Al-Aqsa Mosque: A religious and national symbol

The importance of Al-Aqsa Mosque as a symbol of Palestinian resistance against the fierce Israeli occupation and its connection to Palestinian identity is highlighted in light of Israeli attempts to Judaize the natural and cultural landscape of the city of Jerusalem. It may seem at first glance that the defense of Al-Aqsa is of a purely religious nature, but in reality it represents a national symbol for all groups of the Palestinian people, Muslims and Christians. As soon as the Palestinian senses any upcoming danger, Christians and Muslims uprise as one man to defend him.

Michel Foucault believes that resistance exists when there is an authority that possesses power and dominance and engages in hidden and apparent conflicts, and therefore resistance is a natural reaction to the dominance of authority. As for the Palestinian situation, it is characterized by the fact that the dominant and controlling authority is a foreign authority and occupier of land, people, natural resources, water, holy places, and others. Therefore, it is natural that the form, nature and goal of the Palestinian resistance is to defeat the occupation and extend Palestinian national sovereignty, at least over the Palestinian territories occupied by Israel in 1967, which are represented by the West Bank, the eastern part of the city of Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip.

We can say that the battle against the Israeli occupation is a battle against settler colonialism and that it is not a religious war over holy sites and holy places. Rather, Christian and Islamic holy places constitute national, cultural and religious symbols as well as a cultural heritage and part of the Palestinian identity.

The thinker Azmi Bishara described the Al-Aqsa Intifada in 2000 by saying: “The Palestinian national liberation battle is not a religious war, nor is the Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa uprising an ideological war, despite its religious dimension and religious symbols... There is almost no liberation war without a religious or symbolic dimension added to the motivations of the mujahideen.” The fighters and the symbols of homeland and patriotism... The battle of the Palestinians is a battle of colonized against colonizer. The Al-Aqsa Intifada is not a religious uprising, but rather a comprehensive national uprising that took the Noble Sanctuary as its symbol. Al-Aqsa is sacred to religious and non-religious people as a Palestinian national symbol, and the dispute with Israel is not over its sanctity for Muslims, but rather on its occupation by Israel.”

As for the Israeli plans to Judaize Jerusalem, they are based on two paths: The first path consists of obliterating the traces of Arab landmarks in Jerusalem and attacking the Christian and Islamic holy places in the city by various means. For example, some time ago Israel attempted to impose a property tax on Christian churches, while this tax had not been imposed on properties belonging to religious endowments since the time of the Ottoman occupation of the city. As for the fierce attack on Al-Aqsa Mosque, the whole world is witnessing the frenzied and repeated attacks of settlers, their storming of its courtyards, and their attempts to assault it, which are always met with confrontation by the people making sit-ins, who are ready to sacrifice what is dear and precious in defending Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock.

Israel is always trying to escalate its repeated incursions into Al-Aqsa Mosque, in order to change the status quo so that Jewish settlers can pray there. The Israeli authorities are also obstructing the work of the Islamic Endowments Department in Jerusalem, affiliated with the Jordanian Ministry of Endowments, and disrupting maintenance and restoration projects for the Bab al-Rahma chapel, as well as the rest of the chapels and the southern western wall, from which stones fell some time ago. The Islamic Endowments Department also pointed out that there is Israeli targeting of the Bab al-Rahma area and the eastern region, as that area constitutes the main element and the spearhead in dividing the place so that the Israeli settlers have a stable and permanent foothold to hold their Talmudic prayers collectively and publicly under the protection of the occupation forces.

As for archaeological excavations, the large excavations carried out by the occupation authorities pose a danger to the buildings of Al-Aqsa Mosque, especially in digging tunnels underneath it under the pretext of searching for traces of the alleged Temple of Solomon. It is worth noting that Israel has embarked, especially since 1996, on a project called the “Holy Basin” Judaization project, which begins in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in the north, passing through the Old City and arriving at the town of Silwan, where they claim that the City of David was built, and ending at the foot of Mount Mukaber, with the aim of giving the city a Jewish character. Therefore, this project will lead to erasing the traces of the city’s Arab and Islamic landmarks and suffocating the old city with paths and buildings of a Jewish character to obliterate the identity of the city and its holy places, the most important of which is Al-Aqsa Mosque. The Holy Basin Project also aims to make the Old City of Jerusalem similar in its details to the alleged Biblical description of ancient Jerusalem according to Jewish beliefs, noting that the proposed buildings of a Jewish character will be built on the ruins of Jebusite, Greek, Roman, Byzantine and Arab antiquities, as the area of that basin will be about 15 thousand square meters and contains buildings containing a Talmudic museum containing antiquities stolen from the excavations surrounding Al-Aqsa in order to promote the Jewish narrative. 

Israel also follows a systematic policy of changing the names of places in the city to give it a biblical, Talmudic character. We will not forget how the youth of Jerusalem scored a victory over the occupation when the latter submitted to their heroic stand of steadfastness by not using the electronic gates that the occupation authorities had installed a period of time ago in front of Al-Aqsa Mosque to force worshipers to enter the mosque through them. The occupation authorities were finally forced to remove those gates, which constituted a major victory not only for the people of Jerusalem, but for all the Palestinian people.

The second path is represented by these Israeli plans towards Jerusalem specifically to obliterate national identity and culture by Judaizing education and imposing Israeli curricula in Arab schools in the city in an attempt to distort Palestinian history in general and the history of the Holy City in particular, and impose the Jewish narrative on Arab students. In this regard, we cannot help but stand in reverence and respect for the teachers with the blue identity who renounced the financial temptations of teaching the Israeli curriculum and adhered to teaching the Palestinian curriculum.

Finally, we can summarize the characteristics of the Jerusalemite movement and the steadfastness of the resistance of youth in Jerusalem against the Israeli occupation measures in Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa Mosque as being spontaneous and not belonging to a specific political faction, which gives it a comprehensive character and gives it the character of a social movement that expresses the conscience and conscience of every Jerusalemite and Palestinian. This resistance has become a daily lifestyle to which Jerusalemites have become accustomed, especially those stationed in Al-Aqsa Mosque, who daily confront all forms of movements and incursions against Al-Aqsa Mosque, whether by settlers or by the official Israeli institution. Not to mention the legendary steadfastness of the residents of the Old City of Jerusalem against the emptying and displacement policies carried out by the Israeli authorities against them.
In summary, the battle to defend Jerusalem and its religious sanctities, including Al-Aqsa Mosque, is becoming more fierce day after day in light of the raging Zionist attack to erase history and geography, in addition to American support, which was recently represented by the deal of the century and the legalization of settlements, which made the battle in Jerusalem an issue of existence or annihilation. .