It Is Time To Speak Up For Palestine!

Jerusalem, the holy site for the three divine religions, is bleeding again. The Israel-Palestine conflict once again escalated due to the Israeli raid into the Masjid Al-Aqsa (The Furthest Mosque) with tear gas and rubber bullets on the holiest night, Laylat al-Qadr on 8 May, for Muslims. Places of worship are sacred in the holy books of all the three faiths and resorting to such brutal attacks is intolerable.

Jerusalem: Holy city for the Abrahamic religions

During the Israeli-Palestinian conflicts that have been ongoing for 100 years, tens of thousands of people including civilians and children have lost their lives and millions of Palestinians were expulsed from their homelands.

Jerusalem, the first kiblah (the direction to which Muslims turn during prayer), was under Ottoman rule between 1517–1917. Both the Christians and the Jews co-existed with the Muslim Arabs in the city during that period. Due to the common history they shared, it was a holy city for all the three Abrahamic religions. However, balances shifted following World War I, and conflicts began soon after.

The current crisis began because of the Israeli settlers trying to seize Palestinian property in East Jerusalem. These attempts, unlawful according to international law, have been continuing since 1980. The violence in the holy city shortly spread to Gaza leaving 218 Palestinians martyred including 63 children and 36 women, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.

Global protests and denouncements against the violence

People all over the world consistently carry out mass protests and support the strong condemnation of escalating violence against the civilians in the region to raise awareness.

“There is no possible justification for children being killed or injured. We condemn and demand an immediate stop to the indiscriminate targeting and killing of civilians, including children. This is a grave violation of children’s rights and perpetrators must be held to account for their actions and brought to justice.” — Jason Lee, the director of Save the Children in Palestine

Social media, especially Twitter, has been a resort where sensitive and conscious activists — be them ordinary citizens or journalists, or celebrities — speak up against atrocities by using several hashtags such as#SaveSheikhJarrah

#GazaUnderAttack

#FreePalestine

#PalestinianLivesMatter

Here are some of the messages:

Now as famous for her activism as for her acting, Susan Sarandon uses her Twitter account intensely to support the oppressed in Palestine. She shared a significant part of Patrick Kingsley’s NY Times article on May 15 unfolding the Gaza war in depth.

She also shared a gut-wrenching video of a 10-year-old girl that went viral on social media. Only by watching this video, something from inside urges us to do something against this violence, which has been the deadliest Palestinian-Israel conflict in years. As humans, we are responsible to speak out and raise awareness.

Supermodel sisters Gigi and Bella Hadid, whose father is Palestinian, persistently post messages on their social media. To show her support for Palestinians, Bella Hadid joined a pro-Palestinian march in Brooklyn with a Palestinian flag in her hand wearing a keffiyeh. She shared the footage on her Instagram with these words:

“The way my heart feels,” she wrote. “To be around this many beautiful, smart, respectful, loving, kind and generous Palestinians all in one place… it feels whole! We are a rare breed!!!”

Last weekend saw other pro-Palestinian protests in other parts of the world such as London, Paris, Los Angeles, Washington D.C., and Istanbul to call for an end to continuing Israeli attacks.

Diplomatic endeavors to demand an end to violence

While the clashes continue in the region, world leaders keep on uttering condemnatory statements vis-à-vis the brutal attacks. UN Secretary-General UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged Israel to stop demolitions and evictions.

“Israeli authorities must exercise maximum restraint and respect the right to freedom of peaceful assembly.” — UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres

The Middle East Quartet from the EU, the US, the UN, and Russia released a statement last weekend expressing that they were closely monitoring the situation and noted with “serious concern” the possible evictions of Palestinians. The group reiterated the group´s “commitment to a negotiated two-state solution.”

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan called Israel a “terrorist state” following the raid in the Al-Aqsa Mosque and called for Muslims to unite against Israel’s atrocities.

Additionally, President Erdoğan proposed deploying peacekeepers to the region and initiated intense diplomacy traffic by discussing the matter with prominent world leaders such as Russian President Putin, Kuwait’s Emir Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmed Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, Malaysia’s King Al-Sultan Abdullah, Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo, Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoev, Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan.

President Erdoğan also called Pope Francis telling that the international community should “teach Israel the deterrent lesson it deserves”. He also added,

“Apart from blocking access to the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, restricting the freedom of worship, killing innocent civilians in the Palestinian lands, violating the human dignity.” — President Erdoğan

Pope Francis said the increasing casualties in the area were “unacceptable” on Sunday and posted a tweet calling people to pray for peace.

Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian envoy to the UN, beseeched the world body to gather more humanitarian aid for Gaza in the midst of Israeli bombing as the Security Council’s fourth meeting on Israel’s attacks ended with no declaration.

Mansour stated the following during a press conference held at UN headquarters in New York,

“I asked the UN to issue an emergency call for humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip immediately.” — Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian envoy to the UN

Conclusion

In a world where aggression, hatred, conflict, and bloodshed prevail, the members of the Abrahamic faiths should focus on the commonalities they share and develop an understanding of their differences. One should note that having differences does not necessarily be damaging to one another, on the contrary, it will bring prosperity if they learn to use these distinctions in a peaceful manner.

Jerusalem is a holy city for the Muslims, the Christians, and the Jews and it should be kept as a peaceful place of worship. People from different religions should be the ones to establish security, peace, and justice in the region by connecting without prejudice. Restraining peace in the holy land is our duty as conscientious human beings.

The endeavors exercised both on the international arena and the state level are of great importance but they should not be left only with condemnation. Condemnation has always been insufficient in such conditions. Therefore, the UN and political leaders from all over the world should take concrete actions to end the violence by uniting against the aggressive party. Peace can only be attained through diplomacy and by peaceful means.

Disclaimer

The original version of this story was published in another platform under a different title.