This article was written in September 2019 and is now being published as seventy three years have now passed since An Nakbah whilst the world looks on in horror at the atrocities that the Palestinian people continue to face from the aggressive occupiers.
In the Name of the Almighty and countless peace and blessings upon our Master, the Final Messenger of Allah, Muhammad, his family, companions and all those who follow their ways.
It is narrated by Sayyiduna Nu’man Ibn Bashir رضي الله عنهما who stated that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “The believers are just like one body in their mutual kindness, compassion and sympathy. When one of the limbs suffers, the whole body responds to it with wakefulness and fever”. (Al Bukhari and Muslim)
As the grandson of Nelson Mandela, Nkosi Zwelivelile Mandela, stated in one of his articles in relation to the situation in Palestine, it is not only the right of all people of conscience but rather their responsibility to “express their disagreement with any state that violates human rights and international law. They have a right to freedom of expression, to speak truth to power and to stand in solidarity with the oppressed.”
I received a message from a brother who wished for myself to express support for a campaign to raise awareness amongst the Muslim community of the terrible situation the Palestinian people have been continuously facing since a century and to make clear that the scholars and students of religious sciences amongst the Ahl us Sunnah wal Jama’ah are always supplicating for the Palestinians and are continuously condemning the illegal occupation of Palestinian land.
It must be clear from the offset that the scholars of Ahl us Sunnah wal Jama’ah believe and hope for peaceful and harmonious co-existence of people from all faiths in the Holy Land. We do not promote hatred, extremism, racism, fascism, anti-semitism or any other form of discrimination towards a community based on its religion, opinion or race. It is important to remember that the Palestinian people affected by the oppression and transgression of the oppressors and occupiers are from the Christian community as well as the Muslim community. Furthermore, there are many members of the Jewish community who express their disagreement and condemnation of the views and actions carried out by the Zionists.
Over a hundred years, the Palestinians have been deprived of many fundamental human rights as a result of the development of the Zionist state of Israel. In order to fully understand the pain that is in the hearts of the believers, it is important for us to look back at what occurred after World War One and how the thunder of oppression and tyranny rained down on the Palestinian people.
The Right to Exist
The leadership of the Zionist movement since the 1900s were envisaging a way of resolving the “racial problem of Palestine” by transferring the Arabs from this land. The beginning to the expulsion of the Palestinian people from their homes came with the Balfour Declaration which did not acknowledge the Palestinian people as having any distinct identity or right to exist as a nation or state – this declaration referred to the Palestinians as “existing non-Jewish communities.” The Balfour Declaration claimed to afford civil and religious rights to these communities but not political ones. Therefore this declaration paved the way for the alienation of the Palestinian identity.
The attempt to annihilate the existence of Palestinian people reached a frightening level in the time before and after 15 May 1948 which is marked as Nakba (catastrophe) by the people of Palestine. This catastrophe led to at least 750,000 Palestinians being forced to leave their homes or being extracted forcefully by the Zionist forces. The creation of Israel marked the destruction of Palestinian homes as 530 villages and cities were destroyed and more than 70 massacres occurred with indescribable and innumerable atrocities being carried out. These massacres include the Baldat al-Sheikh massacre that occurred on 31 December 1947 in which 70 Palestinians were massacred, the Sa’sa’ massacre which occurred on 14 February 1948 when 16 houses were blown up and 60 people were killed and the Deir Yassin massacre in which approximately 110 Palestinian men, women and children were slaughtered. (http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2017/05/nakba-start-1948-170522073908625.html)
How would we feel?
If we put ourselves in the shoes of those people who were living peacefully without causing any harm to anybody else in the land of Palestine and imagine being expelled from our peaceful homes and rendered homeless and destitute as a result for decades upon decades, the full scale of the humanitarian crisis will be apparent to us. According to the Al Jazeera article referred to earlier, there are approximately 7.98 million Palestinian refugees and internally displaced people who are still waiting to return to their original homes and villages. The world cannot and should not overlook the plight of these people – many of whom still have the keys to their original homes with the fading hope that they will eventually return to their homes.
Reading the words of Hussein Ibish when he described the situation that occurred in Palestine brings great sorrow to the heart – “Collectively, they lost their society, and were condemned to live as exiles or stateless subjects under the rule of a foreign military. They had a society, and then they didn’t.” (http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2018/05/the-meaning-of-nakba-israel-palestine-1948-gaza/560294)
The UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres stated in February 2019, “Palestinians have endured more than half a century of occupation and denial of their legitimate right to self-determination.”
Israel’s continual violation of Palestinian Rights
The rights that are being violated are internationally recognised rights of the Palestinian people. The UN General Assembly Resolution 194 of 1948 states that the Arabs should return to their homes. However the Palestinians are not being given this right to return.
Israel is going against international law by building settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories and thus showing furthermore that it is not prepared to afford basic rights to the Palestinian people.
The blockade in Gaza and the restriction on the movement of people and goods there has resulted in one of the greatest humanitarian crises the world has seen.
Israel has killed thousands of Palestinian civilians in numerous attacks. From time to time Israel shoots and attacks demonstrators who campaign for Palestinian rights.
Rogue State
Professor of International Relations at Oxford University, Avi Shlaim, stated in an article in the Guardian that Israel possesses the characteristics of a rogue state. The characteristics include the habitual violation of international law, possession of weapons of mass destruction and the practice of terrorism. He explains how the actions of Israel are acts of terrorism – “the use of violence against civilians for political purposes.” He goes on to state that “Israel’s real aim is not peaceful coexistence with its Palestinian neighbours but military domination.”
It is in light of these factors that we cannot recognise Israel as a peaceful and legitimate state when its actions are illegal and filled with hatred and terror. We wholeheartedly stand for peaceful coexistence of those of all different faiths in the Holy Land. The first step to achieve this will be by allowing the Palestinian people to return to their original homes as is required by the UN General Assembly Resolution 194 of 1948.