Al-Chorouk, Algeria, January 17
A few weeks ago during Christmas celebrations in the city of Haifa a group of Israelis vandalized a sign bearing a photo of Jesus Christ and turned him into an offensive cartoon. They did so as if they were reminiscing over the days in which their ancestors hunted down Jesus Christ in the hills and mountains of Palestine in an effort to fight Christianity. Today, these very same people are hunting down Muslims in the same land, humiliating them in their holiest place of worship in the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. Now, too, they do so in an effort to erase a religion that isn’t their own. Indeed, the Israeli regime has gone to great lengths to remove any Christian and Muslim marks from the land. This includes raiding and looting homes, killing children and detaining hundreds of innocent civilians. Israel’s advocates often refer to it as the so-called only “democracy” in the Middle East, but the reality is that it if far from it. Unfortunately, many Arab states fail to see this basic reality and rush, instead, to normalize ties with Israel. However, Israel epitomizes an unprecedented kind of racism, one that is enshrined in law. Israeli settlers kill defenseless Palestinians; Israeli Occupation soldiers attack Palestinian communities with inhumane weapons such as white phosphorous and uranium bombs. The existence of the Zionist entity called Israel is a crime. Its mission is to take over the entire Arab world, one city at a time. Instead of understanding the gravity of this threat, the Arab world is turning a blind eye to Israel. How is it possible for Muslim and Christian leaders around the world to embrace Israel when it is so blatantly undermining people’s rights? How can they view Israel as a legitimate member of the international community when it consistently desecrates Muslim and Christian sites in Palestine in an effort to promote Judaism? There are millions of displaced Palestinians around the world in a wide range of countries. And despite being geographically separated, they all share the same steadfastness and determination to return to their homes and bring an end to the crimes of the Zionist regime. –Saleh Awad