This year, and while millions of the free people of the world rallied on international Quds day in support for the Palestinian cause and to call for an end to the Zionist apartheid regime’s atrocities and occupation of Palestine, Palestinians in Jerusalem are escalating their protests against the continuous policies of ethnic cleansing of Jerusalem from its Palestinian indigenous people, who have lived there for thousands of years, at the hands of the apartheid military occupying power. 

On this significant occasion, Palestinians are extremely grateful for the Late Imam Khomeini, the inspirational leader of the modern Iranian revolution, for designating the last Friday of the holy month of Ramadan as the International Quds Day in the act of uniting Muslims and freedom-loving people in solidarity with the just cause of Palestinians in the face of the Zionist apartheid regime and its global war crimes. 

Today, after forty-two years, millions of people from different religions, races and nationalities around the world are rushing into the streets in mass demonstrations to show their full support and persistence in defending the Palestinian people. This is a global referendum and recognition of holy Jerusalem as the eternal capital of Palestine, the right of Palestinians to resist the colonial apartheid system, achieve their freedom, independence and the right of millions of refugees to return to their Homeland.   

Since the beginning of the holy month of Ramadan, the escalation of Palestinian’s peaceful resistance in Jerusalem of the Zionist criminal regime and its extreme right-wing government, which is actually sponsoring financially and military the terrorist settlement associations and companies in their constant attempts to change the demographical content of the holy city shows the real nature of this fabricated colonial apartheid regime bluntly. 

Unfortunately, and despite the excessive Zionist aggression measures against the Palestinians in the aftermath of the Oslo agreement such as demolition of houses, persecution of the people, expropriation of lands, random incarceration of civilians, ethnically cleansing of occupied Jerusalem, continuous seizure of Gaza, the normalization trend of some Persian Gulf states is endangering Jerusalem and the Palestinian cause and encouraging the Zionist settlers to continue their colonization process of the holy Jerusalem. 

The United Arab Emirates has been investing billions of dollars through local collaborators to broker sales of land and property inside the old city and in the surrounding neighborhoods of Shaikh Jarrah, Albustan and Batn Alhawa by forged deeds.  

As millions of Palestinians were expelled from their villages and cities and took refuge in 58 refugee camps, including 28 in the West Bank,  Jerusalem and Gaza, while the rest of the camps were distributed in neighboring countries, Palestinians in the Shaikh Jarrah neighborhood of Jerusalem who have been forcefully displaced from their homes in Jafa and Haifa which was occupied in 1948 are enduring another tragedy (Nakba) at the hands of zealous Zionist settlers’ companies who falsely claim ownership of Palestinian houses. 

The United Nations Relief and Welfare Agency (UNRWA) have declared on April 7, 2021, in a letter to Palestinian residents of Shaikh Jarrah that the Hashemite Kingdome of Jordan and UNRWA have entered into an agreement on November 16, 1954, for the construction of housing units in Shaikh Jarrah with an objective to lease twenty-eight units to twenty-eight Palestinian refugee families for a nominal rent for three years, after which the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan would transfer the ownership of the property to the families. 

Since the 1970s, this agreement has been subjected to constant violation by the settlers’ association, who intentionally manipulated the Palestinian owners in order to expel them from their homes. The “Israeli” High Court, which is part of a racist judiciary system, has lately released a court order to evacuate the Palestinian residents based on false claims and forged deeds.

On May 7, 2021, the case was sent to the “Israeli” High Court after both parties; the Palestinian attorneys representing the Palestinian owners of the land and estate from one side and the Nehlat Shimon International, a settler organization that falsely claim ownership to the land, from the other side, failed to reach an agreement. 

The status of Shiakh Jarrah residents, as well as millions of Palestinian refugees inside and outside Palestine, has remained conditional on the implementation of the UN Right of Return Resolution 194 to return to their homes and properties, which they were forced to leave in 1948. 

It is ironic but not surprising that hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who have been living in Jerusalem for centuries are not recognized as citizens of their own country; rather they are called residents, contrary to “Jews’ with different nationalities which are entitled to be citizens of the same country based on their religion. 

Thus, the behavior and procedures of this extreme right-wing government and the leaders of the ultra-Zionist parties in Jerusalem and Al Aqsa mosque is pushing the radical settlers to ignite a religious war against the indigenous Palestinian people of the holy city under false pretext and superstitious myth that God promised them the holy land of Palestine, while we know for a fact that most Zionist leaders are non-believers.

This Zionist apartheid regime is an outlawed state is considered as an international imperial military base that is continuously violating the resolutions of the UN Security Council, the UN General Assembly, international law, including the Fourth Geneva Convention and human rights, and causes an imminent threat not only to Palestinians but also to regional and global peace, security, and stability of humanity. This fake colonial regime must be dismantled.      

 Dr. Amal Wahdan is the founder and editor of the Arab Gazette. She has also served as director of Shaikh Hasan Foundation for Culture and Science, which aims to preserve and protect the Palestinian cultural and historic heritage in the wake of the pressure exerted by years of occupation. Moreover, Amal has been a permanent member of the Palestinian Coalition for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.