the world to break free from its selective blindness?
Should the silent monks begin to speak the truth even if for the first time?
Is it time for the normalizers to wake up?
The central issue at stake in this bloody iteration of violence is not about Hamas, but rather about the innocent Palestinian people who have been oppressed for more than seventy years.
They embarked on a journey of negotiation longer than a winter’s night and darker than the same, and while the Palestinian people offered hundreds of thousands of martyrs and millions of displaced persons, and gave and gave and gave so many concessions, merely for their natural right to live in peace and dignity. Israel continued to forcefully take Palestinian land every day, assaulting Palestinian people, razing their farms and orchards, demolishing their homes, cutting off their water and electricity, and arresting thousands of their people.
The occupier respects no law and adheres to no treaty, and even the two-state solution, where some Palestinians agreed to a state with limited freedoms, agency and security, and which allows them to govern only 6% of their rightfully historical land, and despite all that, Israel has still delayed and refused to abide by this treaty.
The East Timor struggle was concluded within five years, as did the South Sudan struggle, so why does the issue of Palestine remain unresolved even seventy years later?
What is the difference between Ukraine’s right to defend itself and the Palestinians’ right? What is the difference between the Palestinian people, who have a just cause, and the people of Ukraine? Why does the West stand with all its might and harness all its capabilities to support Ukraine, while when it comes to Palestine it supports, enables, and celebrates the aggressor, occupier, and usurper?
Recently, the whole world witnessed Israel desecrating many holy places in Palestine. The international community sat back and watched the occupying and fanatical leaders humiliating the traditional owners of the land, assaulting their women, murdering their young people in cold blood, and starving them wholesale.
The United Nations took no interest in Netanyahu announcing the construction of new illegal settlements with thousands of homes.
Is it then time for the world to rid itself of its ideological blindfold? To see the stark difference between those who defend a land in which their roots extend for centuries, and those who came from all corners of the earth to occupy a land that is not theirs, driven by a religious myth about the Promised Land!!
Is it time for silent monks to reject this rewriting of history and distortion of facts? And to stop repeating the same false claims about Israel’s right to defend itself, as if the Palestinians who own the land are not human beings and have no rights?.......Is it time for them to speak the truth, even for once?
The Palestinians fight for their lives and defend their land legitimately, and are even ready to lay their lives on the line for their cause.
Is it time for the normalizers to wake up? To come to terms with the fact that the Palestinian people will continue to produce generations of heroes? That they will never give up or disappear into oblivion?
Resistance against tyranny is a legitimate right for any human being, regardless of the brutality or sophistications of the occupier’s arsenal. It will only add to the brilliance that every measure of resistance takes on with their boldness and innovations. The blood of the martyrs will smell of musk because his will never breaks and his resolve never falls. Rather, everything around him participates: the earth, the sky, the water, the air and even the remains of graves will now and forever continue to stand up to the occupier’s arrogance and the brutality of his military machine. Until Palestine is finally free.
Dr Ibrahim Abu Mohammad
The Grand Mufti of Australia
October 2023