Jerusalem is the soul. Jerusalem is uprising, resistance and resurrection, and it is a political discourse that impacts continents.

Jerusalem is not just Palestine, it is not just Arab, and it is not just limited to “al-Quds Day.”

Jerusalem is not Israel and will never be Israel.

Jerusalem was given to the Palestinian people for safe keeping. The divine will has installed the Palestinian people there as guardians. They will protect Jerusalem and Jerusalem will protect them.

Without Jerusalem, Palestine would just be a nation, a part of the Arab state, and part of the Muslim ummah (community) that resides in that area.

Jerusalem does not just belong to Palestine and the Arab nation.

Israel hasn’t faced this rage yet.

This is such a force, such a discourse, such a spirit of struggle and battle, and such immense rage that it will spread to all continents in waves.

It is then that whatever promise was made in Jerusalem and whatever emotion was felt there will be witnessed from the deepest parts of Africa to the most remote corners of Asia. The same emotion and rage will spread across the planet. Israel hasn’t faced this rage yet. It has never faced such rage. It can’t even comprehend what this will mean.

Israel has only fought against the Palestinian populace. Israel only waged war against the Arab world. It has never witnessed the rage that will be directed at those who insult the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the power of this language.

Attempts were made to torch Al-Aqsa in 1969. The Organization of the Islamic Conference was established. Even if it seems of no use today, it paved the way for the idea of freedom to germinate in the region.

The racist Ariel Sharon entered the Al-Aqsa Mosque in a childish show of strength. The seeds of the Intifada were sown as a result.

THE SPIRIT OF 1917 AND SPEAKING IN ONE VOICE  

That Intifada proved an extraordinary boost for the development of a common political discourse. The same sentence used in Palestine began being used in Indonesia, Afghanistan, Bosnia and Algeria.

It was on the basis of this common voice that the Muslim world developed its political globalization. Today we can feel the jolts generated by this globalization and in the near future we will witness its victories.

This is the power of Jerusalem and the Al-Aqsa Mosque. It created the resistance from country to country and from city to city, and has created the maps depicting where showdowns will take place. Generations have been raised upon this discourse, this rage, and upon thoughts of this showdown.

Now these generations are launching a new stage in history based on the awareness imprinted in their minds regarding the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and based on the memories of those that resisted against the occupation of Palestine by global powers a century ago. They are not doing this because Jerusalem should be a part of Palestine, not because they want to stop Israel trying to occupy a city, and not because this is another example of the Arab-Israeli misunderstanding. They are doing this because they identify with those that resisted against the global occupation armies of 1917.

America and Europe, who have been ruling over this region through tutelage for a century, still fail to understand that the rage directed at them stems from this point.

They pay the price for the spoilt and insolent attitude of the Israeli state but they have no intention of even thinking about where this stupidity will lead to in the future and what torrents of rage it will unleash.

Yesterday, we once again witnessed the same shameless and spoilt behavior.

For days Israeli soldiers were trying to create a crisis in the vicinity of the Al-Aqsa Mosque. They were blocking access to the Mosque and causing torment for those with Jerusalem in their heart. It was clear that something would happen. This came at a time when some countries started recognizing the State of Palestine one after the other. Israel had to do something and deflect attention to something else. 

It finally succeeded yesterday and it took recklessness to the limit. It entered the first Qibla (the direction Muslims face during prayer) of the Muslims and displayed an example of the grossest possible disrespectfulness. It even exceeded Sharon’s provocation.

THE AL-AQSA MOSQUE REPRESENTS A FORCE, A SYMBOL AND RESISTANCE

We are talking about a state that gets its nourishment from crises, conflict, war and blood. We are talking about a garrison state with an outdated culture of colonialism in our region that increases its strategic value and guarantees Western support for itself by shedding blood and killing people.

But this is nothing like Gaza. This is not something that will be sorted by using the United States to bring a few Arab regimes under control. This is not something that resembles the unceasing torment inflicted on the Palestinian people. Jerusalem and the Al-Aqsa Mosque are not just Arab problems, which would enable you to measure their importance based only on Arab reactions.

The Al-Aqsa Mosque is a symbol, a force; it is dear to our hearts. The house of every Muslim is an Al-Aqsa Mosque. Those that insulted it didn’t just insult the Palestinian people. Even people living on tiny islands in the Pacific Ocean will feel this insult and will not swallow it.  

Israel should know this: There are millions of people like the indomitable woman in the courtyard of Aqsa. There are hundreds of millions like the youth behind the walls of Aqsa that won’t bow down. Those societies, youth and women that seem as if they are just separate pieces today can become a single voice over the Al-Aqsa Mosque. That voice will shake Israel to its core and will also send a shiver down the spines of those that stand together with Israel. That voice will become the strongest voice on the planet.

And one day it will become that indeed.