After Israel added the Ibrahim and Bilal ben Rabah mosques to its list of Jewish historical sites, it announced last Monday the official opening of the Hurva Synagogue. To Israel, the inauguration of the restored synagogue is a natural extension of its project to make Jerusalem Jewish, and the most important step towards the destruction of Al-Aqsa and the rebuilding of Soloman’s Temple (the Third Temple).
While Israel has previously built more than 60 synagogues in the old city of Jerusalem, the Hurva Synagogue is the most dangerous, the largest, and the closest to Al-Aqsa. Its large dome looms over Al-Aqsa, and the intention was for it to exceed the height of the Dome of the Rock, where the prophet Mohamed prayed and then ascended to heaven.
The synagogue was constructed on the ruins of an Ottoman structure, built within the foundations of Islamic buildings adjacent to the Omri mosque. Nevertheless, Israel, falsifying history as usual, staked its right to the site, claiming that the synagogue was built in 1864 and destroyed by the Jordanian forces in the War of 1948, thus transforming a lie into the truth. It used the reconstruction of the synagogue as a fait accompli to drive another nail into the coffin of an Arab Jerusalem and the dream of a Palestinian state.
If the rebuilding of the synagogue fits within the customary framework of Israeli expansion, it also constitutes one more in a long line of messages that Israel has become accustomed to sending to the international community and the Muslim world. Israel cares not about treaties or laws. It seems as if it is determined to carry on destroying its security with its own hands.
It is possible to understand the messages Israel sends by examining the timing and the circumstances under which it sends them. This opening of the Hurva Synagogue comes amid Arab preparations for the summit in Libya, where the 16th anniversary of the Cave of the Patriarchs massacre, in which dozens of Muslims were martyred, will be commemorated. It also comes amid widespread allegations of the involvement of Israeli intelligence in the assassination of Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, as well as the Islamic world’s celebration of the prophet’s birthday, and the inflaming of tensions between Israel and the US in the aftermath of the announcement of more settlement construction made during US Vice President Joe Biden’s visit to Israel.
It seems as if Israel is seeking, with these messages, to renew its challenge to the international community and its legitimacy, emphasizing the impotence of the international community to act as a mediator in the Israeli-Palestinian issue beyond accepting Israeli dictates based on how it defines its interests.
Israel’s utter disdain for the international community is the principal reason for its continued and unconstrained violations of international law. No matter what it does, it never seems to suffer the consequences. The land that it usurps, the laws it violates, the massacres it commits: all of these are merely spectacles for international consumption and never a cause for international action.
After the burning of Al-Aqsa in 1969, after the incremental Judaization of Jerusalem, after the expansion of settlements, after the segmentation of the West Bank by erecting the separation barrier, and after the annexation of Islamic and Christian sites as Jewish sites, the construction of the Hurva Synagogue only 100 meters from the Dome of the Rock should not be surprising.
It will not be surprising if the Israelis expel the Arabs, once-and-for-all, from Palestine under the pretense that they are reclaiming their ancestral homeland. And no one will be astonished when Israel fashions, out of this latest escalation, a series of messages along the same lines of those it has delivered to the international community time and time again. These messages will declare Israel’s open disagreement with the Obama administration’s vision for the region, its refusal to engage in direct or indirect negotiations with the Palestinians, and the continuation of its settlement policy.
Moreover, they will ensure that the upcoming Arab summit is stillborn, no more than a smattering of hearings, meetings and recommendations that will in no way match the gravity of Israeli abuses.
The day draws near on which the Arabs, both Muslim and Christian, will overthrow the regimes that rule them. These regimes, that are as proficient at torturing their own people as they are incapable of protecting them, have the courage of a lion when confronting their citizens, but in front of the Israelis are like the proverbial ostrich that buries its head in the sand.
The regimes send letters of gratitude to Mahmoud Abbas and the leadership of the Palestinian Authority for their ingenuity in hindering any sort of protest over the desecration of Al-Aqsa and their heroic efforts to clip the wings of the resistance. They praise the Palestinian leadership for rejecting the refugees’ right of return, and commend them for coordinating security arrangements and cooperating in model fashion with the Israeli Defense Forces. They thank Hamas and Fatah for allowing a schism to develop between the two factions, for severing all links between the West Bank and Gaza, and for putting their selfish ambitions ahead of nationalistic principles. They commend the two groups for transforming the Israel-Palestinian conflict into an intra-Palestinian feud, and a struggle over existence into simply a fight over land.
The Palestinians are destined to see more of the same: more mistreatment, more torture, more of the blockade, more checkpoints, and the continued Judaization of Jerusalem. They are destined to be felled by traitors’ bullets and to see their dreams crushed by the Jews and their own collaborators alike. And why not? As the world sits by and watches, occasionally cautioning the Israelis or requesting some action from them, Israel goes from success to success, destroying the Palestinian dream as it draws closer to fulfilling its own Biblical vision.
If the messages that Israeli sends to the international community are disgraceful, at least they are unambiguous. While the world talks, Israel acts. The Israeli messages arrived as Muslims were celebrating one of their most dear holidays, the birthday of the prophet, and exposed for all to see their regimes’ weakness and fear in front of their peoples. The messages were a bitter pill to swallow for anyone still possessing a shred of dignity, and deserve an immediate answer. Will anyone respond?
Translated from the Arabic Edition.
