their social media sites. After that, and as a result of this incitement, the occupation police and intelligence raided his home in Al-Sawana, and investigated him in Al-Maskobiyya. However, when they failed to convict him, the police issued an administrative order preventing him from entering Al-Aqsa for a week, with the possibility of extending it for six months.

As for the Arab Bishop Atallah Hanna, Bishop of Sebastia and all the Holy Lands, who comes from the town of Rama in the Upper Galilee, he is one of the most ardent defenders of the Arab identity of the city, its sanctities, and the unity of its social fabric. He is a fierce fighter against sectarianism and denominationalism, and he believes that the Arab people of the city, Muslims and Christians, are united by the same concern, destiny, and goal. Perhaps he is one of the religious figures most attached to the concerns and issues of his people, as he travels all over Palestine from north to south to share his people’s joys and sorrows, and to participate in activities, events, seminars, lectures, festivals, marches, and demonstrations related to national and societal concerns. He is also active abroad to explain the concerns and issues of his people, and is one of the most ardent defenders of the Arab identity of the Arab Orthodox Church, and calls for the preservation of its lands and properties in Jerusalem and Palestine in general.

Bishop Atallah Hanna, as a result of his national and nationalist positions, was subjected to many harassments and attempts to harm his life in a failed attempt to assassinate him by poisoning him. In order to get rid of the presence and influence of the bishop in the city of Jerusalem, an attempt was made to remove him from the city and appoint him as bishop in Acre. However, this step that was planned, those who planned it backed down from it in light of widespread popular protests from the people of Palestine in general, who saw this decision as an attempt to silence the voice of the Arab nationalist bishop and to "dwarf" his role, presence and influence. The bishop also rejected this decision, which prompted some parties to convince the bishop to accept it.

Bishop Atallah Hanna rejects the logic that says that Arab Christians are a minority, as they are Arabs and Arabs are not a minority in their homelands, as they have always been at the heart of the Palestinian national project and the Arab civilizational project. The Arab Bishop Atallah Hanna is an expression of the Arab Christian voice of the East whose presence in the region is targeted by America and the Western colonial powers, as they are the ones who participate in the displacement of the Christians of the Arab East from their countries in Syria and Iraq, in order to empty the Arab East of its Christians, the salt of this land and its original inhabitants. Bishop Atallah Hanna, who is proud of his patriotism and adherence to his Arab national identity, expresses his sadness and concern over the decrease in the number of Arab Christians in Jerusalem in particular, and in Palestine in general, and he believes that the direct reason for this is the practices of the occupation, the spread of its poisons, and its constant efforts to sow division and disagreements among the people of the same homeland, including its constant efforts to transform sects and identities into imaginary and artificial nationalities in cooperation with some of those cooperating with its projects and plans.

In conclusion, we say: Our crescent is our cross, and our prophets Jesus, peace be upon him, and Muhammad, may God bless him and grant him peace, are pure Arabs, and Al-Aqsa is the twin of the Resurrection, and our Sheikh Dr. Akram Sabri and our Arab bishop Atallah Hanna are united and brought together by one homeland, one goal, and a common destiny.

Aleppo sent us Bishop Capucci, the Arab nationalist resistance fighter, as Bishop of Jerusalem, and its sister city Latakia sent us the resistance fighter Sheikh Izz al-Din al-Qassam, a revolutionary and fighter for Palestine.