A NEW cycle of violence has begun in Palestine. The latest clashes have originated around the revered, and contested, Al Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem where recently a number of Palestinian fighters and Israeli police officials were killed. The violence led the Israeli state to close the religious site to Palestinians, increase security measures and cancel Friday prayers. This, expectedly, incensed the Arabs. There was more violence last Friday with deaths on both sides while killings of Israeli settlers were reported from the West Bank on Saturday. Perhaps no other spot in the occupied territories is more of a flashpoint than Al Aqsa, also referred to as Haram as-Sharif by the Palestinians, and the Temple Mount by the Israelis. It should be remembered that it was a provocative visit to this sacred site by Ariel Sharon in 2000 that sparked the Second Intifada. Therefore, the Israeli establishment must tread very carefully and not place any restrictions on the Palestinians’ access to Al Aqsa.

Unfortunately, fuelled by a suffocating Israeli occupation that has lasted several decades, violence has become the norm in Palestine. The Israelis, especially right-wingers such as the ones in power now, have not lost any opportunity to humiliate and brutalise the Arabs. Five decades after Israel occupied what is globally recognised as Arab land, there is no sign of a viable Palestinian state on the horizon. What is more, Gaza, ruled by the Hamas movement, has been turned into an open-air prison both due to an Israeli blockade and Palestinian infighting as there is no love lost between the Palestinian Authority that rules the West Bank and Hamas. As a UN report noted earlier this month, living conditions in Gaza have become “more and more wretched” over the past decade. With the present structure of the Middle East crumbling, the Arab world divided and disoriented and states that seems oblivious to their plight, it appears the Palestinians have little hope of escaping violence and living with freedom and dignity.

Published in Dawn, July 24th, 2017