Jerusalem calls for freedom... How did Lebanon and Gaza respond?

Written by: Fouad Baker on 8 April 2023

Palestinians attacked for defending the Al-Aqsa Mosque  by jeruslaemindanger blog from Creative Commons Flickr

Fouad Baker
Lawyer at International Criminal Court Bar Association
04/07/2023

On March 19, 2023, the Palestinian Authority met with the Israeli occupation government in Sharm El-Sheikh, under the auspices of Egypt, Jordan and the US administration, despite the opposition of the Palestinian parties to this complementary meeting to the Aqaba meeting. The Sharm El-Sheikh meeting issued a statement stating that the unilateral actions between the Palestinian Authority and the government of the Israeli occupation and the return to bilateral agreements, in addition to the protection of sanctities in occupied Jerusalem.

However, the extremist Israeli occupation government, since the beginning of the month of fasting among Muslims "Ramadan", has been carrying out arbitrary arrests of the Palestinian people, storming the Palestinian refugee camps in Nablus and Jenin, and expecting a large number of young martyrs, but on 03/04/2023, the Israeli occupation forces stormed Al-Aqsa Mosque and arrested a large number of young people, including children and the elderly, while they were performing prayers inside the mosque, and set fires inside the places of worship. And the Israeli occupation government, on orders from the Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben Gvir, and the Minister of Finance, Smotrich, who seized the powers of the Israeli Minister of Defense, armed the Jewish settlers on the occupied Palestinian lands, which made the Jewish settlers attack and burn the homes of the Palestinians, amid support from the Israeli occupation government, which called for burning Palestinian cities and killing Palestinians.

Accordingly, the Palestinian resistance launched from Gaza on 04/04/2023 a number of 16 rockets, which were intercepted by the Israeli Iron Dome and no damage was caused. The aim was to warn the Israeli occupation authorities not to storm Al-Aqsa Mosque again, but the racist and fascist Israeli occupation government  increased its criminality and arrests of the Palestinian people, prevented worshipers from performing their religious rites in Al-Aqsa Mosque, and imposed a ban on the West Bank region, so the Palestinian resistance in the Gaza Strip warned again by issuing statements by the military leadership.

While the Security Council was meeting to discuss Middle East matters, and after Jordan, Egypt and the UAE insisted on the need to issue a statement by the Security Council condemning the Israeli occupation government's incursions into the occupied city of Jerusalem, but Washington refused that.

After the meeting of the Palestinian military leadership in Beirut on 04/06/2023, 35 missiles were launched from southern Lebanon into the northern Palestinian territories in occupied 1948, threatening the Israeli occupation government to back down from its crimes and incursions into occupied Jerusalem, but what is remarkable this time is that the resistance, the Palestinian movement, did not adopt this decision at all, and Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and the Fatah movement denounced the firing of rockets from southern Lebanon towards the Palestinian territories occupied in 1948, in addition to Hezbollah in Lebanon.

At first, the Israeli occupation government was confused about how to respond, so it accused Hamas and held the government of Lebanon responsible. After the meeting of the Israeli cabinet, it issued a decision to strike the military sites of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, and hit 6 missiles on sites which the Israeli occupation government claimed to be affiliated with Hamas in Lebanon. These sites are near the Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon.

The Israeli occupation government also increased its crimes, preventing the Palestinian people from holding prayers in Al-Aqsa Mosque, so the fire broke out again. Therefore, the Israeli occupation forces are trying to single out the Palestinian people in occupied Jerusalem and the West Bank who do not possess heavy weapons, and are currently imposing a military siege on them.

The current Israeli occupation government is trying to get out of its internal impasse by taking revenge on the Palestinian people, in order to avoid internal conflicts with the Opposition, which may overthrow the Israeli occupation government if it continues to impose draft laws and racist legal amendments, knowing that the current Israeli occupation government is the most fascist and racist Since 1948.

Suppose that the Palestinian people stormed a Jewish synagogue, what would have happened? Of course they would be accused of anti-Semitism and condemned by the international community, but when it comes to the Palestinian people, everyone is silent. The Palestinian people today want nothing but freedom and the establishment of their independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital, as stipulated in the resolutions of international legitimacy, and the return to their homes under Resolution 194 of the United Nations General Assembly in 1948, which requires the international community to stand by it and fully support it in order to get rid of the colonial regime that practices apartheid with the aim of ethnic cleansing, demolishing homes, expanding illegal colonial settlements, and annexing Palestinian lands, all of which violate international law and resolutions of international legitimacy.

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