Al-Aqsa Contents

Published By VOLUME 10 NUMBER 1 AUTUMN 2007

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Editorial 3
ISSN 1463-3930
Divide and rule, Israeli style 5
EDITOR JONATHAN COOK
Ismail Adam Patel
Boycott Israel 9
SUB-EDITOR
RAJNAARA AKHTAR
Rajnaara Akhtar

PRODUCTION ASSISTANTS
Armageddon Now 13
Azizul Hoque STEPHEN SIZER

PRINTERS Sewage Tsunami and Economic, Physical and

Impress Printers, Batley. Political Strangulation in Gaza 17
ANNA BALTZER
© 2007 Friend of Al-Aqsa
Islamic Libraries in Jerusalem 21
WE WELCOME
MAZEN NUSSIEBEH
Papers, articles and
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We especially encourage
writings relating to the
BOOK REVIEWS 27
History, Politics,
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International Law and Occupied Palestine
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The word count should REVIEWED BY RAJNAARA AKHTAR
not exceed 2,000 words.
Reviews of Books relating Overcoming Zionism: Creating a Single
to the issue of Palestine Democratic State in Israel/Palestine
are also welcome and
by Joel Kovel
should not exceed 1,000
words. Letters on any
REVIEWED BY SAMUEL J. KURUVILLA
related topics can also be
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Al-Aqsa 1
2 Al-Aqsa
 E D I T O R I A L
2
T
hose who reject the Signs of Allah and the Meeting with
Him (in the Hereafter), it is they who shall despair of My
Mercy: it is they who will (suffer) a most grievous Penalty.
May Allahs blessings be upon all His Prophets from Adam to
His final Messenger Muhammad (saw).
On 12 June 2007, weeks, months and years of oppressive
measures and deliberately divisive policies culminated into
a catastrophic seismic split in Palestinian society. For the
first time in almost 60 years, the occupation was forgotten
and Palestinian turned on Palestinian.
This dire situation was altogether predictable for the
simple reason that it was the direct result of Israeli and
Western policy in the occupied territories, especially
following the Hamas election victory of January 2006. The
economic siege coupled with the favouring of one side
against the other, was intended to sew seeds of division.
Unfortunately, Fatah under Mr Abbas, aligned themselves
with the occupiers and their supporters to undermine the
legitimately elected government of Hamas. This left little
choice but for Hamas to reinstall law and order which was
severely fractured by Mohammed Dahlan along the political
lines of Fatah.
Israel sold the boycott of the Palestinians as a legitimate
and necessary move in opposition to their support for a
terrorist organisation. Thus, they achieved international
backing to starve the Palestinians and break down their
society. When the Unity government was formed, the
sanctions did not ease at all, even though Hamas had made
spectacular moves to accommodate Israel’s wishes. This
made it clear that Israel’s actions were opportunistic rather
than a direct response to a perceived threat.
Since the Hamas/Fatah - Gaza/West Bank split,
Mahmoud Abbas has formed his own government (almost
unanimously accepted as being illegal by the impartial
observer), and has began ‘peace’ talks with Prime Minister
Olmert. This has led commentators to conclude that he
has, in true Fatah style, sold out the Palestinian people and
their struggle for justice, in favour of personal gain, power
and glory. The US and Israeli response was open armed
welcome, and a clear stamp of approval for the move
from democracy to dictatorship in the Palestinian
Territories.
Reports which emerged in Mid-August suggested that
Abbas was taking it upon himself to ensure that his
Palestinian brethren in Gaza were being denied access to
the outside world with the closing of the Rafah border
crossing. While publicly Abbas continues to call for the
borders to be opened immediately to avert further suffering
in what has become a humanitarian catastrophe, in private
it is reported that he wants the border to remain firmly
closed with the sole purpose of choking Hamas. While the
effects on Hamas are still not clear, what is clear is that
Gaza’s 1.4 million Palestinians are all suffering and are all
but a few reliant on international aid for survival. Gaza’s
industries have all collapsed as there are no more raw
materials to sustain them. The fishing industry continues
to suffer from bars on entering Gaza’s militarily monitored
waters. No Palestinian in Gaza has been left unaffected by
this man-made tragedy.
Calls have been made by aid agencies, including the
United Nations Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA)
for a besieged Gaza’s borders to be re-opened in order to
prevent 100% reliance on aid. These calls have gone largely
unheard.
Further to the misery inside the Gaza Strip, hundreds
of Palestinians remained trapped outside the border on
the Egyptian or Israeli side waiting desperately to get home.
31 of these Palestinians have died in these inhumane
conditions, and many are ill as their travel to Egypt or
Israel was for medical treatment. Those who have died
include 27 year old Wael Abu Warda who died on August
4 from Kidney failure while waiting at Erez crossing,
separating Gaza from Israel,
A twist of events at the UN clearly reflects the
seriousness of this split, where the Palestinian Ambassador
to the UN himself opposed a draft Resolution proposed
by Qatar and seconded by Indonesia, which expressed
concern over the humanitarian disaster intensifying in the
Gaza Strip. This resolution was intended to embarrass Israel
into lifting its siege on Gaza, and the Abbas government
worked in collusion with Israel and the US Zionist lobby
to kill the draft. They were successful, and Palestinian
Ambassador Riyad Mansour justified this disgusting
behaviour on the grounds that “it is unacceptable for
anyone, including friends, to act on our behalf without
our knowledge and no one should take such initiatives
without consulting us.”
Thus, Gaza’s Palestinians remain imprisoned, with all
necessities in scarce supply including medicine, food,
electricity, fuel, and clean water.
The suffering continues in Gaza, while Abbas wines
and dines with Olmert in the West Bank. This division
between the Palestinians is historic, as for the first time,
there has emerged a group of people who have forgotten
that their fight is against their occupiers, not each other
for a seat of power.
Al-Aqsa 3
 A YOUTH EXCHANGE PROGRAMME WITH
AN NAJAH NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, NABLUS, PALESTINE

4 Al-Aqsa
Divide and rule, Israeli style
Jonathan Cook1
T
he boycott by Israel and the international
community of the Palestinian Authority
finally blew up in their faces with Hamas’
bloody takeover of Gaza in June 2007. Or so
argued Gideon Levy, one of the saner voices
still found in Israel. “Starving, drying up and
blocking aid do not sear the consciousness and
do not weaken political movements. On the
contrary ... Reality has refuted the chorus of
experts and commentators who preached [on]
behalf of the boycott policy. This daft notion
that it is possible to topple an elected
government by applying pressure on a helpless
population suffered a complete failure.”
But did Levy get it wrong? The faces of
Israeli and American politicians, including Ehud
Olmert and George W. Bush, appeared soot-
free. On the contrary, during the Gaza violence
they were looking and sounding even more smug
than usual.
The problem with Levy’s analysis was that it
assumes that Israel and the US wanted sanctions
to bring about the fall of Hamas, either by giving
Fatah the upper hand so that it could deal a
knockout blow to the Palestinian government,
or by inciting ordinary Palestinians to rise up
and demand that their earlier electoral decision
be reversed and Fatah reinstalled. In short, Levy,
like most observers, assumes that the policy was
designed to enforce regime change.
But what if that was not the point of the
sanctions? And if so, what goals were Israel and
the US pursuing?
The parallels between Iraq and Gaza may
be instructive. After all, Iraq is the West’s only
other recent experiment in imposing sanctions
to starve a nation. And we all know where it
led: to an even deeper entrenchment of Saddam
Hussein’s rule.
True, the circumstances in Iraq and Gaza
are different: most Iraqis wanted Saddam out
but had no way to effect change, while most
1. JONATHAN COOK is a freelance journalist based in the Palestinian city of Nazareth. He is a regular contributor
to the English-language Arab media, including Al-Ahram Weekly in Cairo, the Daily Star in Beirut and the website
al-Jazeera.net. His book Blood and Religion: The Unmasking of the Jewish and Democratic State (Pluto Press, London,
2006) examines Israel’s treatment of its Arab citizens during the second intifada.
Gazans wanted Hamas in and made it
happen by voting for them in last year’s
elections. Nevertheless, it may be that the
US and Israel drew a different lesson from
the sanctions experience in Iraq.
Whether intended or not, sanctions This daft notion
proved a very effective tool for destroying that it is possible
the internal bonds that held Iraqi society to topple an
together. Destitution and hunger are elected
powerful incentives to turn on one’s neighbor government by
as well as one’s enemy. A society where applying pressure
resources - food, medicines, water and on a helpless
electricity - are in short supply is also a society population
where everyone looks out for himself. It is suffered a
a society that, with a little prompting, can complete failure
easily be made to tear itself apart.
And that is precisely what the Americans
began to engineer after their “shock and awe”
invasion of 2003. Contrary to previous US
interventions abroad, Saddam was not
toppled and replaced with another strongman
- one more to the West’s liking. Instead of
regime change, we were given regime
overthrow. Or as Daniel Pipes, one of the
neoconservative ideologues of the attack on
Iraq, expressed it, the goal was “limited to
destroying tyranny, not sponsoring its
replacement ... Fixing Iraq is neither the
coalition’s responsibility nor its burden.”
In place of Saddam, the Americans
created a safe haven known as the Green
Zone from which its occupation regime
could loosely police the country and oversee
the theft of Iraq’s oil, while also sitting back
and watching a sectarian civil war between
the Sunni and Shia populations spiral out of
control and decimate the Iraqi population.
What did Washington hope to achieve?
Pipes offers a clue: “When Sunni terrorists
target Shiites and vice-versa, non-Muslims
[that is, US occupation forces and their allies]
are less likely to be hurt. Civil war in Iraq, in
Al-Aqsa 5
 short, would be a humanitarian tragedy but not
a strategic one.” In other words, enabling a civil
war in Iraq was far preferable to allowing Iraqis
to unite and mount an effective resistance to
the US occupation. After all, Iraqi deaths - at
least 650,000 of them, according to the last
The cumulative realistic count - are as good as worthless, while
effect of US US soldiers’ lives cost votes back home.
support for Fatah, For the neocon cabal behind the Iraq
as well as Israel’s invasion, civil war was seen to have two
continuing arrests beneficial outcomes.
of Hamas First, it eroded the solidarity of ordinary
legislators in the Iraqis, depleting their energies and making them
West Bank, was to less likely to join or support the resistance to
strain already the occupation. The insurgency has remained a
tense relations terrible irritation to US forces but not the fatal
between Hamas blow it might have been were the Sunni and
and Fatah to Shia to fight side by side. As a result, the theft
breaking point of Iraq’s resources has been made easier.
And second, in the longer term, civil war is
making inevitable a slow process of communal
partition and ethnic cleansing. Four million Iraqis
are reported to have been forced either to leave
the country or flee their homes. Iraq is being
broken up into small ethnic and religious fiefdoms
that will be easier to manage and manipulate.
Is this the model for Gaza now and the
West Bank later?
It is worth recalling that neither Israel nor the
US pushed for an easing of the sanctions on
the Palestinian Authority after the national unity
government of Hamas and Fatah was formed
earlier this year. In fact, the US and Israel could
barely conceal their panic at the development.
The moment the Mecca agreement was signed,
reports of US efforts to train and arm Fatah
forces loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas
became a newspaper staple.
The cumulative effect of US support for
Fatah, as well as Israel’s continuing arrests of
Hamas legislators in the West Bank, was to strain
already tense relations between Hamas and
Just as in Iraq,
Fatah to breaking point. When Hamas learned
they are
that Abbas’ security chief, Mohammed Dahlan,
encouraging civil with US encouragement, was preparing to carry
war as an out a coup against them in Gaza, they got the
alternative to first shot in.
resistance to Did Fatah really believe it could pull off a
occupation; while coup in Gaza, given the evident weakness of
Palestine’s its forces there, or was the rumour little more
resources – land, than American and Israeli spin, designed to
not oil – are undermine Hamas’ faith in Fatah and doom
stolen the unity government? Were Abbas and Dahlan
really hoping to topple Hamas, or were they
the useful idiots needed by the US and Israel?
These are questions that may have to be settled
by the historians.
But with the fingerprints of Elliott Abrams,
one of the more durable neocons in the Bush
6 Al-Aqsa
administration, to be found all over this
episode, we can surmise that what Washington
and Israel are intending for the Palestinians
will have strong echoes of what has unfolded
in Iraq.
By engineering the destruction of the
unity government, Israel and the US have
ensured that there is no danger of a new
Palestinian consensus emerging, one that
might have cornered Israel into peace talks.
A unity government might have found a
formula offering Israel:
„ limited recognition inside the pre-1967
borders in return for recognition of a
Palestinian state and the territorial
integrity of the West Bank and Gaza;
„ a long-term ceasefire in return for
Israel ending its campaign of constant
violence and violations of Palestinian
sovereignty;
„ and a commitment to honor past
agreements in return for Israel’s
abiding by UN resolutions and
accepting a just solution for the
Palestinian refugees.
After decades of Israeli bad faith, and
the growing rancor between Fatah and
Hamas, the chances of them finding
common ground on which to make such an
offer, it must be admitted, would have been
slight. But now they are non-existent.
That is exactly how Israel wants it,
because it has no interest in meaningful
peace talks with the Palestinians or in a final
agreement. It wants only to impose solutions
that suit Israel’s interests, which are securing
the maximum amount of land for an
exclusive Jewish state and leaving the
Palestinians so weak and divided that they
will never be able to mount a serious
challenge to Israel’s dictates.
Instead, Hamas’ dismal authority over
the prison camp called Gaza and Fatah’s
bastard governance of the ghettoes called
the West Bank offer a model more satisfying
for Israel and the US - and one not unlike
Iraq. A sort of sheriff ’s divide and rule in
the Wild West.
Just as in Iraq, Israel and the US have
made sure that no Palestinian strongman
arises to replace Yasser Arafat. Just as in
Iraq, they are encouraging civil war as an
alternative to resistance to occupation; while
Palestine’s resources - land, not oil - are
stolen. Just as in Iraq, they are causing a
permanent and irreversible partition, in this
case between the West Bank and Gaza, to
create more easily managed territorial
ghettoes. And just as in Iraq, the likely
reaction is an even greater extremism from the
Palestinians that will undermine their cause in
the eyes of the international community.
Where will this lead the Palestinians
next?
Israel is already pulling the strings of Fatah
with a new adeptness since the latter’s
humiliation in Gaza. Abbas is currently basking
in Israeli munificence for his rogue West Bank
regime, including the decision to release a
substantial chunk of the $700 million tax
monies owed to the Palestinians (including
those of Gaza, of course) and withheld for
months by Israel. The price, according to the
Israeli media, was a commitment from Abbas
not to contemplate re-entering a unity
government with Hamas.
The goal will be to increase the strains
between Hamas and Fatah to breaking point in
the West Bank, but ensure that Fatah wins the
confrontation there. Fatah is already militarily
stronger and with generous patronage from
Israel and the US — including arms and training,
and possibly the return of the Badr Brigade
currently holed up in Jordan - it should be able
to rout Hamas. The difference in status between
Gaza and the West Bank that has been long
desired by Israel will be complete.
The Palestinian people have already been
carved up into a multitude of constituencies.
There are the Palestinians under occupation,
those living as second-class citizens of Israel,
those allowed to remain “residents” of Jerusalem,
and those dispersed to camps across the Middle
East. Even within these groups, there are a host
of sub-identities: refugees and non-refugees;
refugees included as citizens in their host state
and those excluded; occupied Palestinians living
under the control of the Palestinian Authority
and those under Israel’s military government;
and so on.
Now, Israel has entrenched maybe the most
significant division of all: the absolute and
irreversible separation of Gaza and the West
Bank. What applies to one will no longer be true
for the other. Each will be a separate case; their
fates will no longer be tied. One will be, as Israelis
like to call it, Hamastan, and other Fatahland,
with separate governments and different
treatment from Israel and the international
community.
The reasons why Israel prefers this
arrangement are manifold
First, Gaza can now be written off by the
international community as a basket case. The
Israeli media is currently awash with patronizing
commentary from the political and security
establishments about how to help avoid a
humanitarian crisis in Gaza, including the
possibility of air drops of aid over the Gaza
“security fence” - as though Gaza were
Pakistan after an earthquake. From past
experience, and the current menacing sounds
from Israel’s new Defence Minister, Ehud Israel is already
Barak, those food packages will quickly turn pulling the strings
into bombs if Gaza does not keep quiet. of Fatah with a
As Israeli and US officials have been new adeptness
phrasing it, there is a new “clarity” in the since the latter’s
situation. In a Hamastan, Gaza’s militants humiliation in
and civilians can be targeted by Israel with Gaza
little discrimination and no outcry from the
international community. Israel will hope that
message from Gaza will not be lost on West
Bank Palestinians as they decide who to give
their support to, Fatah or Hamas.
Second, Olmert and Bush have revived
talk of Palestinian statehood. According to
Olmert, Bush “wants to realize, while he is
in office, the dream of creating a Palestinian
state.” Both are keen to make quick progress,
a sure sign of mischief in the making.
Certainly, they know they are now under no
pressure to create the single viable Palestinian
state in the West Bank and Gaza once
promised by President Bush. An embattled
Abbas will not be calling for the inclusion
of Gaza in his ghetto-fiefdom.
Third, the separation of Gaza from the
West Bank may be used to inject new life
into Olmert’s shopworn convergence plan -
if he can dress it up in new clothes.
Convergence, which required a very limited
withdrawal from those areas of the West
Bank heavily populated with Palestinians
while Israel annexed most of its illegal
colonies and kept the Jordan Valley, was
officially ditched last summer after Israel’s
humiliation by Hizballah.
Why seek to revive convergence? Because
it is the key to Israel securing the expanded
Jewish fortress state that is its only sure
protection from the rapid demographic
In a Hamastan,
growth of the Palestinians, soon to
Gaza’s militants
outnumber Jews in the Holy Land, and
and civilians can
Israel’s fears that it may then be compared
to apartheid South Africa. be targeted by
If the occupation continues unchanged, Israel with little
Israel’s security establishment has long been discrimination
warning, the Palestinians will eventually wake and no outcry
up to the only practical response: to dissolve from the
the Palestinian Authority, Israel’s clever ruse international
to make the Palestinian leadership community
responsible for suppressing Palestinian
resistance to the occupation, thereby forcing
Israel to pick up the bill for the occupation
rather than Europe. The next stage would
be an anti-apartheid struggle for one state
in historic Palestine.
Al-Aqsa 7
 For this reason, demographic separation from
the Palestinians has been the logic of every major
Israeli policy initiative since - and including -
Oslo. Convergence requires no loss of Israel’s
control over Palestinian lives, ensured through
the all but finished grid of walls, settlements,
Israel looks as if it bypass roads and checkpoints, only a
is dusting off yet repackaging of their occupation as statehood.
another blueprint The biggest objection in Israel to Olmert’s
for how to plan - as well as to the related Gaza
manage the disengagement - was the concern that, once the
Palestinians and army had unilaterally withdrawn from the
their irritating Palestinian ghettoes, the Palestinians would be
obsession with free to launch terror attacks, including sending
sovereignty rockets out of their prisons into Israel. Most
Israelis, of course, never consider the role of
the occupation in prompting such attacks.
But Olmert may believe he has found a way
to silence his domestic critics. For the first time
he seems genuinely keen to get his Arab
neighbours involved in the establishment of a
Palestinian “state”. As he headed off to the
Sharm al-Sheikh summit with Egypt, Jordan and
Abbas, Olmert said he wanted to “jointly work
to create the platform that may lead to a new
beginning between us and the Palestinians.”
Did he mean partnership? A source in the
Prime Minister’s Office explained to The
Jerusalem Post why the three nations and Abbas
were meeting. “These are the four parties directly
impacted by what is happening right now, and
what is needed is a different level of cooperation
between them.” Another spokesman bewailed
the failure so far to get the Saudis on board.
This appears to mark a sea change in Israeli
thinking. Until now Tel Aviv has regarded the
Palestinians as a domestic problem. After all,
they are sitting on land that rightfully, at least if
the Bible is to be believed, belongs to the Jews.
Any attempt at internationalizing the conflict has
therefore been strenuously resisted.
But now the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office
is talking openly about getting the Arab world
8 Al-Aqsa
more directly involved, not only in its usual
role as a mediator with the Palestinians, nor
even in simply securing the borders against
smuggling, but also in policing the territories.
Israel hopes that Egypt, in particular, is as
concerned as Tel Aviv by the emergence of
a Hamastan on its borders, and may be
enticed to use the same repressive policies
against Gaza’s Islamists as it does against its
own.
Similarly, Olmert’s chief political rival,
Binyamin Netanyahu of Likud, has
mentioned not only Egyptian involvement
in Gaza but even a Jordanian military
presence in the West Bank. The “moderate”
Arab regimes, as Washington likes to call
them, are being seen as the key to developing
new ideas about Palestinian “autonomy” and
regional “confederation.” As long as Israel
has a quisling in the West Bank and a beyond-
the-pale government in Gaza, it may believe
it can corner the Arab world into backing
such a “peace plan.”
What will it mean in practice? Possibly,
as Zvi Barel of Haaretz speculates, we will
see the emergence of half a dozen
Palestinian governments in charge of the
ghettoes of Gaza, Ramallah, Jenin, Jericho,
and Hebron. Each may be encouraged to
compete for patronage and aid from the
“moderate” Arab regimes but on condition
that Israel and the US are satisfied with these
Palestinian governments’ performance.
In other words, Israel looks as if it is
dusting off yet another blueprint for how to
manage the Palestinians and their irritating
obsession with sovereignty. Last time, under
Oslo, the Palestinians were put in charge of
policing the occupation on Israel’s behalf. This
time, as the Palestinians are sealed into their
separate prisons masquerading as a state,
Israel may believe that it can find a new jailer
for the Palestinians - the Arab world.
Boycott Israel
Rajnaara Akhtar1
B
oycott as a tool for fighting state
sponsored oppression and repression
has been used successfully in the past
against states such as South Africa at the height
of apartheid. Such moves towards boycott are
the response of civil society where governments
themselves fail to act. This is the medium used
by individuals and groups to make clear their
position and force a change in policies from
their governments. Since 2002, Israel has found
itself at the end of a concerted and sustained
campaign calling for economic, cultural,
academic and sporting boycotts.
The call for boycotting Israel has become
necessary after decades of illegal occupation and
denial of basic human rights to an occupied
people and the commission of innumerable war
crimes by the state of Israel. The Palestinian
Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott
of Israel (PACBI), a coalition of more than 50
Palestinian civil society organisations; first made
a call for boycott in 2004. During the last 3 years
the momentum has grown significantly, especially
in Britain and also in countries such as Canada,
South Africa and the USA.
The call to boycott Israel is being made at
many levels with the aim of enforcing an end
to its illegal occupation of Palestinian territories.
The occupation of the West Bank and Gaza
Strip began following the 6 Day War in 1967.
Since then, Israel has been responsible for
committing innumerable war crimes against the
Palestinian people which have been documented
by various human rights organisations.2
Moves towards boycott, or in the very least,
discussions about boycott or some form of
condemnation has emanated from a number of
professional bodies, unions and other
organisations. These include teachers, doctors,
architects, trade unions and sports tournaments.
Education
In May 2007, the University and College Union
(UCU) supported motions endorsing the logic
1. RAJNAARA AKHTAR is a researcher at Friends of Al-Aqsa. She is a law graduate with a Masters in Human
Rights Law from the University of Nottingham. She is also a freelance writer and commentator, and the Chair
of the campaign group Protect-Hijab.
of academic boycott against Israel, in
response to what was termed the ‘complicity
of the Israeli academy’ 3 in perpetuating
Israel’s illegal military occupation of the
Palestinian territories and the Israeli
the boycott was
apartheid system. The Jewish Chronicle ran
being driven
an article on June 15, 2007, naming the
mainly by Jewish
‘boycott ringleaders’. It stated unequivocally
that the boycott was being driven mainly by or Israeli activists
Jewish or Israeli activists who had taken this who had taken
position in support of the rights of this position in
Palestinian people and because they wanted support of the
to see an end to Israel’s occupation of the rights of
Palestinian territories. Palestinian people
This was a surprising revelation as the
popular portrayal of the move to boycott
was that it was being spearheaded by a ‘racist’
few who were verging on the border of anti-
Semitism, and most probably a mix of the
far-left activists and Islamic organisations.
The organisations actually backing the
boycott drive include Jews for the Boycotting
of Israeli Goods, Bricup, Friewos of Al-Aqsa
and the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, most
of whom have a significant Jewish presence.
Professor Bresheeth from the University
of East London has been quoted as saying
the boycott movement was a “civil action
against a military occupation”. He is one of
the supporters of the academic boycott
campaign. Other Jewish academics who
support the boycott move do so because they
feel outrage at Israel’s ‘brutal and illegal’
policies, carried out in their name.
While to many the move to boycott
makes perfect sense, the voices of dissent
against the boycott have been ringing load
and wide. Political figures were joined by
academics, journalists and others, eager to
combat such a move, arguing it was directly
and diametrically opposed to the true nature
of universities. Chief Rabbi Sir Jonathan
Sacks wrote: “It betrays a misunderstanding
of the academic mission which is founded
squarely on academic freedom of enquiry
Al-Aqsa 9
 and freedom of speech. Any institution worthy
of the title of university has the responsibility
to protect these values, and it is particularly
disturbing to find an academic union attacking
academic freedom in this way.”4
What Sir Jonathan Sacks and others who put
It is not only forward similar arguments fail to recognise, is
Palestinian that this move to boycott Israeli academic
students who face institutions has materialised because of the very
discrimination, as same failure to afford the academic freedom
the occupation which they describe, to Palestinians. While many
policies also effect individuals have responded robustly to the threat
academics who of an academic boycott and its resultant
are limited in restrictions on Israeli academia, these restrictions
their potential are merely a possibility. For Palestinians on the
and purpose by other hand, such restrictions and discrimination
the restrictions is part the parcel of life under Israeli
placed on their occupation, yet Israeli academia has never
movement objected to this treatment of their neighbours.
The late Tania Reinhart, who was an academic
in Tel-Aviv, said: “Never in its history did the
senate of a any Israeli university pass a
resolution protesting the frequent closure of
Palestinian universities, let alone voice protest
over the devastation sowed there [in the OT]....It
is not that a motion in that direction failed to
gather a majority, there was no such motion
anywhere in Israeli academia.”5
There are numerous examples of
Palestinian student being denied the right to
education and to free movement to facilitate
such education. Closures across the West Bank
and Gaza Strip have led to the loss of hundreds
of school days. School children and students
have experienced great trauma while in class
rooms and lecture halls, including the killing
and injury of pupils as they sat at their desks,
by Israeli snipers.6
While some opportunities become available
for study in Israeli and other universities, the
occupation policies means that few students are
allowed to take up these positions. One example
is that of Wisam Madhoon from Gaza who has
a Masters degree in environmental engineering
and was offered a place at Tel Aviv University
to study environmental science at PhD level.
However, the Israeli army refused to grant
travel permission without explanation and thus
he was unable to leave the occupied territories
to enter Israel. There was no redress for Wisam
and many like him suffer the same restrictions.
Even when this restriction was challenged in the
Israeli High Court, the ban on students from
Gaza was upheld.7 Any Palestinian wishing to
study for a PhD must go abroad as no Palestinian
university is able to offer this programme.
Thus, even Israel’s judiciary has in effect
upheld a boycott of Palestinian students by the
state of Israel and limited the academic freedom
of Palestinians without question. Since October
2006, there has been in effect a blanket ban on
10 Al-Aqsa
Palestinian students being allowed access to
Israel and even Jerusalem in order to study.8
Bearing this in mind, it is clear why many
have accused the Israeli academia and those
in Britain who oppose the boycott on such
terms; of hypocrisy and duplicity.
It is not only Palestinian students who
face discrimination, as the occupation policies
also effect academics who are limited in their
potential and purpose by the restrictions
placed on their movement. Checkpoints and
closure policies have meant that on some
days, it has been impossible for academics
to even reach their places of work. During
the al-Aqsa intifada period, hundreds of school
days were lost due to closures imposed on
the occupied territories. 9 Palestinian
academics have also faced discrimination in
access to libraries and other facilities.10
In Britain, the chairman of the
Parliamentary Committee Against Anti-
Semitism, Labour MP John Mann, promised
to make approaches to every university in
Britain in opposition to the move by the UCU
to debate the issue of boycotting Israeli
Universities. This exemplifies the response
of many politicians to the boycott calls from
various sectors, however, the persistence of
the boycott movement seems a clear
reflection of the mood of people on the
ground. Professionals on many fronts, from
academics, to architects and the medics are
all becoming increasingly aware of Israel’s
breaches of international law and its
inhumane policies towards the occupied
Palestinians.
The excuses for Israel peddled by its
supporters are typified by remarks from
Denis Macshane who said in Parliament:
“There is not a call for a boycott against
people from universities in other countries
where state practices are infinitely more
odious that those undertaken by some agents
of the government of Israel.” The fallacies
of this argument are clear – while there is
no doubt that regimes such as that in
Zimbabwe and other African states are guilty
of oppressing their people, these regimes do
not claim to be beacons of democracy; these
regimes are not being propped up by billions
in aide from the Western world, and these
regimes are not occupying the land of
another people with impunity and denying
them their basic rights while usurping our
tax-payers’ money in the process. Israel
claims to be a democratic country parallel
to Western democracies. And right now, Israel
is being judged according to these democratic
standards. Therefore the move to boycott
Israel is not only to be expected, but necessary
in order to force an end to the occupation,
as such an occupation is not acceptable from a Unions
democracy.
In mid-2007, the National Union of
Baroness Jenny Tonge has commented on
Journalists (NUJ) voted to boycott Israeli
the political situation in Britain, and stated that
goods, but was forced down by a ‘rebellion’
the “Pro-Israeli lobby has got its financial grips
thought to have been led primarily by BBC
on the Western World” and added that her party,
journalists. Doubts over the ethics of boycott The conference
the Liberal Democrats were effected by this.
have been splashed about by many Israeli went on to state
While some MPs responded to this statement
sympathisers and for many, the pressure has that ending the
as being anti-Semitic, clearly Ms Tonge made
been too much to with-stand. occupation de-
no mention of Jewish people but rather targeted
On the other hand, in Northern Ireland, mands concerted
Zionists who are both Jewish and Christian. It
the big gest Union, the 46,000 member
is this deliberate confusion of the terms that is and sustained
Northern Ireland Public Service Alliance has
allowing calls of anti-Semitism to be made pressure upon
pressed ahead with 5 unanimous boycott
against those in favour of the boycott. However, Israel including an
resolutions. These included boycotts of
as explained previously, this argument is false economic, cul-
Israeli produce and investments in
and frankly insulting, as many pro-boycott tural, academic
companies which support Israel.
campaigners are themselves Jewish and it is the and sporting
In Britain, the UNISON National
iniquity of Zionism that they oppose. Professor boycott
Delegate Conference of 2007 stated that it
Steven Rose, himself Jewish, stated: “It really
“continues to consider that a just solution to
isn’t good enough to attack the Messenger as
the Palestine-Israel conflict must be based
anti-Semitic or a self-hating Jew rather than deal
upon international law and Israel should:
with the message that Israel’s conduct is
unacceptable.”11
1. withdraw to its 1949-67 borders;
Clearly, the British public does not owe a
2. allow the refugees of 1948 to return
debt to pro-Israeli supporters and therefore is
home;
free to criticise the actions of the state of Israel.
3. remove all of its settlements from the
It is doing just that with the move to boycott,
Occupied Palestinian Territories and
saying that academic freedom must apply to both
Occupied Syrian Al-Joulan;
Israel and Palestinians.
4. take down the Apartheid Wall; and
While many have argued that Israeli
5. respect the Palestinian people’s right
academics cannot be held responsible for the
to national self-determination and to
actions of their government, PACBI takes the
establish a state in the West bank and
position that Israeli academic institutions (mostly
the Gaza Strip with its capital in
state controlled) and the vast majority of Israeli
Jerusalem.”
intellectuals and academics have either
contributed directly to the Israeli occupation or
The conference went on to state that
at the very least have been complicit through
ending the occupation demands concerted
their silence. However, some Palestinians who
and sustained pressure upon Israel including
have tried to gain access to higher degrees in
an economic, cultural, academic and
Israel have praised members of individual
sporting boycott.
institutions for their support of their
Following this, Britain’s Transport and
applications to study.12
General Workers’ Union went on to call on
The move to boycott Israel is by no means
its 800,000 members to boycott Israeli-made
limited to the UK alone. In France, an appeal
products based on what they term “Israel’s
to the European Union not to renew its 1995
criminal policies in Palestinian territories.”14
Association Agreement with Israel was issued
While this was merely declarative in nature
by the University of Paris-VI (Pierre-et-Marie-
and no concrete steps were taken to facilitate
Curie) in December 2002 and was endorsed by
implementation, the resounding sentiment is
several other French universities. Similar calls
clear.
were published in Italy and Australia, while in
British politicians have responded sternly
the United States, student and faculty groups at
against such boycott calls, however, this does
several universities including New York
not seem to have abated the rush towards
University, The Massachusetts Institute of
boycott.
Technology and Princeton launched divestment
from Israel campaigns. Most recently the
Church of Sweden has called for a boycott of Sports
goods produced by Israeli colonies in the West Israel’s inclusion in the EURO 2008 football
Bank and Gaza Strip and the Presbyterian tournament is being opposed by many
Church in the United States has decided to solidarity organisations. The ‘Kick Israeli
divest from Israel.13 Apartheid Out of Football’ petition organized

Al-Aqsa 11
 by the PSC has received over 1,000 signatures.
In response to calls to exclude Israel, an FA
Spokesman said the ‘FA would not be part of
anything which discriminates against teams of
players’. The Israeli FA has stated that it assists
Palestinian players travel between the West Bank
The move to and Gaza and those traveling abroad to
boycott has be-
participate in matches. However, Palestinians tell
come necessary as a different story of restrictions and policies
Western govern- which are perceived to be deliberate to exclude
ments are failing
them from international games. In August 2007,
to hold Israel the Under 19 national football team was denied
accountable for travel visas for a planned tour of the UK. While
its breaches of this was a move made by the British Consulate
international law in Jerusalem, one of the reason given was that
Israel had suggested it would deny the players
the right to re-enter Gaza after the tour, thus
the British government was trying to avert a
refugee crisis. This is unacceptable behavior
from both Israel and the British government.
There is an anti-boycott campaign now being
run, led by a web-site called ‘Engage’, and some
supporters have been accusing the boycott
campaigners of inciting hatred and being anti-
Semitic. But given the fact that many Jews are
leading the campaign, such accusations appear
to be nothing short of defamatory and once
again, show a refusal of Israel’s supporters to
look at the real reasons for such action – the
occupation.
The move to boycott has become necessary
as Western governments are failing to hold
Israel accountable for its breaches of
international law, just as they did with Apartheid
South Africa. It is time for individuals and
organisations to force governments to change
their policies in the Middle East, and boycotts
send strong signals of the people’s will. The
Information on Palestine
www.aqsa.org.uk
Journal – Referenced articles from previous issues of Al Aqsa.
Newsletter – Quarterly printed by Friends of Al Aqsa.
Publications – History of al Masjidul Aqsa and Guide to al Masjidul Aqsa.
Flyers – On Jerusalem, Refugees, al Masjidul Aqsa, UN Resolutions and Much More.
News From Palestine – Important news and views from Palestine.
Photographic Gallery – Photos from the ground in Palestine.
Book Reviews – Reviews on books related to Palestinian issues.
PLUS * CAMPAIGNS * ACTIVITIES * EVENTS AND
12 Al-Aqsa
Palestinians have faced every for m of
oppression in the decades of the occupation,
and those who support the boycott do so
because they feel it is time to say enough to
this inhumanity.
Notes
1. See reports, see for example The Israeli
Information Centre for Human Rights in the
Occupied Territories http://www.btselem.org/
English/, or The Palestinian Centre for Human
Rights http://pchrgaza.org/
2. Pacbi Press Release: ‘Boycotting Israeli Apartheid
Back on the Agenda’, 30 May 2007, http://
www.pacbi.or g/announcements_mor e.php?id=
504_0_5_0_M (last visited 3 March 2007)
3. Sacks, J, “Boycott? This is a With Hunt”, in The
Jewish Chronicle 15 June 2007.
4. As quoted by Davidson, Lawrence, “Why the
Academic Boycott is Necessary”, MESE
November 2006.
5. For example, 9 year old Ghadeer Jaber
Mokheimer, who was shot in October 2004 as
she was sat at a UN run school in the Gaza Strip.
6. Details about Wisam’s case can be found at http:/
/www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/868538.html
7. See for example a BBC news report on
Palestinian student Sawsan Salameh available
at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/
6087968.stm (Last visited 8 August 2007)
8.
9.
10. Rose, Steven, “Why pick on Israel? Because its
actions are wrong”, in The Independent 4 June
2007.
11. For example, Sawsan Salameh, http://news.
bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/6087968.stm
(Last visited 8 August 2007)
12. Facts from http://www.pacbi.org/about.htm
13. For further details, see http://www.haaretz.com/
hasen/spages/879531.html
* MUCH, MUCH MORE
Armageddon Now
Stephen Sizer1
T
he video game taking Christian America
by storm, aptly titled ‘Left Behind:
Eternal Forces’, encourages its players
to kill anyone who resists conversion to
Christianity. As Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft
battle it out for domination of the electronic
game world, the games’ creator anticipates a
ready market among those who have already
bought 63 million copies of the Left Behind
novels.
The game is set in New York City, a rather
unusual venue for Armageddon you might think
since New York doesn’t actually get a mention
in the Bible. It is, however, the location of the
United Nations headquarters and that is the clue.
Never popular among conservative evangelicals,
in Left Behind: Eternal Forces, the bad guys are
the Global Community Peacekeepers, who are
on a search and destroy mission in Manhattan.
Their target is the remnant of newly converted
Bible-believers, left behind when Christians were
apparently raptured secretly to heaven. These
new believers, left on earth, form a Christian
army called the Tribulation Force.
Under the heading ‘Turn or Burn?’ a review
by Focus on the Family suggests the game could
well be an evangelistic tool for teenagers – “the
kind of game that Mom and Dad can actually
play with Junior—and use to raise some
interesting questions along the way.” Perhaps
anticipating a degree of incredulity on the part
of some readers, the review asks, ‘How do
peace and prayer go hand in hand with tanks,
attack choppers and street battles?…’ Yes, you
are offered sniper rifles, gun turrets, even tanks
and helicopters. And there are points at which a
gun battle is necessary to avoid a massacre.
(When this happens, there’s no gore. Units fall
to the ground and fade away.) But if you go in
guns blazing, nine times out of 10 you fail. It
quickly becomes clear that the strongest
weapons in your arsenal are your top-level
missionaries and worship leaders. It’s easier to
1. STEPHEN SIZER is the vicar of Christ Church, Virginia Water. He is a founding member of the Institute for the
Study of Christian Zionism (ISCZ), a member of the Advisory Council of Evangelicals for Middle East Understanding,
a Trustee of the Amos Trust and the UK Board of Reference for the Mar Elias Educational Institutions, in Ibillin,
Galilee, founded by Bishop Elias Chacour.
convert a group of enemies than it is to
shoot them. Still, post-Rapture warfare is
integral to the game, as it is in the Left Behind
books and movies.
In an interview with Tim LaHaye, the
Confident that
author of the Left Behind books on which
Christians will
the video game is based, Focus on the Family
escape and
asked whether Christians will really be
expected to militarize in the future? witness the events
He told Plug ged In Online that this from the
fictionalized depiction in the books, movies grandstands of
and now video games is a representation “of heaven, exponents
the self preservation instinct of the much- detach themselves
persecuted saints during the Tribulation.”2 from the
What a relief. It’s all right then apparently Christian
as long as it is “faith-based” killing. Players responsibility to
pray for their adversaries “and try to do good work for peace
spiritual things for them”. But at a certain and reconciliation
point, it becomes acceptable to kill them. So in the Middle East
killing is OK as long as it is done in the name
of Jesus. A rather more sceptical review by
Jews on First observes that, ‘The goals of the
game are simple: Spread the gospel, and stay
alive. But staying alive may sometimes lead
to the taking of life – “fighting hellfire with
hellfire”. And that raises a knotty moral
conundrum for any game designer who
worships Jesus, the Prince of Peace.’3
Sadly, the mistaken idea of a secret
rapture on which the Left Behind empire is
based, and the belief that some will come to
faith after Jesus returns, has generated a lot
of bad theology and galvanised a belligerent
US foreign policy in the Middle East.
Confident that Christians will escape and
witness the events from the grandstands of
heaven, exponents detach themselves from
the Christian responsibility to work for peace
and reconciliation in the Middle East. Instead
they describe in graphic detail the suffering
that will soon take place there. Charles Ryrie,
for example predicts this will be, ‘the time
of Israel’s greatest bloodbath.’ 4 John
Al-Aqsa 13
 Walvoord similarly predicts a holocaust in which
at least 750 million people will perish.5 Tim
LaHaye, author of Left Behind, warns that
‘Jacob’s trouble’, prophesied by Jeremiah 30:7,
will certainly be far worse than the Spanish
Inquisition … or even the Holocaust of Adolf
Efforts to achieve Hitler.’6 Not to be outdone, in The Final Battle,
a lasting peace in Hal Lindsey claims, ‘Israel is in for a very rough
the Middle East time. The Jewish State will be brought to the
are spurned as brink of destruction.’7 In a later chapter he
counterfeit and a clarifies what this will mean for the Jews:
satanic ploy to ‘The land of Israel and the surrounding
beguile Israel area will certainly be targeted for nuclear
attack. Iran and all the Muslim nations around
Israel have already been targeted with Israeli
nukes … All of Europe, the seat of power of
the Antichrist, would surely be a nuclear
battlefield, as would the United States ...
Zechariah gives an unusual, detailed account
of how hundreds of thousands of soldiers in
the Israel battle zone will die. Their flesh will
be consumed from their bones, their eyes from
their sockets, and their tongues from their
mouths while they stand on their feet
(Zechariah 14:12). This is exactly the sort of
thing that happens from the intense radiation
of a neutron type bomb.’8
John Hagee takes an even more aggressive
approach towards Iran. At the July 19th, 2006
Washington DC inaugural event for Christians
United for Israel, after recorded greeting from
George W. Bush, and in the presence of four
US Senators as well as the Israeli ambassador
to the US, John Hagee stated:
‘The United States must join Israel in a pre-
emptive military strike against Iran to fulfill
God’s plan for both Israel and the West... a
biblically prophesied end-time confrontation
with Iran, which will lead to the Rapture,
Tribulation, and Second Coming of Christ.’9
The highly speculative and imaginative
interpretation of ancient prophecies that under
girds the Left Behind books, films and now
computer game; has a fatalistic view of the
future. With its prewritten script, it is inherently
suspicious of anything international, anything
It is painful to me ecumenical, and anything involving the
that in this Holy European Community or the United Nations.
Land, scriptures Efforts to achieve a lasting peace in the
and religion have Middle East are spurned as counterfeit and a
been terribly satanic ploy to beguile Israel. Such paranoia
used, abused and might be deemed a sick joke were it not so
twisted to justify pervasive and influential, not least in galvanising
violence, injustice US foreign policy with its perpetual war against
and hate the ‘Axis of Evil’. Its greatest danger, however,
must surely be that it is becoming a self-fulfilling
prophecy.
In the Middle East, this kind of apocalyptic
theology, which is invariably pro-Zionist and
hostile to Islam; is having a devastating effect
on relations between the faith communities, and
14 Al-Aqsa
on the viability of the indigenous Christian
community.
Munib Younan is Bishop of the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and
the Holy Land, and a Vice President of the
Lutheran World Federation. He describes
how this theology has impacted him and his
family.
“My father was one of the 6,500 refugees
driven out of Beersheba in 1948, and my
mother was from West Jerusalem. She
remembers fleeing her home after the
Haganah told her family to go and it would
be safe for them to return soon, only to look
back and see they had bombed her house
and it was engulfed in flames. Their families
became part of the 800,000 Palestinian
refugees that were driven from their homes,
more than 200,000 of whom left before
May 1948 or before any of the more
organized neighboring Arab armies came in. I
grew up in the Old City of Jerusalem,
through the 1967 war which led to the
occupation of the West Bank, including East
Jerusalem, and Gaza, which has dominated
our lives since then. Occupation continues
to violate basic human rights. The worst part
for me, however, was that some of my own
Christian sisters and brothers from all over
the world began justifying what happened as
a part of God’s plan. I still remember my
first encounters with what I would now call
a Christian Zionist who came to tell me that
I should be thanking God because the
scriptures were being fulfilled in the Six Day
War… It is painful to me that in this Holy
Land, scriptures and religion have been
terribly used, abused and twisted to justify
violence, injustice and hate...”10
The Right Reverend Riah Abu El Assal,
the retired Episcopal Bishop in Jerusalem,
also said recently:
“Nearly a thousand years ago, European
Crusaders tried to colonise Palestine, fuelling
religious hatred and bringing the indigenous
Christian community close to extinction. It
is tragic, if ironic, that misguided Western
Christian Zionists, by their one-sided political
support for Israel, are today succeeding
where the Crusaders failed… It is
heartbreaking to see misguided Christians
identifying more with Ahab and Jezebel than
with Naboth. On a daily basis we are seeing
our land confiscated, our vineyards
destroyed, our homes demolished, our
children traumatised and our future negated
for the sake of an earthly kingdom which
the Lord Jesus has plainly repudiated. I [call]
Evangelical Christians, in particular, to break
the spiral of violence and hatred. Instead
we must obey the teachings of the Prince
of Peace who has called us to a ministry of
reconciliation.”
In the Summer of 2006, members of the
EMEU Executive were invited to assist the
heads of the local churches in Jerusalem to draft
the “Jerusalem Declaration on Christian
Zionism” rejecting the tenets of this movement.
The Jerusalem Declaration included this
statement:
“We categorically reject Christian Zionist
doctrines as false teaching that corrupts the
biblical message of love, justice and
reconciliation.
We further reject the contemporary alliance
of Christian Zionist leaders and organizations
with elements in the governments of Israel and
the United States that are presently imposing
their unilateral pre-emptive borders and
domination over Palestine. This inevitably leads
to unending cycles of violence that undermine
the security of all peoples of the Middle East
and the rest of the world.
We reject the teachings of Christian Zionism
that facilitate and support these policies as they
advance racial exclusivity and perpetual war
rather than the gospel of universal love,
redemption and reconciliation taught by Jesus
Christ. Rather than condemn the world to the
doom of Armageddon we call upon everyone
to liberate themselves from the ideologies of
Al-Aqsa
Editor
The Articles published in this journal do not necessarily reflect the views of
the Editorial Board or of Friends of Al-aqsa
militarism and occupation. Instead, let them
pursue the healing of the nations!”11
The new Left Behind video game seems
a very long way from the simple teaching of
Jesus who promised “Blessed are the
peacemakers for they shall be called children
of God” (Matthew 5:9).
Notes
1. Focus on the Family. Left Behind now an ‘End
Times’ game. http://www.plug gedinonline.com/
thisweekonly/a0002989.cfm
2. Ibid
3. Charles Ryrie, The Living End, (Old Tappan,
Revell, 1976), p81. The title of chapter 8 is
entitled ‘A Bloodbath for Israel.’
4. John Walvoord, Israel in Prophecy, (Grand Rapids,
Zondervan, 1962), p108.
5. Tim LaHaye, Are We Living in the End Times?
(Wheaton, Tyndale House, 1999), p146.
6. Hal Lindsey, The Final Battle, (Palos Verdes,
Western Front, 1995), p184
7. Ibid., pp. 255-7.
8. Sarah Posner, “Pastor Strangelove” The
American Prospect Online, http://www.prospect.
org/web/page.ww?section=root&name=ViewPrint&
articleId=11541 <Accessed March 2007>
9. Munib Younan, “An Ethical Critique of Christian
Zionism”, Journal of Lutheran Ethics (JLE) May
2007, Volume 7, Issue 5 http://www.elca.org/jle/
article.asp?k=717
10. h t t p : / / w w w. s i z e r s . o r g / a r t i c l e s / j e r u s a l e m
declaration.htm
Al-Aqsa 15
16 Al-Aqsa
Sewage Tsunami and Economic, Physical
and Political Strangulation in Gaza
Anna Baltzer1
I
n April 2007, an overused cesspool in
northern Gaza collapsed, flooding a nearby
Bedouin village with up to two meters of
raw sewage. At least five people drowned to
death, with dozens more left sick, injured, or
missing.
Predictably, the international community’s
fingers pointed at the Palestinian Authority,
which was warned of the danger of Beit Lahia
treatment plant’s flooding but did not take the
necessary steps to ensure the villagers’ safety.
To many, it’s just another example of how the
Palestinians are incapable of ruling over
themselves. But the PA is only part of the
problem.
In fact, funds were secured long ago for
transferring the dangerous sewage pools, but
according to the Palestinian Centre for Human
Rights (PCHR), the project “was delayed for
more than two years due to delays in importing
pipes and pumps from abroad as a result of
the closure imposed by IOF (Israeli Occupation
Forces) on the Gaza Strip. In addition, IOF
military operations in the project area
prevented workers from free and safe access
to the area to conduct their work. It is noted
that this project is funded by the World Bank,
European Commission, Sweden, and other
donors.”2
Almost two years ago, Israel claimed to be
withdrawing from Gaza, yet according to the
Human Rights Council report commissioned by
the UN last year and released earlier this year,
“Even before the commencement of
‘Operation Summer Rains’, following the
capture of Corporal Gilad Shalit, Gaza remained
under the effective control of Israel. [...] Israel
retained control of Gaza’s air space, sea space
and external borders, and the border crossings
of Rafah (for persons) and Karni (for goods)
were ultimately under Israeli control and
remained closed for lengthy periods.” Rafah has
only been open for an average of 14% of
scheduled times, so Gazans (including sick
1. ANNA BALTZER is a volunteer with the International Women’s Peace Service in the West Bank and author
of the book, Witness in Palestine: Journal of a Jewish American Woman in the Occupied Territories. For information
about her writing, photography, DVD, and speaking tours, visit her website at www.annainthemiddleeast.com
people needing treatment in Egypt, and
students) have had to wait sometimes for
weeks on end to get through either way.
In December 2006, Israel promised to
allow 400 trucks a day to pass through the the project “was
Karni crossing, delivering among other things delayed for more
desperately needed food and medical supplies, than two years
and allowing produce out to support the
due to delays in
largely agriculture- based economy. This
importing pipes
promise remains yet to be implemented with
and pumps from
“disastrous” consequences for the local
economy. The report continues, “In effect, abroad as a result
following Israel’s withdrawal, Gaza became a of the closure
sealed off, imprisoned and occupied imposed by IOF
territory”.3
Fishermen face arrest if they try to go
fishing as Israel controls Gaza’s waters, not
Palestinians. The Army regularly opens fire
on small fishing boats4. Israeli soldiers also
frequently shoot through the cage around
Gaza from sniper positions if not conducting
all-out ground invasions. Israel has killed
more than 700 Gazans (including hundreds
of women and children) since the celebrated
“withdrawal”, which is still used by Israeli
apologists to show that Palestinians are unable
to take advantage of a good opportunity
even if it falls into their laps.
Recently, perhaps the most paralyzing
features of Israel’s continued control over
Gaza - as well as the West Bank - is the US
and Israeli-led economic embargo against the
Palestinian government since Hamas’ victory
last year. Doctors, teachers, elected officials,
and other civil servants have not been fully
paid in more than one year, pushing the
population into a humanitarian crisis as
about quarter of the population is financially
dependent on these salaries. Over 80% of
Gazans are living below the official poverty
line, and even issues as serious as
overburdened cesspools are often left
unaddressed. It is tempting to wonder why
the international community should be held
Al-Aqsa 17
 responsible for financially supporting the
Palestinian population to begin with.
The late Tanya Reinhart articulated her
answer to this question during her last lecture
in France. She explained that Europe, like the
US, had no right to cut off food and medicine
Europe chose not from the Palestinians:
to oblige Israel to “It was not an act of generosity which
respect its Europe could either carry on or not,” she said.
obligations, and “It was a choice which had been made to take
preferred to pay on the obligations imposed by international law
money to the on the Israeli occupier to see to the well-being
Palestinians. of the occupied populations. Europe chose not
When it put an to oblige Israel to respect its obligations, and
end to this, it preferred to pay money to the Palestinians.
breached When it put an end to this, it breached
international law international law.”5
The United States, Europe, and Israel (which
has withheld $55 million per month in taxes
collected from Palestinians on behalf of the
PA) say they will only return the Palestinians’
lifelines if Hamas agrees to three conditions:
(1) renouncing violence, (2) accepting previous
agreements, and (3) recognizing Israel. These
conditions sound reasonable enough, but are
painfully ironic for anyone living on the ground
here.
True, Hamas has not sworn off violence
once and for all, but neither has Israel! In the
past year, Palestinians have killed 27 Israelis,
most of them soldiers. During that same period
of time, Israelis have killed 583 Palestinian
civilians (suicide bombers, fighters, or others
targeted for assassinations are not included).
Hamas has held fairly consistently to a unilateral
ceasefire since January 2005, when they
announced their transition from an armed
struggle to a political struggle. Actions speak
louder than words. Hamas says it reserves the
right to resist violently, but has stopped attacking
Israelis. Israel claims that all it wants is peace,
yet the daily invasions and assassinations
Actions speak
continue.
louder than The second condition involving previous
words. Hamas says agreements is hard to take seriously given Israel’s
it reserves the consistent violations. In one of her last speeches
right to resist in New York at St Mary’s Church, Tanya cited
violently, but has an early 2006 interview in the Washington Post
stopped attacking in which “Hamas Prime Minister Haniyeh
Israelis. Israel explained that according to the Oslo Accords in
claims that all it 1993, five years later in ‘98, there should have
wants is peace, yet been already a Palestinian state. Instead, what
the daily invasions Israel did during this whole period was
and assassinations appropriate more land, continue to colonize, to
continue build settlements, and it did not keep a single
clause of the Oslo Agreements.”6 When will the
US demand that Israel adhere to previous
agreements in order to receive the billions that
we hand over every year?
And finally, the last and crucial condition is
that Hamas must recognize Israel. The question
18 Al-Aqsa
is, what exactly is meant by “Israel”? Does
“Israel” mean a place where Jewish people
are respected and secure, or is it something
else? Israel defines itself as “the state of the
Jewish people.” It is not the state of its
citizens; Israel is the state of a group of
people who aren’t its citizens.
Palestinian citizens of Israel do not have
equal rights to Jews (for specific examples,
read my recent “Existence is Resistance”
report), because so many laws are aimed at
condensing or chasing away Palestinian
communities in order to fully “Judaize” the
country. Israel has an artificial Jewish
majority that was created and is maintained
through various forms of ethnic cleansing.
Israel’s very existence as a Jewish state is
conditional upon the dispossession and either
expulsion or bantustanization of the
indigenous Palestinian population. If you ask
one of these Palestinians if he recognizes
the right of such an Israel to exist, a country
built on his land that explicitly excludes him
and discriminates against him, and that
Palestinian says “no,” is he being racist or
anti-Semitic? Or is he himself defending
against racism and anti-Semitism?
(Remember that Arabs are Semites too.)
Israel cannot specify what exactly it wants
Palestinians to recognize because Israel does
not actually recognize itself. Israel has
refused to clarify its own borders, because
they keep expanding as the Jewish state
establishes more settlement “facts on the
ground.” In spite of all of these things, the
PLO actually agreed to recognize Israel,
renounce terror, and sign agreements with
Israel almost twenty years ago. Israel
responded with continued colonization and
resource confiscation in the occupied
territories and bombardment of Lebanon to
root out the PLO, which was becoming
dangerously moderate. 7 Hamas too has
indicated that it would consider peace if
Israel withdrew to its internationally
recognized 1967 borders leaving Palestinians
with just 22% of their historic homeland,
but Israel says full withdrawal is out of the
question. It is Israel who has yet to recognize
Palestine’s right to exist, not the other way
around.
One more point of irony is that Israel
justifies the ongoing siege of Gaza as a
response to the capture of Corporal Gilad
Shalit even though such collective
punishment is cruel, illegal, and hugely
hypocritical. Week after week, the Israeli
Army abducts and imprisons dozens of
Palestinians, including children. Israel has
“captured” (“kidnapped” would be a more
appropriate word for many since most of
the abductees were civilians) at least 860
Palestinians this year.8
While Palestinians are illegally holding one
Israeli; Israel is illegally holding more than 11,000
Palestinians9, including about 40 elected officials
and almost 500 women and children. If the
Israeli Army is justified in collectively starving
and bombarding 1.3 million Gazans to avenge
the capture of one of their fighters, what could
the families of 11,000 Palestinians claim is
justified?
In reality, Israel is holding more than 1.3
million Palestinians prisoner with its ongoing
siege of Gaza. Most of them are refugees,
encaged in one of the most densely populated
places in the world and many still see their historic
land around them, but are forbidden from ever
returning because they are not Jewish. I, on the
other hand, could go and live there next month
if I wanted to.
The Beit Lahia sewage treatment plant was
designed in the 1970’s to serve up to 50,000
people, but the local population has since risen
to 200,000. The “sewage tsunami” is as much a
result of population density as anything else. In
comparison, the land-rich West Bank feels like
paradise, but perhaps not for long. As the Wall
continues to snake around West Bank towns and
villages, cutting inhabitants off from their land,
jobs, schools, hospitals, and each other, Israel’s
intention seems clear: those Palestinians who
won’t leave the West Bank altogether will be
squeezed into bantustans, each of them a new
Gaza. Meanwhile, the Palestinian Authority,
civilians, and popular resistance will continue


Books Available For Review
1. Broken Promises, Broken Dreams, Stories of Jewish and Palestinian Trauma and
Resilience, by Alice Rothchild
2. Hollow Land, Israel’s Architecture of Occupation, by Eyal Weizman
If you would like to review one of these titles, please email info@aqsa.org.uk
to be demonized with claims of “anti-
Semitism” even though the worst crimes are
not their own. The guilt and responsibility is
not just Israel’s, but we all share in it.
The sun is gleaming through silvery olive
trees into our office window as I look out
across Palestinian land and homes that still While Palestinians
remain intact in spite of the Occupation and are illegally
all its crimes. There is still hope for the West holding one
Bank, but only if people speak out and act Israeli; Israel is
now. There are so many ways. Visit Palestine. illegally holding
Support the non-violent boycott, divestment, more than 11,000
and sanctions movement called for by Palestinians
Palestinian civil society. Join a local solidarity
group and educate your community. Write
to your representatives. Anything but staying
silent.
Notes
2. http://www.pchrgaza.ps/files/PressR/English/
2007/20-2007.htm
3. htt p://www.ohchr.or g/english/bodies/
hrcouncil/docs/4session/A.HRC.4.17.pdf
4. http://bbsnews.net/article.php/2007032610
4022273
5. h t t p : / / w w w. z m a g . o r g / c o n t e n t / p r i n t _
article.cfm?itemID=12385&sectionID=1
6. htt p://www.democrac ynow.or g/ar ticle.
pl?sid=07/03/19/1354224
7. See Chomsky, N. The Fateful Triangle
8. For week by week statistics, visit http://
www.pchrgaza.ps/
9. http://www.mandela-palestine.org/
Al-Aqsa 19
20 Al-Aqsa
Islamic Libraries in Jerusalem
Mazen Nussiebeh1
Introduction
D
uring the last 14 centuries, Jerusalem
has not been a political capital.
However, under Islamic rule it has
been a spiritual and a cultural capital to millions
of Muslims, Jews and Christians throughout this
time.
This was clearly demonstrated by the
building works Muslims undertook in
Jerusalem since the second caliph Omar bin al
Khatab liberated the city in 635 AD. There
were mosques, schools, and zawaya of which
the most important are the Aqsa Masjid and
the Dome of the Rock built by the Umayyads.
Building in Jerusalem, showing Muslim interest
in the city, continued in the Abbasid period
also. But in the 5th Hijri century came the
crusade wars which were known for their
brutality against both human beings and
building structures, and in particular against any
indication of Jerusalem’s Islamic history or
heritage, in an attempt to erase it.
After Salaheddin’s liberation of Jerusalem
in 1187 AD, rebuilding and restoration work
began. Today, any visitor of Jerusalem and the
Aqsa Sanctuary will find in every corner and
every meter - a building, a dome, a school, a
fountain, a gate that was built by a prince, an
army leader, a sultan or even a sultan’s wife
from the Ayoubi , Mamluk or the Othmani
period. This reflected the love felt for Jerusalem
and the Muslims’ spiritual connection with it.
But once again Jerusalem has fallen under
another occupation, 780 years after being
liberated from the Crusaders. This is a more
vigorous occupation, filled with more hatred but
with the same old intention, to change the identity
of the city and remove its Islamic identity.
To counter this, the revitalizing and renewing
of the libraries in Jerusalem with treasured
books and manuscripts has formed a crucial
part of the efforts to keep the Islamic face and
identity of Jerusalem.
1. MAZEN NESSIEBEH lives in Jerusalem in the Occupied Territories. He has a BSc in Biology from Jordan
University, a BA in Islamic Education from Al-Quds University, and an MA in Islamic Studies.
What an Islamic library looked like
Libraries carried the name of Khazana
(cupboard), as books were kept in closed
cupboards and not on open shelves.
Books were arranged inside the cupboard
horizontally and not perpendicularly, with
the small ones at the top and the big ones at
This is a more
the bottom. So anyone looking for a vigorous occupa-
particular book must move the ones above tion, filled with
until they reach their desired title. more hatred but
The cupboards were made of wood, and with the same old
locked with keys. Therefore access was only intention, to
gained via a librarian. change the iden-
Books were arranged in the library tity of the city
according to subject matter beginning with and remove its
Qur’an, then Tafseer (Qur’anic Islamic identity
commentary), Hadith (sayings of the Prophet
Muhammad, peace be upon him), Hadith
Sciences, Seerah (the story of the life of
the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon
him), Fiqh (Islamic laws), Tawheed (the
attributes of God), Tasawuf (spirituality);
then language and literature with other
sciences like arithmetic. Catalogues were put
together in a single book and reading was
only allowed inside the library, as there was
no lending service.
Historical preview
Libraries were formed in the early Islamic
centuries in Jerusalem inside mosques and
mainly within the Al-Aqsa compound. There
were many Qur’an manuscripts written in
different styles. Ibn Abedrabo wrote (in
328AH) that there were 70 copies of the
Qur’an in Al-Aqsa. While Ibn Faqih
mentioned in his book “Al Buldan” (902AD)
that there were 16 boxes of Qur’an copies
in Al-Aqsa. Books of Hadith, Tafseer and
others were added later by men like
Alzouhary and Alaouza’i. But unfortunately,
most of these were burned or lost during
Al-Aqsa 21
 the crusade wars as Mohammad bin Ali bin
Mayser mentions in his book of history.
After the sixth century AH, the building of
schools, zawayas (halls of the Sufi sheikhs) and
khankas (buildings built for poor worshippers/
students) flourished under Salaheddin and those
The library at who came after him in the Ayoubi and Mamluk
Al-Aqsa was the periods. As a result libraries began to form due
richest in terms to the large number of scholars and religious
of content science students present in the city and their
need for books. Examples of such libraries and
schools included:
Š Al Nassirya library after Sheikh Nasser
Ibrahim al Maqdisi
Š Al Khanka al Fakhriya School and library
after Qadi Fakhereddin ibn Fadelallah
Š Mohammed Khalidi, Mufti al Shafia sect,
library
Š Bukhari Naqshabandi, Sufi way, library
(still existing)
Š Khazanet kutub (library) Ashrafya School
Š Khazanet kutub Ghadria School
Š Burhaneddin bin Jamaa library
The library at Al-Aqsa was the richest in
ter ms of content. This was due to the
abundance of writers and copiers in the area,
and to the will and insistence of writers to keep
a copy of what they wrote in the Al-Aqsa
library.
In the late 18th century and the early 19th
century, personal libraries began to appear,
possessed by those who occupied formal ranks
like judges or governors or sufi sheikhs.
Examples of these libraries included:
Š Sunallah Khalidi (d.1727) library.
Š Ahmad bin Mahmud al Mouaqet, Hanafi
Mufti (d.1776) library.
Š Sheikh Ahmad bin Budair al Qudsi
(d.1805) library.
Š Amat Kalifa bin Ibrahim library.
Š Sheikh Mohammed Effendi Zade library.
some of Palestine’s
Š Hassan bin Abedlatif Husseini library.
precious books
and manuscripts These libraries were normally financed by
were lost as the the owners or from the awqaf (community fund).
missionaries There would only be a single copy of each book
purchased them in the library thus the use was restricted to a
and shipped them small number of individuals. These personal
to museums and libraries evolved into family libraries or just
universities in vanished for one reason or another.
Europe In the late 19th and early 20th centuries,
Christian missionaries started to settle in and
around Jerusalem and for med their own
libraries in the churches and monasteries. These
groups brought with them their printing
machines and thus facilitated increased book
making. This also had an impact on Islamic
libraries in Jerusalem as it aided the growth of
22 Al-Aqsa
these libraries and led to an increase in the
formation of family libraries.
On the downside, some of Palestine’s
precious books and manuscripts were lost
as the missionaries purchased them and
shipped them to museums and universities
in Europe. As a result, we find a number of
valuable Islamic manuscripts throughout
Europe that originally came from Palestine.
Another factor that affected library
growth was the appearance of a new
generation of Palestinian youth who traveled
to Europe to study and came back with new
ideas to enhance the libraries.
In this period the following personal
libraries appeared:
Š Hassan Sidki al Dajani library
Š Abdullah Mukhles library
Š Isaaf al Nashashibi library
Š Khalil al Sakakini
Š Aref al Aref
Some of the family libraries which
appeared in the same period were:
Š Mouaqet librar y: Established by
Mufti of Jerusalem Sheikh Ahmad bin
Muhammad Yahya, known as al
Mouaqet. His library was made waqf
in 1776 but nothing of it exists today.
Š Qutteinah library: Known as the
Hanbali library since the family were
followers of the Hanbali school of
thought. The library used to have a
big number of manuscripts and it was
located near the Damascus gate.
Nothing is known about the library
today.
Š Sheikh Hussam Jarallah library:
This library used to have 2000 books
and manuscripts in Islamic subjects
and Arabic language. However, the
books were stolen in the year 1948
during the Palestinian Nakba.
Š Abu Saud librar y: collected by
Sheikh Taher Abu Saud Shaafi who
was Mufti of Jerusalem in the early
20th century. The library books are
now kept in boxes in the family house.
These were the known Islamic family
libraries in Jerusalem, most of which do
not exist any more and therefore do not
play an active role in the cultural life of
Jerusalem.
As well as the Al-Aqsa library, a small
number of personal and family libraries
have undergone repair and still play an
important role in the Islamic cultural life
of Jerusalem.
Al-Aqsa library:
This is considered to be the most important
library in Jerusalem. The Al-Aqsa was a center
for intellectual debate and a school for teaching
Islamic sciences. Therefore a good library was
essential to serve its purposes.
In many cases, the books in the library were
actually dictated by their writers while they were
inside the mosque. Examples of such books
included:
Š Mutheer al gharam illa ziaret al Quds wa
Asham” by Ibn Hilal al Maqdisi (d.765h).
Š Ba’ath al nufus ila ziaret al Quds al
mahrous” by Sheikh Burhaneddin bin
Ishaaq al Fizari (d.729h).
Š Eljamr al mustafa fi fada’al al masjed al
Aqsa” by Bahaaeddin bin Assaker (d.600h).
In the past, the Books within the Al-Aqsa
mosque compound were not kept in a single
building but were distributed all over the
compound. They were mainly kept in the Aqsa
mosque building and in the Dome of the Rock
building and each had a librarian. These were
also government assignees overlooking the
library. Al Sakhawi mentions the name of
Shamseddin Muhammad bin Ahmad al Ghanimi
al Maqdsi in the 9th Hijri century and Sheikh
Bashir al Khalili in the Dome of the Rock
mosque in the 11th Hijri century.
The Mamluk sultans used to send copies of
the Quran as gifts to the Al-Aqsa library and
with them there would come someone to read
and recite the Quran inside the mosque. An
example was King Al Ashraf Barsbi who sent a
large Musshaf (Arabic text Qur’an) and with it,
Sheikh Shamseddin al Ramli who was to recite
it in the mosque. Other sultans sent similar gifts,
including al Malek al Taher Jakmak, al Malek
al Ashraf Yanaal, al Malek al Taher
Khashakdum. This was a habit that the Othman
sultans also followed.
In addition to the libraries in the two mosque
buildings, there were also libraries in the schools
which existed in and around the yards of the
Aqsa compound. These differed in size and
number according to the specific subjects, and
examples included:
Š “Al Nassir ya School” to which
Salaheddin`s nephew al Malek al
Muaatham sent a number of books.
Š “Al Khanka al Fakhrya School”
established by Qadi Fakhereddin bin
Fadelallah, which contained 10,000 books.
Š “Al Ameenya School” to which Sheikh
Yahiya Sharafeddin donated his personal
library as a waqf. This was thought to be
a huge collection of books.
In 1923 AD, the High Islamic Committee
in Jerusalem with Mufti Hajj Amin Husseini
at its helm decided to collect all the books
from the different buildings in the Al-Aqsa
compound and established the modern Aqsa
mosque library housing them all. The library
building was at first in al Quba al Nahawea. One of these
Since that time it moved again before finally manuscripts is
settling in what was known as the women’s from an earlier
mosque in the southern western corner of period – an
the Aqsa compound next to the Islamic incomplete copy
museum. of the Qur’an
hand written by
Muhammad bin al
Hassan bin al
Hussein, the
grandson of
Prophet
Muhammad
(pbuh)
Women’s mosque, the present
library’s site
The library now contains more than
14,000 books. The libraries of Sheikh Khalil
al Khalidi and Sheikh Muhammad al Khalili,
as well as other smaller collections, have also
been added. These manuscripts date back
to between the 3rd to the 13th Hijri
centuries, and some of which survived the
crusader era. One of these manuscripts is
from an earlier period - an incomplete copy
of the Qur’an hand written by Muhammad
bin al Hassan bin al Hussein, the grandson
of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh). Another
manuscript is a copy of the Quran which
was written in the handwriting of Moroccan
king Sultan Abusaid Othman al Marini in
the 8th Hijri century.
Personal and family libraries:
The number of personal and family libraries
that still exist today in Jerusalem are few. This
does not mean there is a complete absence
of such libraries however. There are a good
number of modern libraries which were
established through the efforts of Jerusalem’s
youth. These include the “Al Quds University”
library and “Arabic Studies Center” library,
and other similar institutions’ libraries.
The remaining old libraries include:
ISAAF NASHASHIBI LIBRARY
Isaaf Nashashibi was born in Jerusalem in
1885 AD, into a rich and well educated family.
His father was a prominent figure during
Al-Aqsa 23
 the Turkish rule and was also a member of
parliament.
During his youth, Isaaf witnessed many
meetings in his home between men of literature
like Assad al Imam and Ragheb al Khalidi and
others. Discussions at these meeting were wide
including poetry, literature, fiqh and other
subjects.
While he was young he learned to recite the
entire Quran by heart, and then went to Dar al
Hikma School in Beirut. During his life he
traveled a lot which enabled him to meet many
well known poets and writers in the Arab world
such as Ahmad Shawki (Ameer al Shuraa) the
well known Egyptian poet. He also met Shakib
Arsalan and Khalil Sakakini. His knowledge of
the French language also enabled him to study
French literature.
Isaaf worked as a teacher then headmaster
of Al Rashidya School in Jerusalem. He was
known for his enthusiastic speeches and his calls
for respect of religious teaching and for defending
the Arabic Language. Isaaf Nashashibi was also
a writer and wrote a number of books and
essays. He died in 1948.
THE LIBRARY BUILDING:
The building is called Isaaf Nashashibi’s Palace
and was built in 1922 AD by Isaaf himself. It
consists of two floors each with an area of 296
square meters. It still stands in all its beauty in
the Sheikh - Jarrah neighborhood, with its old
gate and two palm trees at the entrance which
have guarded it since it was first built.
The palace has 4 beautiful ceramic terraces;
two on each floor over looking the old city from
the north. During Isaaf ’s life, many well known
characters visited the palace including Ibrahim
al Mazini, Maarof al Rasafi, Khalil Mardam and
Bishara al Khoury.
Isaaf collected many books and manuscripts
during his life using his personal funds. After
his death the palace was used as the French
consulate (the first floor was burned during a
demonstration in 1956 AD), and then it was
used as the Saudi consulate. After 1967 it
accommodated the German School of
Archaeology.
In 1982 it was considered a part of Dar al
Tiffel Institute and was made a library and a
cultural center by Dr Isshaq Husseini.
THE LIBRARY:
The library contains about 8000 books, with an
additional 2000 more donated from the library
of Aref al Aref (the well known historian) by
his family, and another 2000 books donated by
Fawzi Yousef ( a publisher). Smaller collections
were also donated by Isshaq Darwish,
24 Al-Aqsa
Muhammad Younes Husseini and the writer
Naserddin Nashashibi.
The main titles in the library are: Islamic
civilization, Palestinian history, Arabic
language, Arabic literature, Arabic hand-
writing, fiqh and hadith. Despite such a great
breadth of literature, the librarian
complains of the scarcity of visitors to it
since the isolation of Jerusalem from the
West Bank.
The number of manuscripts totals 294
and a catalogue was compiled by librarian
Mr.Bashir Barakat. The number of titles in
these manuscripts is 780.
In addition to complete manuscripts,
there are a large number of papers or parts
of manuscripts that date back to the
Mamluk period. Indexes of the books and
manuscripts were complied according to
authors, subjects and dates.
In order to face modern challenges, the
manuscripts were filmed digitally. This
enables scholars and researchers to consult
manuscripts without needing to reach the
library itself; a task that the Israelis have
made impossible for Palestinians outside of
Jerusalem. The resources of the library can
now be accessed over the internet.
THE CULTURAL CENTER:
Beside the library, a cultural center was
established at the Isaaf Nashashibi Palace.
Different cultural activities are run including
musical evenings, poetry Readings, lectures,
and exhibitions: photography, oil Drawings,
books, and other activities.
THE KHALIDI LIBRARY
The Khalidi Family is one of the oldest
families in Jerusalem. It is said that they were
named after Prophet Muhammad’s (pbuh)
companion and army leader Khalid bin al
Waleed. Others also suggest that the name
appeared more recently as they were
previously named Al Dayri after the Dayer
Othman village near Nablus. The family took
refuge in this village during the crusade wars.
This was mentioned in one of the
manuscripts written by a family member
Abdil Aziz Khalidi in 1214 AD.
Many Khalidi family members have
occupied important political and religious
positions, as judges, Mufties and religious
scholars. Family member Yousef Dia Pasha
also undertook the role of council of the
Ottoman Empire in a Russian city. He then
became the Mayor of Jerusalem after that
in 1867-1873.

The Khalidi library gate
THE BUILDING:
The library building is 100 meters from the
Chain Gate (Bab al Silseleh) of the Al-Aqsa
compound. The building was originally a burial
site built by an army leader Hussameddin Baraka
Khan who was brought by King Najmeddin
Ayoub to fight in Jerusalem when it was restored
from the crusades for the last time. He died in
Hums, in Syria, but according to his will he was
buried in Jerusalem. Two of his sons were also
buried beside him according to Mujeereddin al
Hanbali in his history book “Al Uns al Jalil”.
ESTABLISHMENT:
The library was established in 1899 AD by Hajj
Ragheb al Khalidi as a public trust, using an
amount of money donated by his mother
Khadije, the daughter of Musa effendi al Khalidi.
It contained the family holdings of books and
manuscripts which were collected over the years
by generations of the family beginning with
Muhammad Sunallah, Muhammad Ali, Yousef
Dia, Musa Shafiq and others.
The formal announcement of its public
opening was made in 1900. The announcement
clarified that the spread of knowledge was the
base for progress and prosperity. It added that
the library was an asset to the holy land. The
Khalidi library was intended to restore to the
Arabs prosperity by fostering knowledge and to
enable them to match the cultural establishments
created by foreign powers through out the
region. The opening ceremony was attended by
a well known Syrian Sheikh, Taher al Jazairi.
PERIODS IN THE LIFE OF THE LIBRARY:
1900-1917 AD: 4000 books were collected
from family members.
1917-1948 AD: members of the family took
care of the library but the main librarian in this
period was Muhammad al Danaf al Ansari. A
custom was created whereby whenever a family
member passed away, his books would be added
to the library collection.
Following 1967 AD: This was considered to
be the most difficult period as the Israelis tried
to confiscate the building claiming that its owners
were absentees. Usually, when this was evoked,
the Israelis would confiscate the property,
however, the family challenged the army and
their property was restored to them in court.
Then came the settlers. Since the building
overlooked the Wailing Wall area, Israel
stationed a number of soldiers on the second
floor to guard the place. When the soldiers
later left the site, settlers took over and
established a religious school and tried to
prevent the Khalidi family from repairing
and renewing parts of the library. Once again,
the family overcame this difficulty.
Other challenges included financing the
revitalizing of the building and preserving
the manuscripts in addition to updating the
library so that it servs its users as any modern
library does. This was achieved through great
efforts from family members inside and
outside Palestine and many well wishers
from the Arab and Islamic worlds.
CONTENTS OF THE LIBRARY:
The first collections of books, about 560
manuscripts, were gathered by Muhammad
Sunallah in 1726 and were made waqf to
the family. His son, Muhammad Sunallah
added another 260 manuscripts to the
collection. More were added to these later
but some were lost between that period and
1900 when Hajj Ragheb opened the library.
The library today has 1029 Arabic
manuscripts, 18 Persian manuscripts, and
36 Turkish manuscripts. Most of the manu-
scripts are in average condition.
About 100 of these manuscripts have
been repaired, cleaned, steamed and
preserved in special non acidic boxes with
the required humidity and temperature. Plans
are in place to also preserve the remaining
manuscripts in this way. Microfilming the
manuscripts is an ongoing process, in
addition to classifying single papers.
The collection reflects the great interest
of the family in owning books covering a
wide spectrum of subjects including religion,
literature, language and science. Since a good
number of the Khalidi family were graduates
of the Al Azhar University, and many have
or had formal jobs all over the Islamic World
as mentioned earlier, this is clearly reflected
by the diversity of the texts in the library.
There are 288 manuscripts that exist in
only one single copy in the Al Khalidi library.
This fact distinguishes the Khalidi library
from many other libraries. Out of these
manuscripts, 112 are the originals as written
by the author, including:
Š Prophets’ Stories” by Ibn Adsa al Qudsi.
Š Jalaa’ al Afkar fi Sirat al Mukhtar” by Al
Bilbesi (986 AH)
Al-Aqsa 25
 Š Al Ashbah wa al Natha’ar” by Ibn Nujem al more than 50,000. Of these, only 8,000
Masri (969 AH) remain today. This was the result of
Š Bust al Maqaal”by Shirniblali (1029 AH). destruction during war time or theft during
the British mandate and the Israeli occupation.
A large number of lost manuscripts are
BUDEIRI LIBRARY
found today on the shelves of the Hebrew
Sheikh Muhammad bin Budeir bin Muhammad
University library or the Jewish National
bin Hubaish Alshafii al Maqdisi was born in 1160
library. Most of these were stolen from
AH (1747AD). He traveled to Egypt to study
houses with their owners inside or from
fiqh at Al Azhar University and remained there
abandoned houses, during war time. Names
for 30 years. He then returned to Jerusalem and
of the original owners are still found on some
settled at the home he bought next to the Bab
of these books and manuscripts. Such books
al Nather gate of the Al-Aqsa mosque. This
include some owned by:
home accommodates the library on its first
floor. Sheikh Budeir wrote poetry and booklets
Š Khalil Baides who died in 1949;
about some fiqh problems.
Š Sheikh Muhammad al Khalili, whose
family lost 90 manuscripts during the
MANUSCRIPTS:
1967 war;
The Budeiri library has about 1200 manuscripts,
Š Abdullah Mukhles who used to have a
some of which were collected by Sheikh Budeiri
library of more than 3000 books and 120
himself in1790, while establishing the library.
manuscripts. Fearing the war, in 1948 he
More were added by family members later.
moved the library to a nearby monastery
The manuscripts are in bad condition in
for safekeeping. However, Israelis
general due to inadequate storage in humid
demolished the building with dynamite
rooms. As a result, many pages have been
and before doing so, an eye witness said
destroyed. However, a small number of the
that she saw Israeli gang members
manuscripts are still in good condition and work
carrying boxes out of the building; and
is being carried out to restore them.
Š Sheikh Hussam Jarallah’s entire library
was lost in 1948 war.
CATALOGUE :
The first catalogue for the library was made in
1987 by Mr Khader Salameh. Within the Conclusion
catalogue, the subjects were arranged according
Writing recorded the history of many
to the Hijri century in which it was written.
cultures and civilizations all over the world
The library has a small number of printed
including Palestine. But unluckily for
books in the Arabic language and some in
Palestine, occupiers through out its history,
Turkish. The Turkish are mostly on legislation
like the Israelis at present, have tried to erase
during the Othman Empire. Printed books are
this written heritage and claim that they came
from the late 19th century and early 20th century.
to an empty land. The theft of this written
The library has a good number of newspapers
heritage has helped the Israeli occupiers
and magazines from the early 20th century like
peddle their myths.
the “Palestine” newspaper from 1920, printed in
Libraries in Palestine in general and in
Jaffa. “Al Hakika” newspaper and “Al Balaghah”
Jerusalem in particular, would be one of the
newspaper printed in Beirut in 1923. And “Al
factors that under mine these claims as
Lata’if ” newspaper from Cairo in 1916.
studying the history of these libraries, with
the people and efforts behind them, would
MANUSCRIPT THEFT:
be like studying a summary of Jerusalem’s
Scholars estimate the number of manuscripts that
history. A fact that I discovered while writing
were in Jerusalem during the Ottoman rule to be
this paper.

26 Al-Aqsa
 B O O K R EV I EW

Checkpoint Watch, Testimonies from discover the reality of the conditions imposed by their
country on their neighbours. Keshet describes her
Occupied Palestine awakening to the Palestinian side of the story during a
meeting with a dialogue group in Beit Sahour. Here, the
BY YEHUDIT KIRSTEIN KESHET, Zed Books (2006),
Palestinians set out that their desire was exactly the same
ISBN 184277719, 182pp, £14.95
as that of Israeli’s, to oppose annihilation and have their
national aspirations recognised. The issues, she states, were
the Palestinian political, cultural and economic liberation.
This challenged the prevalent and inbred notion carried
by the vast majority of Israeli’s – that Palestinians did
not want to live in peace.
The book is divided into three parts, titled 1) the context,
2) the checkpoints, and 3) the observers. These 3 parts
are also further subdivided into seven chapters dealing with
particular aspects of the checkpoints and their aims and
impact. Keshet begins her analysis on the checkpoints from
the 1967 imposition of permits for Palestinian entry into
Israel. While the traditional checkpoints did not materialise
until some years later, the idea of humiliating checks was
already taking form.
Keshet explains how military checkpoints began to be
implemented during the outbreak of the first Gulf War
CheckpointWatch (MachsomWatch) is an organisation of
of 1991. A series of events following this, including the
Israeli women who have come together to monitor human
stabbing of some Israelis by individual Palestinians, tighter
rights abuses being perpetrated by the Israeli occupation
restrictions and the opening of the tunnels under the Al-
forces against the Palestinians. The author of this book,
Aqsa compound; resulted in wide scale unrest which was
Keshet is a co-founder of the group and thus in a position
dealt with by restricting the movement of Palestinians and
to provide a first hand analysis of the conflicts and turmoil
dividing the occupied territories. Checkpoints have only
faced by these women in undertaking a task that questions
increased in numbers since then, and now disrupt every
their very loyalty to the state of Israel. Keshet, herself the
aspect of life.
daughter of refugees from Nazi Germany, is now retired
Keshet does not consider checkpoints in isolation but
and dedicates all her time to opposing her countries
also discusses other measures that are used to restrict
occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.
Palestinian movement including curfews and closures,
The book begins with a Foreword by Amira Hass who
which all have the same aim of disabling the society in its
sets out that since the establishment of CheckpointWatch
entirety. Thus the checkpoints facilitate a wider aim of
in 2001, not one single checkpoint has been removed
emptying Palestinian territories of Palestinians, by making
from the West Bank. As the movement grew in size, so
life there unbearable.
too did the number of checkpoints. She explains in no
This book gives in depth and personal accounts of
uncertain terms the reality of a checkpoint: “Watchers
incidents at checkpoints; reflecting the resilience of
are witnesses to, and recorders of, the permanence of
Palestinians and their determination to persevere, and the
supposedly temporary major checkpoints allegedly erected
fact that the Israeli Occupation Forces have some human
in response to security needs, and have recorded their
faces. There are a small number of images and maps to
metamorphosis into well-fortified gates between walls and
help decipher the situation on the ground. But at the crux
fences that create Palestinian enclaves, isolated from one
of this book is an analysis that is often lacking in this
another.”
conflict, as it is one side truly understanding the plight of
The author explains that while checkpoints continue to
the other – a position often absent between Israelis and
be sold to the world as a military and security necessity for
Palestinians. The personal accounts themselves make it a
Israel, their impact on Palestinians is to bring every day
gripping read.
life to a grinding halt. The frustration surrounding the
In conclusion, what CheckpointWatch has witnessed and
bureaucratic procedures that Palestinians are subject to
propagates is the unjust denial to many and freedom of
when seeking travel permits exemplifies the imposition of
movement to only a few.
practices which by their very nature deny Palestinians the
right to basic freedoms.
Leicester Rajnaara Akhtar
The women of CheckpointWatch have gone behind
the half-truths that surround the security arguments, to

Al-Aqsa 27
 Overcoming Zionism: Creating a
Single Democratic State in Israel/
Palestine
BY JOEL KOVEL, London, Pluto Press, 2007, ISBN: 0-7453-
2569-6, pp. 299, £15.99
T
he author is a famous left-wing writer and College
Professor in Social Studies, and a major critic of US and
Israeli governmental policies in the Middle East, and
Western policies in general in the rest of the so-called ‘developing’
world. He worked as a doctor and a psychiatrist in various
American hospitals and research establishments for over twenty
four years, but eventually quit the system over dissatisfaction
with the direction that the US public health service was headed.
Kovel is a well-known anti-racism activist and social ecologist, as
well as a member and former Presidential candidate for the Green
Party in the US. His previous best work was ‘White Racism’
(1972) which won him a National Book Award. His work is so
controversial in America that the Library of Congress, one of
the world’s largest libraries and a compulsory repository of
almost all published material in the US, does not have a copy.
Nor does Kovel’s own institution – the Bard College in
Annandale, New York.
‘Overcoming Zionism’ is Kovel’s first book about the Arab-
Israeli conflict, which has appeared rather late considering his long
history of left-wing activism and publishing in the US. The book
is a compilation of the many essays written by the author regarding
the state of Israel and the Israel-Palestine conflict. These were
mainly published in the progressive Jewish magazine Tikkun, to
which the Author has been a major contributor since its inception.
He details his early life as the child of East European
immigrants to New York and being brought up as a Zionist
American Jew, coupled with the later adolescent rebellion against
the religious-cultural traditions of his ancestors. Kovel sees
himself as a non-Jewish Jew, in that he no longer believes in the
particularistic Jewish traditions that separate Jews from other
people. In that sense, Joel is a universalist-humanist in the ‘liberal’
Western tradition.
Joel Kovel identifies with those Jewish people who have left
their tribal origins and constricted backgrounds and have
embraced the whole world as their pasture and area of action.
The Author sees himself as being part of the post-enlightenment
tradition of Jewish intellectuals, such as Spinoza, Marx, Freud,
Proust, Eistein, Kafka, Wittgenstein and Rosa Luxembourg.
28 Al-Aqsa
Kovel proposes “the true glory of being Jewish is to live on the
margin and across boundaries” (Prologue, p. 8). For Kovel,
Zionism is nothing but ‘Jewish tribalism at its worst’ (p.8). In
this book, the Author essentially advocates the singular
transformation of the state of Israel to accommodate all segments
of the population of the Holy Land. Like Israeli leftist critic,
Michael Warschawski (author, On the Border), Kovel too
recommends and exhorts Israel to be de-Zionised and integrated
into the rest of the Middle East (p. 220).
The Author is a self confessed angry man in this book. He is
truly furious at the ‘racist-apartheid’ attitude of the Zionist
people of the state of Israel in their treatment of the Palestinian
Arabs in their own homeland. Kovel states that the only solution
to the Israel-Palestine problem is to have a bi-national secular
democratic state in the territory of the former British mandatory
Palestine. In this sense, this book joins the increasing body of
literature that points towards such an option as a solution to the
Israel-Palestine problem.
Kovel is unanimous in his condemnation of the Jewish
state as racist in the mode of the former ‘apartheid’ South African
minority-ruled state. Kovel feels that more than ending the
occupation in Palestine, well-meaning people in the world should
focus on ending Zionism, which is the pathological-sociological
condition that produces the ongoing Israeli ‘occupation’ of the
Arab inhabited areas of Israel-Palestine. Indeed, he advocates a
relentless critique of Zionism as a movement that has caused so
much uprooting and misery in the 20th century and given the
present circumstances, looks likely to continue well into the
present century.
Kovel deals in great detail with the kind of racism affecting
Israeli society at large. This is not only directed against the Arab
minority, but also intra-Jewish racism as manifested by the
European (Ashkenazi) elite against Jews of North African and
Asian origin (Sephardim). As a Jewish American, from Ukrainian
immigrant stock, he is well-aware of the impact of racism on the
social and political fabric of society, especially following his own
special study of white-black racism in the US.
While many modern Israelis may deny this, to quote famous
New York Jewish Attorney and Human Rights activist, Michael
Steven Smith, “Racism is in the nature of a colonial settler state.”
Kovel refers to the widespread denial among Israelis that they
are a racist society and people; despite numerous poll results
pointing towards the inability of the majority of Israelis to co-
habit with Palestinian Arabs. As Kovel states, ‘for Israel to admit
racism would be to put it in the same category as the apartheid
South African state and would be an obvious reason for the de-
legitimisation of the state’ (p.164).
As he mentions in the autobiographical prologue to the book,
Zionism today is nothing but a re-incarnation of historic European
colonialism, or a kind of virulent tribalism linked with the extremely
dangerous poison of majoritarian nationalism, which has created
so much havoc in the West and in the modern world over the last
one millennia (p.6). Kovel details how difficult it is to mention
the question of Israeli racism or apartheid in the US, given the
extent of support for the Zionist state in America. He quotes
from Theodore Herzl, seen as the founder of modern Zionism,
to show that it was the earliest desire of the earliest Zionist
ideologues to evacuate and dispel the native Arabs from Palestine
(p.48). Kovel is very cynical about the future of Zionism in Israel,
as is evident from the recorded introductory talks about the present
book under review, available on his website (www.joelkovel.org).
He quotes from Thomas Jefferson saying that all states in the
world are illegitimate to a certain degree or other (p.202). In this
sense he believes that the state of Israel is also illegitimate.
 Kovel deals with the common accusation against him as
being essentially ‘anti-Semitic,’ stating that criticising Israel is
almost always considered ‘anti-Semitic’ in the West. He makes
the point that racism in all its forms has been the worst form of
human behaviour known to man. The excuse of anti-Semitism
has often been used to justify counter-racism on the part of the
Jewish people. Kovel chronicles the much concealed fact that
most Jewish people, at least in the West, are brought up on the
notion that they are ethically superior. Such ‘Zionist logic
engenders a racist resolution’ according to Kovel.
Kovel relates how one of the contradictions about the state
of Israel is the fact that it insists on regarding itself as a democratic
state in the Western liberal perspective, while actually much the
opposite is true. The Author is quite clear that the modern Israeli
state is an ethnocracy, a state meant for the welfare of the ruling
dominant white Westernised Ashkenazi Jewish group in Israel.
Kovel’s book is not the first that breaks new ground over
the allegation that Israel is an ‘apartheid’ society. Jimmy Carter’s
latest book (Palestine: Peace not Apartheid) has already stolen the
match on this issue. Issues dealing with the impact and power
of the ‘Jewish Lobby’ on Capitol Hill have already been
academically exposed with the publication of Professors Stephen
Walt and John Mearsheimer’s article in the London Times.
Another aspect of this book is that the author painstakingly
reveals some of the inner thought processes of the leaders of
the Zionist movement such as Chaim Arlosoff, Vladimir
Jabotinsky and David Ben-Gurion who privately, if not publicly,
advocated the need to evacuate and disperse most of the Arab
people of Palestine. He writes in the mode of many of the ‘new’
revisionist historians of Israel like Benny Morris, Avi Schalim
and Ilan Pappe. Kovel is no supporter of Morris whose hard-
headed ‘realist-racist’ attitude towards the native Arab people of
Palestine is out right condemned in this book. The author
repeatedly makes the comparison between the present Zionist
state of Israel and the former ‘Apartheid’ state of South Africa.
Kovel does not spare any of the former premiers of Israel
such as Menachem Begin, Yitzhak Shamir and Ariel Sharon whom
he freely castigates as being members of terrorist organisations,
etc. In his book, Kovel also reveals the extent of collaboration
between the pre-independence Yishuv and the Hitlerite regime in
Germany over the status of German-Jewish property. He also
narrates the ‘Deir Yassin’ incident in which over a hundred
Palestinian villagers were murdered in cold blood in one single
massacre. Kovel believes, in accordance with most standard
historians, that the incident at Deir Yassin along with many other
similar massacres, most of which have been successfully concealed
and are still to be researched in detail, were ultimately responsible
for the mass flight of Palestinians from the state of Israel.
This book also reveals details of big-town America’s dealings
with Zionist Israeli businessmen and the activities of right-wing
Americans in support of the state of Israel. This is through
various large-scale ‘Zionist’ donations to both major American
political parties as well as to establishing various ‘centres of
excellence’ in Israeli academia. Kovel relates how every US
President since Eisenhower has tried to control Israel’s nuclear
policy without success, given the power of Israel’s US Jewish
and Christian support lobby.
Kovel clearly believes in the right of the state of Israel to
exist, but not in its current mode. He postulates about a future
secular democratic one-state solution, termed in his words
Palesreal-a state that would support the rights of the ‘white’
Jewish population as well.
He ends the book with the story of a Palestinian man who
he names Ahmad, a native of East Jerusalem who has spent 17
years in Israeli jails. Through Ahmad, Kovel defines ideology of
the Palestinian people in the face of overwhelming odds as
manifested in the form of the Israeli state, which he correctly
defines as ‘Sumud’ (Arabic for steadfastness).
Kovel correctly analyses, again along the lines of Michael
Warschawski that the gargantuan struggle being played out in
Israel today is between the reactionary forces of Zionism, in an
albeit aged spectrum, and the desires and aspirations of an entire
generation of young Israelis brought up in a post-Zionist
‘Capitalist-Globalist’ climate, wishing to be classified as normal
human beings without the trauma of any inherited ‘holocaust-
rightist’ baggage attached to them. To quote from Kovel’s
appropriation of the language of Warschawski, “for them (the
‘new Israelis’), solidarity with Palestinians is evidence of their
engagement with a broader solidarity with all who suffer
oppression.”
Kovel is quite clear that the problem with the state of Israel
is not the ‘illegal’ occupation of the West Bank, but the whole
issue of the ideology of Zionism and the question of the Jewish
nature of the state. In this context, he advocates that the new
watchword of the leftist-liberal struggle should not be ‘post-
Zionism’ but ‘anti-Zionism,’ which can again be defined as ‘an
overcoming of Zionism through active struggle.’(p. 221)
Kovel is quite clear that the two-state solution is no longer
an option. Palestinians effectively control only 8% of the West
Bank state, mainly the city limit areas of major Palestinian urban
areas that are subject to invasion by Israeli troops at anytime.
Palestinians are today isolated from each other and cut off
economically and socially from each other. Their present
habitations are economically unviable and they are completely
dependent on foreign aid to survive.
Kovel is uncompromising when it comes to the way that
well-meaning people should respond to Zionism and the state
of Israel. He advocates an open fight against the state, using all
means, except open violence. In short, like the army of non-
violent activists working in Palestine-Israel, Kovel also advocates
a kind of ‘pro-active non-violent’ approach to actively resist the
Zionists and their supporters, mainly in the West.
Kovel recommends campaigning against and boycotting
Western multi-national corporations that actively fund and support
the state of Israel through the transfer of sensitive technologies
and military and industrial hardware. In essence, Kovel advocates
putting into place the entire machinery of the anti-Apartheid
struggle against the former South African state into the struggle
against the Zionist state of Israel. While Kovel does not call for
the end of the state of Israel, he supports the right of return of all
the Palestinian refugees to the state of Israel. He feels that the best
method to undo the ‘Jewish-ness’ of the state of Israel is to
encourage the return of the Arab migrants and refugees from the
Holy Land. Already, the population of the entire Israel-Palestine,
west of the Jordan River, is roughly equal.
Kovel’s book is written sensitively, using a simple style, and
incorporates many different stories within its pages without
overwhelming the reader. The all-embracing bibliography available
at the end contains an unusually wide-ranging website list.
The crux of the book is the argument that the ideology
called Zionism and Western liberal democracy are highly
incompatible. A two-state solution is not the solution to the
conflict at all as this envisages the division of the Holy Land on
the basis of 20th century nationalism which was the essential
reason for the outbreak of the Zionist-Arab / Israel-Palestine
conflict in the first place.
Department of Politics, Samuel J. Kuruvilla
University of Exeter
Al-Aqsa 29

Occupied Territories, The Untold
Story of Israel’s Settlements
BY GERSHOM GORENBERG, I.B.Tauris, 2007, ISBN
1845114302, 480pp, £14.99
T
his book was first published as The Accidental Empire,
Israel and the Birth of the Settlements, 1967-1977 by
Times Books, Henry Holt and Company.
If this wonderfully readable book is re-published in
updated form at some point in the foreseeable future, it
could have the following subtitle – How the Zionist State
of Israel (With American Assistance) Dug Its Own Grave.
Born in the U.S. and living in Jerusalem, Gershom
Gorenberg, journalist and author, is what could be called
an associate member of that small, brave band of “new”
or “revisionist” (for which read honest) Israeli historians.
This band of truth-tellers includes Professors Avi
Shlaim and Ilan Pappe. Shortly after the publication of his
latest book, The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, Ilan decided to
take his leave of Israel because its intelligence services
and other agencies were making it impossible for him to
work at Haifa University. He has now taken up a post at
Exeter University. The Zionised Board of Deputies of
British Jews tried and failed to block the appointment. (Ilan
told me that hardcore Zionists were not too worried about
his latest book because they could rubbish it and him in
their usual way. But they were, he said, “very worried”
about my book because of its title. Ilan agrees with me
that Zionism: The Real Enemy of the Jews is a profoundly
important summary statement of a great if uncomfortable
truth for our time).
Occupied Territories is two things in one. It is the
documented story of who said what to whom, at Israeli
and American leadership level, as Israel’s colonisation of
Arab land grabbed in 1967 was proceeding. It is also the
story, reading between the lines, of the struggle within an
author’s soul as he comes to grips with painful facts, which
sadly, most Jews are not yet ready to hear.
My only disagreement with Gorenberg’s interpretation
of events is over the important question of why it was
that Israel ended the Six Days war in occupation of the
whole of the West Bank as well as Eygpt’s Sinai including
30 Al-Aqsa
the Gaza Strip and Syria’s Golan Heights. His judgement
is that “Accidentally, Israel had acquired an empire.” In
this interpretation of events, which echoes Avi Shlaim’s,
Israel did not go to war to take territory. Military advances
simply “outpaced plans”, or, as Avi put it, Israeli military
commanders simply took advantage of opportunities to
take land as they opened up.
The other version, mine, recognises that Prime Minister
Levi Eshkol and Chief of Staff Yitzhak Rabin did not
want to go to war. Like all of Israel’s leaders, they knew,
contrary to what they told their people, that Egypt’s
President Nasser was not intending to attack Israel. But
what Eshkol wanted was actually a very limited military
operation to put pressure on President Johnson to oblige
Nasser to end his closure of the Straits of Tiran. However,
this was of no consequence by 5 th June. In the final
countdown to war on the Israeli side, there was something
close to a coup (more political than military), which resulted
in Eshkol being forced to handover the defence portfolio
to Israel’s one-eyed warlord, General Moshe Dayan. And
the very first thing Defence Minister Dayan did when he
was appointed on 1st June was to tear up Eshkol’s plan and
replace it with one for total war. In my assessment, there is
more than enough evidence to support the conclusion that
Israel’s military and political hawks went to war to create
Greater Israel, and that for them it was the unfinished
business of 1948/49.
The central theme of the bulk of Occupied Territories is
how and why Israel’s leaders decided not to decide how
much land to give back in exchange for peace. As
Gorenberg notes, the first proposals for withdrawal were
born in the midst of the fighting.
“At Military Intelligence’s research department,
Colonel Shlomo Gazit and his staff completed a
document that called for a near-complete pullback
to the pre-war lines in return for full, formal peace
agreements. Gazit’s paper also proposed
establishing a Palestinian state in the West Bank
and Gaza Strip. The paper was sent to Dayan, Rabin
and other top military figures on June 9th None
responded.”
After the 1973 war, General Shlomo Gazit was
prevailed upon to become Director of Military Intelligence
with a brief to ensure there could never again be an
intelligence failure as there was on the eve of that war. In
conversation with him some years later I took a deep
breath and said: “Shlomo, I’ve come to the conclusion that
it’s all a myth. Israel’s existence has never, ever been in
danger.” Through a sad smile he replied, “The trouble with
us Israelis is that we’ve become the victims of our own
propaganda.”
After the Creation of Greater Israel, the actual
occupation policy, as brilliantly illuminated by Gorenberg,
was “speaking softly and ‘creating facts’; using faits accomplis
to determine the political future of disputed land… A new
policy, neither articulated nor admitted.” As Eshkol put it,
it was “better to be criticised after the fact (when nobody
could do anything about it) than to do something Israel
had been told in advance not to do.” And it was as
Gorenberg notes, quoting Israeli political scientist Ehud
Sprinzak, the “ethic of illegalism.”
Gorenberg’s most important revelation is that in a
memorandum marked Top Secret, dated 18th September
1967, Theodor Meron, legal counsel to the foreign ministry,
informed Prime Minister Eshkol that “civilian settlement
in the administered territories contravenes the explicit
provisions of the Fourth Geneva Convention.” As
Gorenberg put it, from then on “Eshkol (and at least some
other Israeli cabinet ministers) knew that settling civilians
in occupied land, including the West Bank, violated
international law.”
Gorenberg also reveals that “Israel’s leaders expected
to be pressured by the United States to pull out.” But as
he goes on to say, Israeli policymakers “actually had less to
fear than they thought.” The U.S. was not going to press
Israel to withdraw. And the reason for this was explained
by Harold Saunders, an NSC (National Security Council)
staffer. “We were convinced that we just could not move
Israel against its will.”
Some readers, perhaps many, and possibly all, will ask
– Why, really, was the U.S. not prepared to require Israel
to act in accordance with international law? The short
answer was, and still is, the power of the Zionist lobby on
Capitol Hill. That, plus the fact that the criminal Zionist
state has nuclear weapons.
In a conversation that took place in the living room of
Johnson’s ranch, “first Rusk (secretary of state) and then
Johnson asked Eshkol to describe ‘what kind of Israel we
would be expected to support.’” Eshkol evaded answering.
“Johnson posed the question yet again – ‘What kind of
Israel do you want?’ – in a one-on-one conversation with
Eshkol. Afterward, Eshkol told Allon he had replied, ‘My
government has decided not to decide.’”
So Israel’s illegal settlement activity, the obstacle to
peace, continued and was speeded up when Menachem
Begin, the most successful terrorist leader of modern times,
became Israel’s prime minister in 1977. This is where
Gorenberg’s main story ends.
In an Epilogue titled Ephemeral for the Fourth Decade,
Gorenberg briefly touches upon some of the main
developments from 1977 to Prime Minister Sharon’s
unilateral withdrawal of settlers from the Gaza Strip in
2005. And he ends his book with this paragraph:
“The meaning of the denouement in Gaza would be
determined only by its yet-to-be-written sequel. It could
later be interpreted as the moment showing that the cost
in tears and fury of dismantling settlements was too high
to be paid again, on a grander scale, for evacuating the
larger Israeli communities in the West Bank – or as the
proof that settlements are indeed potentially temporary,
and that the settlers had lost the support of the Israeli
mainstream. It may be recorded as the act that revived
peace efforts, or as the intermezzo before a new battle
over the torn land. It did not yet answer the question posed
to Israelis when the unexpected conquests of 1967 were
fresh: What kind of Israel do you want? The answer still
lay in the future”
At the time of writing this review (late August 2007)
events cry out in suggestion to me that the denouement in
Gaza will be recorded as the intermezzo. In my view the
prospects for a just and therefore peaceful resolution of
the conflict in and over Palestine have never been as bad
as they are today. Sharon did not withdraw from Gaza to
give peace a chance but to defuse the demographic time-
bomb of Israeli occupation which, on the West Bank, he
intended to consolidate.
And the answer to the question of how the story will
end might not be in the future. We might already know it.
When Eshkol and his cabinet colleagues first discussed
whether they wanted to keep only some of the newly
conquered territory, or all of it, four ministers said they
totally rejected annexation. The one Gorenberg quotes was
justice minister Yaakov Shapira. He said that annexation
meant turning Israel into one binational state, in which
Jews would eventually become a minority. He added that
the necessary alternative was to return almost all of the
West Bank to Jordan, “because otherwise we’re done with
the Zionist enterprise.”
Shapira meant that if Israel remained in occupation of
the Palestinians who lived beyond Israel’s borders as they
were on the eve of the 1967 war, there would come a
time when the Palestinians in all of Greater Israel would
be able to vote the Zionist state out of existence (if Israel
remained a democracy).
In theory and unless Israel does end its occupation and
withdraw to its pre-1967 borders, to make the space for a
genuine two-state solution, one possible end of the story is
the creation of a secular, democratic state for all in which
Jews and Arabs would have equal rights. That would amount
to the de-Zionisation of Palestine (as foreseen by Shapira).
If it can be assumed that hardcore Zionists will never
let that happen, what is a possible alternative ending to the
story?
Most of Israel’s political and military leaders still believe
that by means of brute force and reducing them to abject
poverty, they can break the will of the Palestinians to
continue the struggle for their rights. The assumption being
that, at a point, and out of total despair, the Palestinians
will be prepared to accept crumbs from Zionism’s table in
the shape of two or three bantustans, or, better still, will
abandon their homeland and seek a new life in other
countries.
The question that’s almost too awful to think about is
something like this: What will the Zionists do when it
becomes apparent even to them that they can’t destroy
Palestinian nationalism with bombs and bullets and brutal
repressive measures of all kinds?
My guess is that they, the Zionists, will go for a final
round of ethnic cleansing - to drive the Palestinians off
the West Bank and into Jordan and beyond. That, I fear,
will be Zionism’s final solution to the Palestine problem.
If that happens, the West Bank will be turned red with
blood, mostly Palestinian blood. And honest reporters will
describe it as a Zionist holocaust.
I find myself wondering if Gershom Gorenberg shares
my fear on this account. I know Ilan Pappe does.
Alan Hart
Zionism: The Real Enemy of the Jews (2 vols.)
Al-Aqsa 31
 American Policy Toward Israel: The
power and limits of beliefs
BY MICHAEL THOMAS, Routledge, 2007, ISBN 978-
0415771467 (HB), Pp 272, £65
I
n ‘American Policy Toward Israel: The power and limits of
beliefs’, Michael Thomas looks at how the American-Israeli
relationship has influenced American policy toward Israel
and the Palestinians. He describes how policy decisions are
constrained and defined as a result of this relationship. Beliefs
determine how we view the world and hence influence the
decisions we make, and thus policies can be defined based on
these beliefs rather than based on evidence.
By introducing the book with these ideas and mindset,
Thomas goes deep in to the underlying causes which led to the
development of this relationship as it now stands. This prepares
the reader for what is to come in the following chapters, and,
rather like a jigsaw puzzle, historical events in this relationship
fit neatly together.
In chapter 1, Thomas refers to the American-Israeli
relationship as ‘special’ – it exceeds beyond religious and moral
boundaries to economic, political and military assistance. By
drawing on historical facts and evidences Thomas provides a
strong and convincing expose on American bias towards Israel.
Using specific examples, he peels off the layers to uncover the
true extent and depth of this special relationship.
Thomas explains how Israel achieves American support
through its penetration of the policy-making process. This began
at the time of Reagan with the Evangelical Christian community
and has persisted to the second Bush administration where
Christian Zionists have access to the White House.
The relationship is not just about the two countries as the
Jewish community in America also plays a significant role, as
discussed in Chapter 2. Thomas brings the reader’s attention to
the strength of this community, and their organised activities/
campaigns in the fields of politics, civil rights, fair employment
and democracy. Digging deeper reveals how even the demography
of the Jewish population in America was organised to impact
upon key elections.
This book provides the reader with an insight into an intricate
matrix of issues which affect American policy towards Israel.
These issues are not always readily apparent, yet they have such
32 Al-Aqsa
profound effects on the belief system of the American people
(both Jewish and non-Jewish) and eventually on policy. The
media is also mentioned as a tool which has aided the strong
support for the existence of Israel since the end of WWII. Jewish
people are usually portrayed as positive images whereas Arabs
are depicted as racists associated with terrorism. Another factor
is the lack of opposition to these ideas, and so there is ultimately
no reason for politicians and Americans not to support the pro-
Israeli ideas that were being pumped through various channels.
In this book, there is a particular focus on the presidencies of
Ronald Reagan and George Bush senior. Chapter 4 explores the
way in which Reagan’s personality and beliefs shaped the special
relationship. Thomas looks at how Reagan dealt with the specific
issue of the E-3A Airborne Warning and Control System
(AWACS) sale to Saudi Arabia and the fight against the American
Jewish Community who were against the sale. This provides an
insight into the process of negotiation and conflict involved,
thus shedding light into the establishment of power
relationships. The issues which arose went further than just
considerations about the security of Israel in the sale. This chapter
takes the reader on a journey through the mind of Reagan during
the events and decisions which took place during his presidency.
Within this overview of the relationship, the author
mentions some of the key organisations which hugely impact
on the policy making process. One such organisation is the
American Israel Political Affairs Committee (AIPAC) which has
influences in Congress. Together with the Zionist Organization
of America and the Anti-Defamation League, this group aims
to ‘reinforce the image of Israel as America’s cultural, religious
and democratic sibling’ (p. 13).
In Chapter 8 we read about George H W Bush and James
Baker and their close relationship. Personal relationships also
shape how policies are dealt with and made, and hence America’s
relationship with Israel. Financial investment (and increases in
aid) made by America at significant historic moments illustrate
America’s commitment to Israel. The author also describes how
Israel’s primary interest for America shifted from the security of
Israel to western access to Gulf oil.
An interesting event which forms the topic of Chapter 9 was
the US promise to guarantee Israeli loans if Israel stopped the
building of new settlements. America’s support was now
becoming conditional and many accused George Bush junior of
being an anti-Semite. Although Yitzhak Shamir rejected this
condition (as he valued the settlements more than the loan
guarantees), once Rabin took office in Israel, Bush authorised
$10 billion in loan guarantees without a settlement freeze. This
provides a fine example of how beliefs influence policy as the US
reached a stage where it could no longer afford to have anything
but a special relationship with Israel unconditionally.
In this book, Thomas gives the reader a deep insight into
the complexities of this special relationship. It provides a different
lens through which one can view developments between America
and Israel; where beliefs, establishment of power and
organisations such as AIPAC have the greatest influence in
determining policy. No matter what issues or obstacles the two
countries are faced with, the conclusions remain the same and
have not altered the bond that exists between them. As Thomas
succinctly puts it - ‘the more things change, the more they are
likely to stay the same’(p 192).
Oxford Ruqaiyyah Ahmed