Speaker 1:

Here is the Camp of Perseverance and Steadfastness, where tents become a homeland and where the dream is crushed on the threshold of the 21st century. Over 60 tents set the scene for the story of thousands of Jerusalemite families and echo the anguish of ancient tears. It is the same old tent that has not changed over the past 50 years, although the initial wound has become more painful.

There it stands, a face for the sun, the reflector of light, and a bridge for the endless travellers to their destiny. Jerusalem, where rocks are the alphabet of the earth and reveal traces of civilization, where in its breath you can smell the odour of patience. Every pulse in it, every whisper, every grain of sand and all that exists on its soil is proof that history cannot be stolen, that the truth cannot be forged and that this city will remain Jerusalem, the Promise of Heaven. Promise of Heaven.

(singing).

It has been 5,000 years since the Jebusites inhabited Jerusalem. Then came its people, the successive tribes of Arab Canaanites. They were as devoted to Jerusalem as it was to them. It gave them peace and security; they gave it civilization and culture. In return, it gave them a flood of prosperity and blessings. The olive tree was always there as a symbol of love and a token of gratefulness. Over the years, it withstood more than 25 conquests, surviving them all. Now it stands with its kind people as a monument of history in human civilization. It is a city that is unlike any other city. Places in it take on a different face. Here exists a bridge that connects earth to heaven, here flows a river of chastity, a celestial light that travels in the heart of lovers casting its shadow on the rocks, the dwellings, and the naves.

Speaker 2:

It is an extension to infinity, to eternity and heaven. It is the land of Midrash.

When Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, came to Jerusalem on the night of his journey to heaven, he led all the prophets in prayers in Al-Aqsa Mosque. This means that he received the banner of leadership from the prophets.

Speaker 1:

After that night, Jerusalem became the Muslims' first Qibla, the direction to which Muslims turn to when praying before Mecca. The Muslims visited it in their hearts before they visited it with their bodies. It lived in them before they lived in it. It is a relationship of love and yearning that cannot be satisfied.

Speaker 3:

People like to pray at Al-Aqsa Mosque because one prayer in this place is worth 500 prayers. I'm from Nazareth, and my name is [Nisreen], I like Jerusalem very much.

Certainly I'm proud that I'm from Jerusalem, that my mother, my husband and my children are all from this sacred land mentioned in the Holy Quran. It's a great honour for me to have been born in it and for my son to have fallen martyr in it.

Speaker 1:

Here, in Jabal al-Mukaber, Mount Scopus, in the year 636 AD, Caliph Omar ibn al-Khattab shouted out, "God is great," when his sights fell on the holy city. He took over the keys to the city and gave the whole of humanity the Covenant of Omar, which has continued to light history with its humanitarian principles.

Speaker 2:

The Muslim cave, Omar refused to pray in the church at that time because he wanted to show the world how religions can deal with one another, and how other peoples' faiths and religions can be respected.

When Muslims came to this land, they honoured its rights as worshipers of God and builders of prosperity. They filled it with constructive work, cultivated benevolence, and nourished it with good deeds by the implementation of justice, taking care of the weak and bringing fairness to the wronged. This is what history tells us throughout the ages.

Speaker 1:

During the Islamic period, the city saw the zenith of its having flourished and of its human interaction. Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, says, "There is a group of my nation who will remain righteous and victorious over their enemy. They will not be harmed by those who stand against them, nor by any disaster that may beset them, and they will remain so until they are taken by the Word of God." It was asked, "Where are they, oh messenger of God?" He replied, "In Jerusalem, and the vicinity of Jerusalem."

Speaker 2:

Al-Aqsa is the mother of civilization. Al-Aqsa is the treasure of the divine and prophetic treasures. Al-Aqsa is a world of art that has filled the whole world, or rather the world's museums with antiquities, natural wonders, and the arts of past civilizations.

Speaker 1:

Al-Aqsa Mosque, al-Haram al-Sharif, the holy shrine of Jerusalem, encompasses an area of about 15 hectares. It takes up the whole area within the walls of the holy mosque of Al-Aqsa. In it, there are several pathways and galleries constructed by various kings and rulers. A number of public drinking fountains, the most famous of which is Qaitbay Fountain, and more than 25 fresh water wells. This is Al-Aqsa Mosque. The plan for it was put in place by Caliph Omar ibn al-Khattab. Its construction was started by Caliph Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan and was completed by his son, Caliph Al-Walid ibn Abd al-Malik, in 705 AD. In the years before electricity, it was lit by 1,700 lamps. He, who has not visited Al-Aqsa, let him send to it some oil to light its lamps.

Here, in Jerusalem, is the masterpiece of the world's domes, the Mosque of the Dome of the Rock, which some historians consider to be one of the most beautiful buildings on Earth. Its construction was supervised by two Palestinian architects, Raja ibn Haywah al-Kindi from Baysan and Yazid Ibn Sallam from Jerusalem. This was accomplished in 691 AD during the rule of Caliph Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan. The scale, which was the emblem of the Umayyad rule, was engraved on the foundation stone and Surah Yaseen, the heart of the holy Quran, was beautifully inscribed on this monument, the heart of Palestine, whose throbbing will continue to vibrate with the belief in the unity of God.

The holy shrine has 10 gates. Just as what is known as the Old City has seven gates, this is apart from the other closed gates of the Old City and the holy shrine. The walls of the historical city were subject to demolition more that 17 times. After every demolition, they were repaired immediately. The last time the walls were renovated was during the rule of the Ottoman, Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, in 1536 AD. They are bordered by four lofty minarets and 34 towers. In every corner, every inch of this holy place, there is a blessing, a sense of nobility and undying beauty. Here are minarets celebrating the songs of heaven, domes travelling through the pathways of ascension, niches whose compass points to the direction of chastity, and terraces embracing the memories of the faithful.

Speaker 2:

Imam Shāfi‘i came to Jerusalem and found a place to study at the door of the northern dome of the holy rock, which attracted a large number of people. Those who came to it also included al-Maqdisi, ibn [Ata], and Al-Ghazali, as well as over 1,000 imams who studied, taught, and put their knowledge in the service of the people. Many took Al-Aqsa as an abode, knowing the blessings of Al-Aqsa and the blessings of learning at Al-Aqsa. Al-Aqsa is in need of clean and honourable hands, not polluted, profane hands, which are stained with blood.

The faith of Prophet Moses called for monotheism and taught the ethical commandments and values, but these people have no values or ethics. Where did they come from? The Pole tells you he has come to the land of his ancestors. It could not be true that the one who has come from Russia, Poland, or Ethiopia has an ancestor who lived here once.

Speaker 1:

This is but a joint colonial Zionist conspiracy, whose threads started to be woven in the beginning of the 19th century. Its intention became clearer at the Basel Conference in Switzerland in 1897, and in the Balfour Declaration in 1917, which is associated with the British colonisation of Palestine.

Speaker 2:

If we go back to its beginning, we will see that it started exactly in 1849 with the [Montefiore] Initiative, a Zionist who called for the construction of the initial settlement inside the holy Jerusalem.

Speaker 1:

The Jews point of departure for their conspiracy was from the Montefiore Quarter. They carried their plan out in Deir Yassin, and in the so-called War of Independence. They drew the plan of their march with the blood of their victim, and on the remains of the martyrs, they established Givat Shaul settlement and proclaimed their state.

Speaker 2:

When we learned of the Deir Yassin massacre, we left our homes. The women and children cried in fear, "They said that soon they would massacre us. We want to leave."

Speaker 1:

Haj Othman Hassan Khaleel has a lot of memories around this cypress tree. He keeps the story of thousands of those who departed and did not return. These traces are the remains of his scattered heart. Here is where the wound began.

Speaker 2:

I am now 87 years old. I come to this place almost every month to see the land I used to cultivate and the place where I used to move about.

Speaker 1:

Today, [Colonia] no longer exists. They destroyed it entirely and turned it into a settlement called [Mizkeret]. The village was colonised by strangers, repudiate and rejected by every grain of sand on this land.

Speaker 2:

After we left, two of my brothers died in 1967.

Speaker 1:

Jerusalem was occupied in two phases, 1948 and 1967. The latter was the culmination of a successive series of measures, whose ultimate aim was to Judaize Jerusalem and to impose upon it a new demographic reality. Only a few days after the occupation of Jerusalem in 1967, the occupation bulldozers started demolishing the Mughrabi, Moroccan Quarter, which the leader, Salahuddin al-Ayyubi, had set as an endowment for the benefit of the conquerors coming from the Arab Maghreb in North Africa. Then, the occupation seized a lot of the Islamic endowments and real estates, the most important of which is the wall of al-Buraq where the messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, stationed al-Buraq on the night of his journey to the heaven. They seized it and turned it into a temple, which they call the Wailing Wall.

Speaker 2:

We call it the Square of the Holy Buraq, not the Wailing Wall. It is an integral part of Al-Aqsa Mosque. It is registered as part of the endowment properties of Al-Aqsa, and it belongs to Muslims.

Speaker 1:

What on Earth are they doing? What on Earth are the wailing? Do they have any sense of guilt for what they have done and what they are causing?

Speaker 2:

All those who saw the fire and heard about it came to the mosque. The vehicles that came from Nablus, Bethlehem, and Hebron did not find any water in the mosque. The Jews cut off the water. The Jews closed all the doors and did not allow anyone to get into the mosque. The people forced their way into the mosque. There was a pulpit, Saladin's pulpit, of which only one small piece remained. It is about one metre long and is now kept in the museum. The people in the town, residents, saved it and fought the fire until late in the afternoon. We heard that after eight months of trial, a court found him crazy. If he was crazy, would they have hosted him for two years in the kibbutz for training?

Speaker 1:

On the 28th of January 1976, the Israeli court issued a ruling allowing the Jews to pray in the holy shrine.

Speaker 2:

No Jew has the right to pray in our place, in this mosque. This is an Islamic mosque. It has been Islamic since God created humanity. They say they are the descendants of Abraham, but Abraham was no Jew or Christian. He was a Muslim.

Speaker 1:

There was yet another decision. It was taken by the Israeli Ministry of Religions, which called for turning Ribat Al-Kurd, an integral part of the holy shrine, into a new small wailing wall.

Speaker 2:

This place has always been an Arab Muslim place. We have never had a wailing wall, big or small. This place, al-Hadid Gate, they call it a small wailing wall. Whenever they see a big stone, they say this is a wailing wall, this is a temple. No. They have nothing here.

Speaker 1:

This is nothing but an expressed forgery, a wicked disposition of land and man. In what is called the Castle of David, the historical museum of Ur Shalem, they give no value to the Arab and Muslim symbols. Inside this museum, history has only one pathway, which ends with the alleged Temple.

Speaker 2:

The holy mosque of Al-Aqsa is the crown of Jerusalem. We cannot imagine Jerusalem without Al-Aqsa, or an Al-Aqsa without Jerusalem. We cannot imagine Palestine without Al-Aqsa.

Therefore, our eyes and hearts are surrounding Al-Aqsa. We pray for Al-Aqsa to remain there as a symbol of the earth's yearning for its creator, and for the suspended rock to remain a derivation from heaven.

Speaker 1:

Because graves have a scent of history, and because history betrays their fabrications, they continue their attempts to devastate al-Rahma, Mercy Cemetery, which houses the remains of many of the prophets companions and many scholars, and which is considered the oldest Islamic graveyard in Jerusalem. This is what they did to Mamilla Cemetery, which accommodates the remains of 70,000 Muslim martyrs. It has been turned into a public park, a residential area, and a parking lot. But, what about their graves?

Speaker 2:

Most of their graves are false. The Jews in this place, or in America, or in Europe, pay thousands of dollars to have the names of their false ancestors written on these graves.

What crowns this tragedy is the continued excavation under the holy mosque of Al-Aqsa.

Speaker 1:

What temple are they looking for? What history? What history is that which allows its well-established and undisputed facts to be obliterated?

Speaker 2:

We are not fighting the existing antiquities because they are still there as physical evidences. But, we challenge any claim of Jewish traces. Nowhere in Palestine have we found ruins that date back to the Jewish period. The Jews passed by this land as tribes of warriors, not as tribes of settlers who have lived on this land.

Speaker 1:

In his book, Outline of History, Professor Wells says, "The life of the Hebronites in Palestine was much like the life of a man who insists on staying in the middle of a road with heavy traffic movement, with cars and trucks running over his body all the time. Their kingdom in Palestine, from the beginning to the end, was a passing incident in the history of Egypt and Syria. That history being greater and bigger than theirs."

Speaker 2:

Had they found anything, they would not have remained quiet about it. They would've made a big fuss about it. The attempts exerted by the Israeli authorities in Jerusalem, the excavations, tunnels, demolitions or confiscations have done them no good at all. Anyone who has read the books written by Jewish archaeologists would easily conclude that the Jews have no traces in Jerusalem, nor the Temple they are talking about.

Speaker 1:

At midnight on the 25th of September 1996, and with the blessing of the government, the Israeli authorities opened a door on the side of the Omariah School to the tunnel that extends 488 metres underneath the Arab Islamic quarter of the Old City. Along the foundations of the wall of the holy Al-Aqsa Mosque leading the wall of al-Buraq.

Speaker 2:

For 30 years, they have been digging under the Moroccan Gate. At first, they sucked the water from the well near the place of ablution. There was a battle and the mayor ordered it closed. Later on, we filled it with water again. They continued to dig until they reached the Islamic endowments department. The department building cracked and thereafter, it was surrounded with beams.

Speaker 1:

This tunnel is one of a number of tunnels that extend under the Old City, forming new bypasses which are used by the Jews as temples.

Speaker 2:

Now there are two synagogues in the are of the holy Al-Aqsa. The Jews are planning to rebuild them over ground once the Temple has been built on the site of Al-Aqsa.

Speaker 1:

At the dawn of that same day, the Muslims learned of the crime. A volcano of anger broke out announcing that the wound of Jerusalem is the deepest and the most painful of all wounds. In every city, village, and camp, the crowds reiterated their allegiance to the resistance. They were competing for the ultimate goal, offering 73 martyrs and 1,500 casualties for the sake of [inaudible].

Speaker 2:

In this very place, our brother, [Iman Dicadic] fell martyr. The Israeli soldiers shot his brain out of his head. Ruthlessness, violence, and immoral practises, the Quran says about them, because they say there is no [inaudible] to keep faith with the Gentiles. They consider it lawful to do whatever they like with the blood of nations, and the wealth of nations, and the sanctity of nations, therefore they cannot be trusted to fulfil a commitment or an obligation.

Speaker 1:

The latest incident of opening the tunnel was one of over 13 aggressions against the holy shrine of Jerusalem. The ugliest of these was the one that occurred on the 8th of October 1990.

Speaker 2:

On that day, the so-called Temple Mount Faithful Group placed an announcement in the local papers that they would put the foundation stone for the Temple of Solomon.

Speaker 3:

The father had instructed his sons to rush to defend the holy shrine should it be subject to any aggression. Iman asked his father to wake him up at 2:30 AM to go to the shrine. His father did so, and Iman went.

Speaker 2:

We heard the screaming of women in the court of the Dome of the Rock. Too many people were there and shooting started and continued for 35 minutes.

Speaker 3:

A doctor came to rescue one man, but the man asked him to rescue the other. Iman did so, as well. When the doctor returned to Iman, he found him dead.

Speaker 2:

They cannot be human beings. They are monsters, those who murder human beings inside God's home.

Speaker 3:

I carried Iman and said, "We're all from God and to him we shall return."

Speaker 2:

I wanted to fall martyr. I raised my finger and said, "I testify that there is no God but Allah. Muhammad is Allah's messenger."

Speaker 3:

It was Iman's wish. He used to ask me to call upon God to satisfy his wish. He wanted to fall martyr in Al-Aqsa. Thank God he realised this wish.

Speaker 2:

Of course, it is difficult for us to part with him. Sadness stays in the heart, but [Adif] fell martyr. Everyone wishes to fall martyr.

Speaker 1:

Abu Sneineh, martyr Arif's brother, is still here in the [Honour] Quarter, which name has been changed and became the Jewish Quarter. What a change in the meaning that is. It expanded in size from half a hectare to 13 hectares. Strangers now inhabit it. The original inhabitants were expelled. They were scattered elsewhere in the homeland, in exile, to become part of the 6,500 Arab citizens displaced in 1967, in addition to the 60,000 Arabs expelled in 1948. Today, the Jews are still going ahead with the war of eviction. They are using the temptation of gold in order to take what they could not gain by force.

Speaker 2:

Every day, many of them come to our home and ask us how much we want to sell them our house. We tell them we do not wish to sell it. We will continue to live in it. The one who sells out his house is like the one who sells [crosstalk] to his faith, and this will never happen, God forbid.

Speaker 1:

The Abu Sneineh family lives a lonely life in this place. They share their sadness and estrangement with this minaret. The minaret of the Great Omari Mosque. Not satisfied with sealing up the mosque, the Jews set up a synagogue adjacent to its walls. The call for prayer was silenced. It was replace with satanic rustles and whispers. The streets and pathways lament the absence of their kind inhabitants after ravens had mounted them.

Speaker 3:

The Jews beat me up on my way to school and when I go out to the street. They beat me up.

When we go out to the market, they sprinkle us with acids, and they snatch off our headscarves. They take us by surprise from the back and take them off.

Speaker 1:

What they are doing to the people in the quarter of Honour, and what they have done there in the past, is something that they call coexistence. It is part of a huge record that is full of murder, displacement, and robbery, known as the settlement wound.

Speaker 2:

We have lived in the quarter of Honour. We were all Arabs, and there were no Jews amongst us. When Israel occupied the land, we left it. The Israeli constructed many buildings there. Now, I cannot recognise the boundaries of the house where we once lived.

Speaker 1:

Situated on the holy soil of Jerusalem are 30 Zionist settlements that fall within the boundaries of the city occupied in 1967. They are added to the rest of the settlements that cover the entire area of Jerusalem, occupied in 1948. They aim to obliterate the historical and religious features of the city, to strangle the city, and surround it with settlements from all sides. They want to have a line of settlements to isolate the Old City from Jerusalem, to isolate Jerusalem from the rest of Palestine, and to isolate the north of Palestine from its southern part. All of this comes within the context of what is called the Greater Jerusalem Project, which will swallow 20% of the West Bank area, and will enable the Jews to build 15 new settlements around Jerusalem.

Mount Abu Ghnaim is the story of a respectable companion of the Prophet, [Ayat ibn Klum al-Kazugi], who camped on this mountain during the liberation Palestine from the Romans. Caliph Omar ibn al-Khattab designated this mountain to Ayat, who was succeeded by three sons, the eldest of whom was Ghnaim, the father of the inhabitants of the villages of Sur Baher and Umm Tuba, and other villages around Jerusalem. This mountain was, in the beginning, expropriated and declared a natural protectorate. It was a strategic reserve for the settlements. Today, it is being prepared to accommodate 6,500 housing units. On the 18th of March 1997, in a huge military campaign, the Israeli bulldozers started levelling the ground to set up Har Homa settlement on Abu Ghnaim Mountain, the southeastern entrance to Jerusalem.

The Har Homa settlement is not the first, nor will it be the last episode in the settlement movement. After their cancer spread in the Silwan Quarter, we see them today in Ras al-Amud, in the heart of the Arab quarters, enjoying comprehensive security and military protection.

Speaker 2:

If they find nobody in the house, they go in as they did in this house. Its people were out for dinner and they broke into it. Now they claim they have bought it from the owner.

Speaker 1:

Palestinian citizen, Ali Ahmad Hamdalla, is the owner of the neighbouring house that falls within the region that [Moskovitch] has his eyes set on and that is earmarked for constructing 200 housing units for Jewish settlers. A few years ago, he built a wall to define the limits of his land, but he was forced to demolish the wall. Despite all of this, Ali Hamdalla made it clear repeatedly-

Speaker 2:

Before any settler gets in, I'll finish him off, then I don't care if they finish me off and occupy at the house. As long as I remain alive, they will never be able to get into it.

Speaker 1:

They are not satisfied with all of this. The confiscation of 30% of the properties of the Old City after 1967 drew the Jews' attention to the Islamic Quarters, and instigated them to reactivate their presence in it at the hands of extremists Jewish groups.

Speaker 2:

The Jews are everywhere. They are here. They are on the wall. They have caused me a lot of anguish and suffering.

Speaker 1:

Haj Mousa Al-Khales is 110 years old. He is a kind of pure gold that does not go rusty. His memories are part of Jerusalem's memory. The handcuffs and chains of Acre Prison did not defeat him.

Speaker 2:

I have never with Jerusalem. It is not right to leave it. We are the men of the 1936 Revolution and sons of the precious homeland. Our land is our honour, and honour is very dear, and cannot be protected with anything but the sword.

Speaker 1:

Haj Mousa has three sons in prison. They believe in everything their father believes in. One of them is named Youssef after the prophet who was imprisoned for his chastity and beauty. He is serving 100-year imprisonment and three life sentences.

Speaker 2:

By my hands, Acre Jail was built. The water of Acre Sea came from the tears my eyes made. I received a letter, but I haven't read it yet. I hope it is from the dear one, Youssef.

Speaker 1:

When true men cry, the inhabitants of Earth and heaven are troubled. Tears flow upward to the elevations of faithful. The pain turns into an ever rising sun, or an uncompromising moon.

Speaker 2:

He said he would give me 200,000 Jordanian dinars. I told him that amount, to me, was not worth more than a sniff of snuff. He said he would give me 200,000 more. I told him this is nothing but another sniff of snuff. He said, "Okay. Here is an open check." I replied that it was too little. He asked, "What could be larger than an open check?" I replied, "There is one thing. You bring me a paper carrying the signatures of all the Muslims on Earth, all living Muslims, saying that they agree to this transaction. If you can come back with this paper, I will give you the house for free."

Speaker 1:

The continuous eviction of Arab citizens and the settlements opened has reduced the percentage of the Arab inhabitants of Jerusalem to a ratio of one Arab to three Jews. Likewise, the Arab properties went down from 90% in 1917 to 4% in 1994.

Speaker 2:

We could end up like the Folkloric Dress Museum in Jaffa. We will be something rare and curious. This is what will happen to us in the Old City.

With these practises, what chance of peace is still there? What opportunity is there to talk about the future of Jerusalem? About the future of the mosques of Jerusalem, and the churches of Jerusalem? What chance is there to talk about the future of the holy Al-Aqsa?

Speaker 1:

Since the 19th of August 1997, and while the horizon is filled with much talk about peace, over 400 children, women, and men, have been living in the Camp of Perseverance and Steadfastness in Silwan Quarter, near [Wadi al-Joz] area in Jerusalem. They resign themselves to their tents, taking shelter from tyranny and blind arrogance. They stand, firm as pegs. They protrude upward as banners of anguish and suffering. They melt into each grain of sand, they chant, "[foreign language]," "God is great," with every breathe. They got the land of endowment, setting around it a fence of their soil, protecting it from the transgression of the Hebrew University. With every new dawn, they greet the homeland with messages of yearning and vows of continued steadfastness. To it alone, they smile. They embrace its towering honour with pride.

Speaker 3:

It's better to live in a tent where I can see [inaudible], than to live in a palace and not be able to see it. No matter what happens, I will not leave Jerusalem. This is our homeland, our Jerusalem.

Speaker 1:

In one corner inside the camp, they hold their exhibition, Jerusalem Lives in Our Eyes. It has attracted a large number of visitors from everywhere. They transcend their pain to promote the cause of the homeland, their first and foremost priority. They are the homeland's incarnation and the face of the policy of usurpation.

Speaker 3:

The Jews have no right to it as we do. Jerusalem is ours and we're entitled to it. They're evicting us to bring in more Jews.

Speaker 2:

I filed an application for a family reunion because my wife holds a Jerusalem identity card and I don't. So far, I have received no reply to my application. I believe they receive applications just as a matter of formality. The decision is a political one and is taken at the highest level. I am here because they don't like my house. I have lived in it for 14 years and now they tell me it is not fit for a dwelling. I am not allowed to repair my house, although it had deteriorated and is in desperate need of repair. I applied for a permit to build a replacement and they said no. I wanted to repair it and they said no.

I have three sons who do not have birth certificates, and they do not go to schools because they are not entitled to reside in Jerusalem.

We all have family, my brother, my sister, and I, but we all face the threat of having our identity cards taken from us.

So far, they have managed to withdraw 3,000 identity cards from the Arab citizens. Of course, some Jerusalem Arab residents refuse to hand their identity cards over, in which case, they are taken by force. This is but another form of terrorism.

Why are they withdrawing the identity cards of Jerusalemites? We do not accept Israeli citizenship. This is something forced on us, and we are forced to live with it.

Speaker 1:

[Ada Arah], the mother of Muhammad introduced herself as follows.

Speaker 3:

I live in tent number 46.

Speaker 1:

After spending many years changing 11 rented houses, she and her husband decided to buy a plot of land in Shu'fat Camp in order to build the house of their lifetime. They put into it all that they had saved. They, and their nine children, lived a life of austerity and deprivation. They borrowed what they could, but ...

Speaker 3:

The house was all set, and I was certain that within one week, we would move into it. Then they came to us.

Speaker 2:

They gave us 72 hours notice, but they came after 21 hours and demolished the house instantly.

Speaker 3:

They demolished six houses. They came to us at 6:30 PM. We told them we were not moving even if they were to demolish it on our heads. They took our son and threatened us. There was nothing we could do. They even did not allow us to take out any furniture, clothes, or the children's birth certificates. They said they had no time to wait, and that they wanted to demolish the house, and to leave without delay.

Speaker 1:

Within half an hour, the dream turned into a pile of wreckage. The Jewish settlement, Pisgat Ze'ev, rejoiced. The houses were demolished. The house of [Haj Abd al-Hani], the houses of his two son, the house of [Um Muhammad  00:42:55], and two other houses.

Speaker 2:

We are ready to beg for money in order to pay for the building licence, but we know that they will never issue it to us.

Speaker 3:

They don't give any licences because of the settlements. They are planning to annex our land to it even if it takes them 100 years.

Speaker 1:

Between Shu'fat Camp and the Camp of Steadfastness, exists a story, a saga of patience and belonging.

Speaker 2:

There we are. We have returned to the tent. In the beginning, we took shelter in a tent, and now we have to go back to it.

Speaker 1:

Haj Abd al-Hani al-Mami, they pushed him out of the Quarter of Honour in 1967 to Shu'fat Camp in 1997. Are they going to push him out to the Camp of Steadfastness? In spite of all this, what has happened to Haj Abd al-Hani may be nothing compared to what has happened to others. After [Haj Haleel Shukare] had lived for 17 years in his house in the [Sheikh Sa'ad] area in Jerusalem, they came to him, and gave him a citation on the excuse that he had no building licence.

Speaker 2:

The deadline expired, and they demolished the house. Damn them. Why didn't they leave us alone? Since they were demolishing the house anyway, why did they make us pay 50,000 shekels as a fine?

Speaker 1:

They also demolished the houses of his two sons. Now, he shares the same disaster with Haj Abd al-Hani. Add to it the fine.

Speaker 2:

I have been here since the 30th of June 1993. I remained four to five months without any form of shelter. Then the Red Cross brought us a tent, and the children moved in. One benefactor brought this old bus to shelter us. We will stay in it until God decides otherwise.

Speaker 1:

Although buildings in the Arab quarters do not exceed 12% of the total buildings in the settlements, most are threatened with demolition, or being considered in contravention of the building codes. Now, there are over 300 houses presently owned by Palestinian families that are threatened with a demolition, and over 31,000 Jerusalemite families who are homeless. But Pisgat Ze'ev settlement finds this a cause to rejoice, and it continues to build everywhere.

Speaker 2:

Most of these settlements are empty. They hope to bring in more Jews from all parts of the world. They bring in more Jews who are accommodated in houses that are complete with modern amenities. They are given cars, salaries, and everything. They deem it lawful to expel us out of our land, in order to replace us with Jews.

Speaker 3:

The children of the Jews have parks, play yards, schools, and everything, but look at what we have. We live in these tents in the mountains, and under tough conditions.

Speaker 1:

This is how they attempt to raise their buildings, and to destroy every Arab feature in this city. This goes beyond the construction movement and affects the economic activity. Jerusalem was once one of the most important commercial and tourist centres in the region, but now, we see it sink into a mire of unemployment and closure.

Speaker 2:

The economic situation is very bad. You can see the street is empty. There is no business at all. First, they imposed security closures on all of Jerusalem, but Jerusalem lives on the West Bank and Gaza.

Now, any shop in this mall is required to pay an owner tax of about 18,000 to 25,000 shekels each.

The market is closed. I have a shop there, but I closed it and have become a vendor using this pushcart. This shop opposite me is one of them. It is required to pay 100,000 shekels in an owner tax. The owner can hardly earn food for their family, so how could he pay the tax?

Speaker 1:

The systematic policy of dispersion persists, in order to empty the holy city from its people, and to offer it on a golden platter to Jews imported from abroad. Strangers have come to it. They claim they are affiliated with it, but in fact, they are distorting it. They are spreading the seeds of terror at all times. They are besieging its atmosphere and defiling its honour, giving no heed to any ethics or values.

Speaker 2:

There is a mosque in [Incari] that has been turned into a den of prostitution and drug dealing.

Every day, a half kilogramme of drugs is distributed to the youth of Jerusalem.

Speaker 1:

They have done more than that. While we were working on this film, something occurred as we had already anticipated. On the 31st of March 1998, the occupation forces removed the Camp of Perseverance and Steadfastness. Haj Abd al-Hani al-Mami and the others are left to their destiny.

Speaker 2:

We do not know where to go or where to live. We have to live with this difficult situation until God makes things better. There will be a way out, God willing.

Speaker 1:

At one of the barricades of instant death that one finds everywhere in the stolen homeland, namely at [Takhumia] Barricade, Muhammad [al-Shahrani] and two others fell martyrs. The occupation soldiers opened fire on them and killed them in cold blood.

Speaker 2:

The whole world should take it seriously that if the Jews were allowed to persist in these arbitrary practises, they would leave no Islamic or Christian features in Jerusalem, or in all of Palestine. They will change everything.

Speaker 1:

On the 30th of July 1980, the Israeli Knesset, with the unanimous agreement of all parties, passed a law making Jerusalem the unified and eternal capital of Israel.

Speaker 2:

Where is justice? You take from me my land and you displace me, then you give me a small piece of land while I remain displaced, and you tell me this is justice? Justice will be achieved only if our people were given all rights they are entitled to.

Speaker 3:

As long as the Israeli exists, there will be no solution. They are the cause of evil.

Speaker 2:

It is impossible to accept the sharing of Jerusalem with Israel, as a city, or as a capital for two states. No Muslim, Arab, or Palestinian in Jerusalem, or in Palestine, has the right to forsake, sell, or concede any inch of Palestine. This land belongs to all Muslim. Palestine, it is an Islamic endowment, designated for the benefits of all Muslim.

If a certain generation of people choose to forsake their right, they will have to bear the guilt. The Muslim ummah would never consent to such an evil thing, and will defend the land of Isra and Miraj, the first Qibla, the land of steadfastness and jihad. The Muslims will defend the third holiest city in Islam by all means, and will not spare a drop of blood.

Speaker 1:

Jerusalem was lost in the period of time when the nation lost its memory. The city had witnessed 100 years, during which Al-Aqsa Mosque was turned into offices, the Dome of the Rock into a church, and the Marwani Praying Place into a stable and the call to prayer was silenced.

Things remained so until God chose to have this dear city rescued from tyranny and occupation at the hands of Salahuddin al-Ayyubi. Following the Battle of Hattin in 1187, he entered Jerusalem, holding the banner of [Tawhid], the unity of God. He bowed in prayer together with an army of conquerors donned in iron garments. They prayed on the terraces that had received Muhammad , peace and blessings be upon him and his great glory.

Speaker 2:

[Haj Hamin al-Hussein] was one of my friends. We socialised together. [Abd al-Kadar al-Husseini], may his soul rest in peace, was also a good man. I also remember [Isadeen al-Kazam] and [Farahan Asladi], God bless them and all martyrs.

Speaker 1:

Haj Mousa still remembers the friends who shared with him the same wound, the vanguards who devoted themselves to defending the holy sands of Jerusalem and the entire Palestine. Haj Othman is still holding the key, and is reading out to the homeland, the chapter of trust in God.

Speaker 2:

We hope things will soon change for the better. Maybe it will not be too long before these children are returned to their land and to their homes.

Speaker 1:

One day, they will enter through all gates of the homeland, while they are chanting

(singing).

Speaker 3:

Jerusalem, may God save you. Our souls are devoted to you. If the world stretched out its hand to me, to it, my hand will also be. Never, ever you will give in on tomorrow. My hope [inaudible]. To jihad, my heart and mind are set. I will never waver or weaken for a bit. Peace be upon you and our homeland. In your defence, I will always sound. If arrows of tyranny at you were shot, my heart would be your shield on the spot.

(singing).