Will Islamism save Jerusalem and Palestine?

Demonstrations took place on Sunday in İstanbul, Sakarya and Diyarbakır to protest the plan to destroy Palestine which Trump promoted as the “deal of the century”. The Saadet Partisi had organised the demonstration titled “the Great Jerusalem Demonstration” taking place in Yenikapı, İstanbul. Kılıçdaroğlu, the CHP leader also participated this demonstration.

At this juncture, our readers may retort as to why “the Great Jerusalem Demonstration should be subject to attention in this column?” while the country has so many issues.

Yes, it is indeed true that many “the Great Jerusalem Demonstration” took place until now. A great fuss has been made about Israel and western imperialism, great words uttered, which nonetheless did no harm to Israel or made any contribution to the struggle of the Palestinian people!

The last demonstration taking place in Yenikapı organised by the Saadet Partisi (SP), just as previous Jeruselam demonstrations, did not amount to more than being a reaction to Israel and the US who is behind Israel while all Islamist theses of “the clash of civilisations” which draw the Palestinian cause to the space of the clash of Islam with Christian-Judaic civilisation has been renewed.

SUPPOSEDLY ‘LIFE IS FAITH AND JIHAD’ IN ISLAM

Indeed, Karamollaoğlu, the leader of SP, while describing those assembled at the square in Yenikapı, said “Palestine has been a corner of Islam since time immemorial and will remain so till eternity. Let everybody grasp this. For in this square itself there are the grandchildren who personally wrote history… in this square, there are the votaries of Necmettin Erbakan who said ‘Life is faith and Jihad’.” And he thereby reduced the Palestinian cause to that of Islam while reducing the cause of Islam to that of “the votaries of Necmettin Erbakan,” in the process demonstrating the extent to which he narrowed down the Palestinian cause. He particularly reduced Islam to the Salafi conception of “Life is faith and Jihad.” But at the same time, he thus laid bare the reason for the partition of Palestine as Gazza and West Bank as well as why it became a plaything at the tables of regional reactions backing the “cause of Islam” until today.

Of course, by reducing those participating to “the votaries of Necmettin Erbakan,” Karamollaoğlu has included Kılıçdaroğlu too amongst “the votaries of Erbakan”. Yet we do not know what Kılıçdaroğlu has to say about a demonstration to which he was invited that turned into one of Islamism and praise for Jihadism.

THERE IS A REALISTIC OPTION FOR THE PALESTINIAN CAUSE

In the “Great Jerusalem Demonstration” taking place the other day, Karamollaoğlu also put forward a plan attempted by Erbakan at the end of 1990’s, which can be summarised as follows: “With primarily the D-8, all national and international agencies we are involved in should be mobilised. Muslim countries should immediately sever all their diplomatic relations with Israel. Within the Islamic Cooperation Organisation, a ‘Palestine Peace Force’ should be formed and this military force should be armed with deterrence equipment and should be deployed to Gazza. We should definitely establish the Islamic Countries Defence Alliance…” And indeed, what this plan could amount to is merely a justification for Huntington’s “war between civilisations” thesis.

But furthermore, this plan has been in existence since the 1990’s. And concrete steps have been taken by Iran’s mullah regime, al Qaida and ISIS, each in their own way, in this direction too. Yet both history itself as well as the umbilical cords tying regional reactions quite firmly to foci of imperialist powers has shown that this plan has no footing.

It is because of this that the realistic option which will mobilise the Palestinian cause anew is;

To take a line of struggle which involves the unification of Gazza and West Bank and the recognition of Palestinian people’s right to self-determine, the mutual recognition by Palestine and Israel of each other to live as two neighbouring countries living side by side, and besides being in solidarity with forces against Zionism in Israel, which involves the Palestinian people’s solidarity with anti-imperialist forces and democratic forces all across the world around the purpose of secular and democratic Palestine, the renewal of Palestinian cause as one free from religious, sectarian and reactionary conflicts in the region and which does not regard Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine or Israel but seeks to ensure a status for Jerusalem where members of all concerned religions fulfil their faith freely there. To be sure, the demands presented here are done only in general terms which can only be actualised by the Palestinian people and their true representatives. To return to the demonstration, Karamollaoğlu’s speech there, while evidencing how the Palestinian cause is undermined by its manipulation in one respect, it has, at the same time, also served as an expression of the reflection of radical Christian and Zionist foci’s “clash of civilisations” thesis to the Islamic world.

DOES THE PALESTINIAN CAUSE HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH THE PRO-JERUSALEM CONCEPTION?

In the demonstration, Karamollaoğlu presented the process of the partition of Palestine and the events leading up to today as having begun 150 years ago, having divided into five phases. As such, by apportioning the responsibility of all that went onto “Zionism,” he tried legitimising the Islamist argument. Although Zionism has a significant role in the Palestinian question and its evolution to now (which goes beyond the remit of this article), it has emerged as an issue “in the field” with the founding of Israel in 1948.

As for the question of Jerusalem, it has begun with the capture of Jerusalem from the hands of Byzantines (in 636) and from the 11th to 13th century, as a conflict between Islam and Christianity, it reached its zenith with Crusades lasting some 200 years (*). In the Ottoman Empire period, those from the Islamic, Christian and Judaic faiths, through a period relatively free of conflict used Jerusalem as a religious centre. However, with efforts of founding an Israeli state in Palestine, while the question of Jerusalem emerged as a source of contention, the Zionists which exist as a clique within Israel together with Islamist foci took to the stage with statements that “Jerusalem was ours since time immemorial and will be so till eternity”. However, the Palestinian cause, the Palestinian peoples’ struggle for self-determination, the struggle for “secular and democratic Palestine” does not have a pre-demand of “Jerusalem will be the capital.” With the steering of the Palestinian struggle to an Islamist line instead of ‘secular and democratic Palestine’ in 1980’s as a result of the pressure of Islamic forces, the formula of “a Palestine with Jerusalem as its capital” rose in prominence, thereby entering into the field of the unification of Palestinian struggle and the status of Jerusalem.  In this way, first the Palestinian struggle was isolated from anti-imperialist struggles going on across the world and the world democratic public opinion (this includes also the democratic forces opposed to Zionism in Israel); and then Palestine was divided into two as the pro-Muslim Brotherhood Gazza and secular West Bank. This division has proven to be the greatest blow dealt to the Palestinian cause. And indeed, advocating the deployment of the Islamic Union army in Gazza in his speech at the rally the other day, Karomollaoğlu has also shown himself to be on the side of deepening the division of Palestine.

(*) The thesis of new “period of Crusader wars” between the Islamic and Judeo-Christian civilisations spearheaded by the neo-cons in 1990’s and formulated as the “clash of civilisations” by Samuel Huntington was not found widely credible in the western world.