memri
October 10, 2016 Special Dispatch No. 6640

Column In PA Daily 'Al-Hayat Al-Jadida' Praises Jerusalem Shooter: He Was 'A Lion Of Jerusalem And Al-Aqsa'

October 10, 2016
Palestinians | Special Dispatch No. 6640

The Fatah and the Palestinian Authority (PA) responses to the October 9, 2016 terrorist shooting attack in Jerusalem came primarily in the form of reports about it, while opinion articles were conspicuous in their absence. One exception was an Al-Hayat Al-Jadida columnist, 'Omar Al-Ghoul, who wrote that the shooter, Misbah Abu Sbeih, had been compelled to carry out the attack because the Israeli security apparatuses left him no choice. To date, PA officials have not commented on the attack, but Fatah spokesman Faiz Abu 'Aita said, "The occupation alone will bear the consequences of the Palestinian responses." He said that Israel's sponsorship of terrorism and the settlements, as well as the damage they are doing to Jerusalem, will cause additional Palestinian reactions.[1]

Several hours after the attack, Fatah's official Facebook page posted a statement by the Fatah Jerusalem branch declaring that day as a day of mourning and of a strike for the souls of the martyrs of Palestine, including the soul of the shooter. The statement also called on Israel to stop ignoring Palestinian rights at Al-Aqsa Mosque, stressing: "We of the Jerusalem branch of the Fatah movement... will defend the honor of the Arab and Islamic nations with our bare bodies."[2]

 
The Fatah statement

 
Image posted on Fatah's official Facebook page following the shooting (Facebook.com/Official.Fateh.1965, October 10, 2016)

'Omar Al-Ghoul, who served as advisor to former PA prime minister Salam Fayyad, wrote that it was Israel's policy and the actions of its security apparatuses that had compelled the shooter to carry out his attack.

The following are excerpts from his article:[3]

The Shooting Is "Another Warning Sign [Indicating] The Possible Outbreak Of A New Popular  Intifada, Which This Time Will Not End Until [Palestinian] Attain Liberty, Independence, Self-Determination And [Right Of] Return"

"Like all Palestinians, he did not want to die. He wanted to lead an honorable life in his city, with his family and friends in Silwan in [East] Jerusalem. But the Israeli ethnic cleansing state and its criminal security apparatuses denied him this choice. They used every means [at their disposal] to push him to defend himself by a means that I believe is the [only] language that can guarantee [a proper] response to their barbarism, immorality and terror. 

"The  martyr Misbah Abu Sbeih (39) could not tolerate [all] the violations and crimes of the Israeli General Security Agency. He renounced silence, or in other words was unwilling to surrender to the will of the Israeli hangman. In an interview with the Ma'an news site two days ago [October 8[, or, in other words, 24 hours before carrying out his fida'i operation against the police station of the occupation in the Sheikh Jarrah [neighborhood in Jerusalem], he said: 'Jerusalem is currently being subjected to an intensive Judaization [campaign] and an unprecedented attack by the occupation authorities. We are living in a jail. I was arrested five times within a single week. [In some cases I was] detained for [only] several hours or days. The last time I was arrested, the Security Agency manipulated the judge and he decided to ban me from entering the old city of Jerusalem, but they insisted on banning me from entering all of East Jerusalem.'

"The Lion of Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa, as his friends called him, was intermittently imprisoned for 39 months in the jails of the Israeli occupation for 'defending Al-Aqsa,' in addition to short detentions lasting days or weeks. To put things more clearly, the Israeli security apparatus made the martyr Misbah's life [a living] hell... [At some point] he could no longer bear the savage and racist Israeli escalation, aimed at emptying the holy city of its Arab Palestinian residents by various actions of ethnic cleansing: Judaization; land expropriation; the seizure of homes, assets and cemeteries; revocation of citizenship; structural, cultural and religious changes in the Palestinian capital of Jerusalem; dividing the space and the prayer [times] at Al-Aqsa [between Jewish visitors and Muslim worshipers]; the expulsion and removal of the murabitun and murabitat[4] based on groundless arguments and pretexts, and other severe violations.

"All this drove the Lion of Al-Aqsa to carry out a fida'i operation, while he declared to [the Palestinian news site] Ma'an that [on October 9] at 10:00 a.m. he would surrender himself [and report to] Ramle prison according to the decision of the Israeli security apparatus - especially after they threatened to place him in administrative detention if he didn't surrender [and report to the prison] that Sunday morning. The result was two people killed and nine wounded, including a Palestinian from Hebron. After a chase the fighter from Jerusalem was martyred on the soil of his beloved capital city. His legacy is [his wish that] all Palestinians and Arabs, Muslims and Christians, and all lovers of Jerusalem, defended and preserve its Palestinian Arab identity".

"Less than 24 hours ago, he expressed on his Facebook page his deep love for the blessed Al-Aqsa mosque and for his city, which belongs to all of us, saying: 'How I yearn for [the object of] my love and desire. May [Al-Aqsa] be the last thing I see and kiss and upon whose soil I prostate myself. I wish to kiss your soil and pray inside you [O Al-Aqsa]. But there is oppression, and they [the Israelis] are the oppressors. I shall never miss anything as I miss you [Al-Aqsa]. I shall never love anything as I love you, despite their jails, their hostility, their tyranny and their arrogance. The 'Israeli security apparatuses ' have sentenced me to four months in prison for my love of you, and I say, by Allah, that is [very] little, for I am willing to sacrifice my life, my years and my property for your sake. [Even] if I cannot visit you in person, my soul, heart and eyes have never left you or forgotten you. My love is great and my desire eternal, [and will last] until I die. Al-Aqsa has been entrusted to you - do not neglect it.'      

"The message of the martyr Misbah is clear and deeply meaningful: that the Zionist terror and ethnic cleansing will only cause [us] to cleave more tightly to the land and holy places, and to the eternal capital of Jerusalem, from every corner in the land of Palestine. Had the Israeli leaders, security apparatuses and intellectuals made an effort to carefully examine the message of this Lion of Jerusalem and to consider it in a responsible manner, and had they adopted a realistic and rational approach, they would have reconsidered their policy of occupation. For occupation, racism and a policy of ethnic cleansing that uproots [people], deports them and subjects them to occupation will produce nothing but legitimate resistance for the purpose of defending ourselves, [our] supreme national interests and [our] right to life, peace and coexistence. The case of the martyr Misbah is nothing but another warning sign [indicating] the possible outbreak of a new popular  intifada, which this time will not end until we attain [our] liberty, independence and self-determination and [realize our right of] return. So will they [the Israeli leaders] rethink their imperialist choice, stop the bloodshed before it's too late and agree to pay the price of the two-state solution on the June 4, 1967 borders?"

 

Endnotes:

[1] Facebook.com/Official.Fateh.1965, October 9, 2016. Maannews.net, October 9, 2016, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida (PA), October 10, 2016.

[2] Facebook.com/Official.Fateh.1965, October 9, 2016

[3] Al-Hayat Al-Jadida (PA), October 10, 2016.

[4] An Islamic Movement organization of Palestinian men and women who are active at the Al-Aqsa compound and agitate against the presence of Jewish visitors there.

Share this Report: