AMMAN — The ongoing protests in Palestine have caught the
attention of international media and sparked solidarity protests across the
world. After years of unrest and episodes of violence, the scale and breadth of
the current protests have triggered cautious hope for some experts.
اضافة اعلان
According to Senator Mohammad Momany, former minister of
information and chairman of the National Guidance Committee at the Senate, the
specific nature of the aggression in Palestine, particularly the use of
violence at holy sites, has made this episode more influential and more capable
of uniting both Palestinians and their supporters than those in the past.
Momany pointed to the violence at Al-Aqsa Mosque, the third
holiest site in Islam. “That triggered a great deal of sympathy all around the
world.” Momany also described the “creative and smart” methods used by
protesters at the mosque: “They used the proper language, they used some sort
of peaceful disobedience, they argued their case well. So they drew a great
deal of sympathy also with the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, and that also is
something new. We’re talking about families being uprooted by the (occupation
forces) from their homes.”
“It’s a clear violation of the Israeli forces’ commitment as
an occupier,” he said. “They did not respect the rights or the freedom of
religion, the rights of Palestinians to worship. They used force to attack that
in a way. So it’s a violation of their religious rights, and it’s an essential
part of their human rights.”
The analyst emphasized the attack on religious sites as key
to understanding the wave of protests. “We’re talking about the last 10 days of
Ramadan, where religious feelings are at their peak,” he said. “People, when
they saw worshippers in the mosque being attacked, they fully support them.” He
added that people inside and outside the Arab world feel “that the whole
behavior of the Israeli government continues to be provocative behavior rather
than peaceful behavior.”
Momany highlighted the “cross-national” sympathy between
“Palestinians and Jordanians and Arabs.” “It’s a humanitarian, national reason
that drew across national sympathies with the Palestinians,” he said,
explaining that the situation has drawn sympathies from both Palestinians
living in the diaspora, Arabs around the world, and non-Arabs who sympathize
purely on “a human rights basis.”
“Politically I think the significance of what happened is
that it’s a reminder to the Israeli community, to the Israeli leadership, that
this conflict will continue to go up and down until we find a final solution,”
Momany added. “The status quo is not sustainable. It’s apartheid in practice,
and violence will keep going back and forth until we find a just solution.”
The much-anticipated Palestinian elections represented an
opportunity to unite Palestinians. Earlier this month, Jordan News spoke
with politicians and experts who expressed their optimism about the potential
for the elections to strengthen decision-making in Palestine and thus
contribute to the establishment of a Palestinian state. The disappointing
postponing of the elections, announced in late April, have been countered with
an unexpected source of unity: the escalating protests centered in East
Jerusalem.
“The form of unity is unprecedented,” said Murad Adayleh,
secretary general of the Islamic Action Front, in an interview with Jordan
News. “There is no doubt that the Palestinian resistance accomplished
something great as it acted against aggression in Jerusalem,
Al Aqsa Mosque,
and the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood.”
“The Palestinian unity is unprecedented since 1948;
political differences were put aside and everyone rallied around the same
cause,” Adayleh said. “We are also witnessing a state of unity between
Palestinians living in the territories and those living abroad and today we see
that those living abroad have not forgotten their cause. Today we saw that most
major capitals around the world are witnessing demonstrations and protests in
support of Palestine and Palestinian people rights.”
The protests have also united Jordanians. From Maan in the
south to Irbid in the north, there are “very genuine feelings of solidarity” in
Jordan for Palestinians, according to Jamil Nemri, secretary general of Social
Democratic Party and former lawmaker. “Usually we have some internal tensions
among Jordanians and Palestinians, or Jordanians from Palestinian origins about
the internal issues, the rights of the citizens from Jordan of Palestinian
origins. This contrasts with the occupation. Now, we find that the uprising in
Palestine became a new and important factor in the unification of the people
here.”
“People feel that we are together in this struggle,” Nemri
said.
“Inside Israel itself, among the Palestinians there, we see
a new uprising. We see a new unity among Palestinians in all the territories,
the 1948 territories and the” territories in the West Bank and
Gaza. The
project or the idea of the extreme right in Israel is going to fall. They
cannot ignore anymore the rights of the Palestinians to liberate themselves, to
add their state. And the occupation cannot last forever.”
“I think it will change in some way the public opinion,” the
politician added. “Now they see that there is no way to ignore the
Palestinians’ rights. And I think there will be a kind of shifting in the
Israeli public opinion.”
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