Fostering the Steadfastness

of the Palestinian People :

A Major factor in the Protection of Islamic

and Christian Holy Sites in Palestine

By : H.E. Ambassador Dr. Wajih Hassan Ali Qassem(*)

Excellency Mr. Chairman of the Conference

Excellencies and Eminencies,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Assalamu alaikum wa rahmatu Allah taala wa barakatuh,

It is my pleasure to start this address by extending my heartfelt thanks to His Excellency Dr. Abdulaziz Othman Altwaijri, his assistants and his august organisation for their extensive and praiseworthy efforts in shouldering the responsibility of protecting the identity of the Islamic Ummah, its culture, civilisation, and future.  Also commendable are the efforts to achieve the unity of the Ummah around its fundamental causes, particularly the just Palestinian cause which is intrinsically related to the existence of this Ummah, its faith, civilisation, political future, regional security and its bilateral and international relations. It is the unifying cause that rallies all the peoples of the Ummah and their leaders, which is an inevitable starting point in the struggle for its existence and its international status.

I would also like to thank His Majesty King Abdullah II, Sovereign of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, his sagacious government and his generous people for shouldering historical responsibilities to face the fierce conflict in which the Kingdom has been acting in solidarity and out of a sense of sharing on behalf of the Ummah and the faith, and for hosting the works of this Conference.

Ladies and gentlemen,

The setback of 1967, which resulted in the occupation of the rest of Al Quds Al Sharif and Palestinian lands, was a decisive moment in the implementation of the Israeli-Zionist plot to annex Al Quds to the Hebrew State, wreak havoc and destruction there, and disfigure monuments and Islamic and Christian holy sites. The fire set to the Al Aqsa Mosque in 1969 also set the hearts of Muslims on fire and led to the creation of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference in the summit meeting held in Rabat in the same year. This Organisation took over the responsibility of bringing all Muslims together and defending their most sacred cause. The Al Quds Committee was subsequently created to consecrate the defence of Al Quds on the political arena and at international forums, and it succeeded indeed in sensitising the world about the importance and centrality of the cause of Al Quds for the Islamic world. Under the presidency of His Majesty King Mohammed VI, this Committee continues to fend off all attempts to demolish Al Aqsa Mosque and build the alleged temple on its ruins, relying on the steadfastness of the Palestinian People in the blessed land of Al Quds.

While the Islamic world cannot remain waiting for Israel’s next move in the implementation of its judaisation plots and its destruction conspiracies against Al Quds and Islamic holy sites, strewing obstacles on the way of all international initiatives to reach any sort of political settlement, and in order to move to a more realistic world, the Bayt Mal Al Quds Agency was created as a financial institution whose aim is to bolster the steadfastness of the Palestinian people in the first of  the two qiblahs and the third of the holy places.

Palestinian Housing versus Zionist Settlements

Since its creation in September 1998, the Agency carried out many sectored studies about the living conditions of the citizens who were confined to 18% of the surface area of Eastern Jerusalem, despite the fact that their numbers are estimated today at more than 250,000 souls crammed in neighbourhoods that are criss-crossed by road networks and bridges that directly link the fifteen settlements  set up on their lands to West Jerusalem, in an attempt to choke off the Palestinian demographic growth. The Agency also found out that Arab neighbourhoods in Al Quds operate at only half their housing capacity in terms of the residences allowed by the Zionist structural planning of the city. The housing factor is a vital element in fostering the presence and steadfastness of Arabs and asserting the Arab Islamic identity of Palestine in general, and Al Quds in particular. It is also a decisive factor in the Jerusalemites’ capacity to confront the Zionist judaisation attempts and the fierce demographic conflict that Israel is engaged in to consecrate its occupation of the holy city. This conflict benefits from intensive efforts and dedication from the Israeli government, Zionist formations and Jewish agencies and organisations in Palestine and throughout the world. In fact, the Israeli government focuses half its settlement efforts on Jerusalem and supports these efforts with unlimited funds, having expropriated Palestinian lands, and deprived the Palestinian inhabitants of all but a meagre 18% of the original surface area of Jerusalem. Thus, the Israeli municipality expanded its perimeter to include most lands in the district of Jerusalem, and to surround the city with a chain of successive settlements that serve to isolate the city from the remaining Palestinian districts and villages, break their geographical continuity and make isolated islands of them.

The absence in Al Quds of a central authority, after the dissolution of the Arab municipality and the banning of the election of another council to supervise a housing strategy, had led Jerusalemites to carry out individual building operations motivated mostly by the instinct of self-defence and response to the natural demographic expansion of the city’s inhabitants. This has led us, as it has done with other organisations that support Al Quds, to encourage the creation of housing co-operatives that provide external financing through easy and reasonable instalments, and to encourage other initiatives that are not hindered by the Zionist occupation authority which controls all legislation and regulatory laws of the city. If we were to compare this with the needs arising from the tremendous demographic growth of the city’s Palestinian inhabitants in the city who, at 252,000, represented 43% of the overall population at the end of 2004, as compared to no more than 70,000 in 1967 (26% of the total inhabitants of the city), and if we know that Jewish immigration has been following a negative curve in the past three years, and that the hostile Zionist policy towards the presence of Palestinians in the city has been met with failure, we will fully comprehend the Zionist outcry vis-à-vis the Palestinian demographic expansion in Al Quds despite the tight security policies, the demolition of houses, the withdrawal and strict regulation of Jerusalemite identity documents, the encouragement of Israelis to expropriate houses in the old parts of the city and the closing down of Palestinian institutions. The Zionist authorities did not stop at all these arbitrary measures which are backed by a legislation that runs counter to international legitimacy and UN resolutions about the treatment of the Palestinian and his land. However, and despite all this, the Arab inhabitants of Al Quds have managed to remain steadfast by putting to good use the factors of time and demographics, forcing the Zionist authorities to devise a new zoning plan via the Zionist-controlled municipality of Al Quds, which plan restricts the presence of Palestinian inhabitants to within the walls of the Old Jerusalem. This arrangement leaves almost one hundred thousand Palestinians outside these walls who would then lose their identity as Jerusalemites and be denied access to the city. This plot aims to reduce the percentage of Arab citizens in the city, bringing it back to be the ratio defined by the Zionist municipality, i.e.  25%, at a time when this percentage stands at 34% and at 40% for children aged less than ten.

If we consider that there are more than thirty three thousand families in Jerusalem, and that there are twenty-eight thousand housing units, keeping in mind the high demographic growth rate, Al Quds will need about 25,000 housing units by 2010 in order to compensate for the old deficit and cater to the needs of the fast demographic growth, albeit at the minimal rate.

School Building and its Impact in Bolstering Palestinian Steadfastness

Expropriation operations by Israeli authorities in 1967 included all government institutions. Thus, public schools were seized and placed under the control of the Israeli municipality which sought first to impose Israeli school curricula on these schools. But the students strike and the fortitude of Jerusalemites forced the occupation forces to abandon the idea of modifying the curricula. They maintained the Jordanian school programmes after removing from them any content that could contribute to a sound national education. Drastic changes were implemented in the subjects of religion, literature, history and national education. Although those who could afford it moved to private schools, the schools operated by the Relief and Refugee Employment Agency and mission schools, more than 60% of Jerusalemite students are forced to pursue their studies in the schools run by the Israeli municipality which is striving hard to empty education from any national, political or sound scientific content. The number of schools rented, restored, equipped or authorised by the Agency has reached more than 12 primary, secondary or technical schools. Yet, the shortage remains acute when it comes to meeting the needs of a demographically expanding Palestinian population in the city of Al Quds Al Sharif. This has led us to open an educational centre to compensate for the inadequacy resulting from studying in Zionist schools, by teaching foreign languages and scientific subjects to students and pupils, to help reduce the incidence of academic failure before the secondary school certificate is obtained, as planned in the Israeli educational policy towards Arab schools.

The Ministry of Education has devised limited and mid-term projects to counter the danger of Zionist policies aimed at fostering ignorance and corruption, and to redress a dangerous situation which threatens to jeopardise future Jerusalemite generations. These projects include the restoration, rehabilitation and fitting out of existing schools, and expanding them to alleviate the problem of overcrowding in classrooms, and evening classes in existing schools. Seventy new classrooms need to be built every year in five schools spread out in the various neighbourhoods of the city. The cost of these classrooms is estimated at US$ 18.6 million over the next five years. The governments, peoples and the Islamic Ummah are expected to honour their commitments vis-à-vis the valiant people standing fast in the first of the two qiblahs and the third of the two Holy Places, the destination of Prophet Mohammed’s Night Journey and the cradle of Christ, peace be upon him.

Improving Living Conditions in Al Quds Al Sharif through Other Channels

The Agency of Bayt Mal Al Quds does not focus on housing and educational issues only. With its modest resources, it has exerted all possible efforts to meet the other daily needs of the inhabitants of Al Quds in health, youth and sport, revitalising economic life and ensuring accessibility to Al Quds in order to maintain it as an integral part of its religious, civilisational and cultural environment. The Agency also endeavours to confront the tremendous efforts exerted by the occupying forces to isolate and choke off the city, as a first step towards evicting Arab inhabitants and carrying out Zionist judaisation plans there.

The Agency’s actions consist of supporting hospitals in Al Quds by providing them with medicine and disposable supplies, contributing towards supplying them with advanced equipment for oncology and physiotherapy, creating external clinics to bring medical services closer to the citizens and to help these hospitals build their own capacity which would enable them  to meet the needs of Palestinians and to keep the population healthy and comfortable in the face of the fierce and unequal competition of Israeli hospitals and the war waged by Israeli health insurance companies. The Agency’s interest in youth issues was manifest in its providing youth clubs and centres with all the assistance it can spare, and attempting to break the isolation of the city through facilitating, at symbolic prices, the access of the visitors and the worshippers hailing from other parts of 1948 occupied Palestine. The purpose of this activity is to keep the buildings and places of worship alive, and to revitalize markets and other service providers in the city. However, these modest efforts do not fully meet the needs of the valiant city which is required to maintain its status as Palestine’s most important city, nor can they help it become the political capital of Palestine and the Makkah of the followers of all divine religious, unless they are bolstered by sustained Arab and Islamic efforts to preserve the holy city, uphold the resistance of the inhabitants of the first of the two Qiblahs and the third of the two Holy Places.

Conclusion

Mr. Chairman, Ladies and gentlemen,

The short experience of Bayt Mal Al Quds operating in Jerusalem has confirmed that with some constructive efforts we can indeed work in this city. The sheer magnitude of the needs there exacerbates the situation to the extents that cannot be imputed to the regulations of the Israeli municipality only. For example, 80% of the districts marked as residential areas in Al Quds have not reached 50% of their holding capacity for lack of the necessary funds to build. The same applies to the authorised schools and hospitals and the way they should be in normal circumstances, especially since there is full positive response and readiness from the steadfast institutions and authorities in Al Quds. Jerusalem’s proximity to the areas under Palestinian authority enables us to continue working within the city without transgressing the district’s regulations. Al Quds needs years of serious work before clashing with the unfair laws and regulations imposed by the Israeli occupation forces in the city. There are serious and necessary studies and projects that can be implemented if financial support is available, even in the minimal amounts necessary for implementation. These projects can help comfort the Palestinian people in their resistance and struggle in the sacred land around the blessed Al Aqsa Mosque, to be able to protect the holy sites of Arabs and Muslims, their civilisation and their culture until the day the Ummah joins the Palestinians in celebrating the victory of Allah, and victory can only come from Allah.

Assalamu alaikum wa rahmatu Allah taala wa barakatuh.

(*) The Ambassador of the State of Palestine in the Kingdom of Morocco, Director General of Bayt Mal Al Quds Acharif Agency.