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religion-is-a-mental-illness · 6 months

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Mais: We have to make war to prove that we are stronger than the Jews.

Student: People love Palestine and they are ready to die for Palestine. I want to fight against them [the Jews] and defeat them in war.

Atif: At school, they teach us that Al-Aqsa, and all of Palestine is ours.

Abed: The Jews lie and say that their temple is under the Al-Aqsa Mosque. It was never there.

Yousef: I hate the Jews.

Nur: They teach us that the Zionists are our enemy, and must fight them.

Samir: They teach us that Jews are terrorists.

Mohammed: At school they teach us about Jews. They teach us that they are bad people. They killed our young.

Arafat: They teach us in school that Jews are fickle, bad people. I am ready to stab a Jew, and drive [a car] over them.

Amin: I will fight. I will ram a car into them [the Jews].

Mohammed: We have to constantly stab them, drive over them and shoot them [the Jews].

Student: Stabbing and running over Jews brings dignity to the Palestinians. I'm going to run them over and stab them with knives.

Mohammed: Right now, I'm prepared to be a suicide bomber.

Nur: With Allah's help, I will fight for ISIS, the Islamic State.

Not being an Arabic speaker, I've run the audio through Google Translate to verify the translation. Although the sound makes it difficult to get a full translation, the translation engine reproduced many of the key fragments and words indicated in the subtitles.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Aqsa_Mosque

The mosque is located on the southern part of the Temple Mount or Haram al-Sharif, an enclosure expanded by King Herod the Great beginning in 20 BCE during his reconstruction of the Second Jewish Temple. The mosque resides on an artificial platform that is supported by arches constructed by Herod's engineers to overcome the difficult topographic conditions resulting from the southward expansion of the enclosure into the Tyropoeon and Kidron valleys. During the late Second Temple period, the present site of the mosque was occupied by the Royal Stoa, a basilica running the southern wall of the enclosure. The Royal Stoa was destroyed along with the Temple during the siege of Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 CE.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Temple

The Temple was on the site of what today is the Dome of the Rock. The gates led out close to Al-Aqsa Mosque (which came much later). Although Jews continued to inhabit the destroyed city, Emperor Hadrian established a new city called Aelia Capitolina. At the end of the Bar Kokhba revolt in 135 CE, many of the Jewish communities were massacred and Jews were banned from living inside Jerusalem. A pagan Roman temple was set up on the former site of Herod's Temple.

They're living in a terrorist training camp. If this is shocking to you, I really don't know why it should be.

https://quranx.com/5.82

You will surely find the most intense of the people in animosity toward the believers [to be] the Jews and those who associate others with Allah; and you will find the nearest of them in affection to the believers those who say, "We are Christians." That is because among them are priests and monks and because they are not arrogant.

https://quranx.com/5.64

And the Jews say, "The hand of Allah is chained." Chained are their hands, and cursed are they for what they say. Rather, both His hands are extended; He spends however He wills. And that which has been revealed to you from your Lord will surely increase many of them in transgression and disbelief. And We have cast among them animosity and hatred until the Day of Resurrection. Every time they kindled the fire of war [against you], Allah extinguished it. And they strive throughout the land [causing] corruption, and Allah does not like corrupters.

https://quranx.com/Hadith/Bukhari/USC-MSA/Volume-1/Book-8/Hadith-427/

Narrated `Aisha and `Abdullah bin `Abbas: When the last moment of the life of Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) came he started putting his 'Khamisa' on his face and when he felt hot and short of breath he took it off his face and said, "May Allah curse the Jews and Christians for they built the places of worship at the graves of their Prophets." The Prophet (ﷺ) was warning (Muslims) of what those had done.

https://quranx.com/Hadith/Bukhari/USC-MSA/Volume-4/Book-52/Hadith-177

Narrated Abu Huraira: Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) said, "The Hour will not be established until you fight with the Jews, and the stone behind which a Jew will be hiding will say. "O Muslim! There is a Jew hiding behind me, so kill him."

"Israel is only the first target. The entire planet will be under our law." "The entire planet will be under our law; there will be no more Jews or Christian traitors." -- Mahmoud al-Zahar, Hamas Commander

#palestine #UNRWA #terrorism #this is islam #islam #al aqsa mosque #martyrs #martyrdom #al aqsa #antisemitism #hamas #hamas supporters #islamic terrorism #religion #defund UNRWA #religion is a mental illness

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scarz-xo · 6 months

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Now that I'm back from work, I wanna address this in a post rather than a short reply.

So for the first sentence "The Hamas is in war", I hope you excuse me grammatically correcting you whoever you are, no hard feelings towards you trust me.

So "Hamas is in war", maybe, I won't say yes, I won't say no, they're not my case.

My case is the Palestinians, they're not Hamas & they're the ones getting bombed in Gaza & in refugee camps, they keep on saying Hamas did this, Hamas did that, okay if that's your case but where's Hamas?

The ambulances bombed the past few days, where was Hamas in that bombing?

The Turkish hospital for children who have cancer, where was Hamas in that situation? It's very funny that when Turkey came out with "I'm with Palestine" the hospital got bombed.

So maybe Hamas is at war, but what does that have to do with the Palestinians who have nothing but rocks?

"A war against terrorism" forgive me for correcting your spelling this time but what can we do?

So let's define the word "Terrorism"

So let's give some examples:

These are small examples you can get from a simple Google search & just for you, I got you western news outlets cause if I got you middle eastern, you wouldn't believe me, anyways now I ask you, who's the terrorist?

This has been going on for decades, not one year, not 5 years, not 10 years but decades.

Imagine I become in need for a place to stay, I got kicked out from my home, my neighbours don't wanna help me in fact they wanna kick me too so you a generous person offer me a room, I take your generosity as naivety & start taking more rooms, eventually kicking you out, not only kicking you out!

But I also kick at you, starve you, imprison you, kill your loved ones, leave you an orphan, kill your pet, how would you feel? How would you feel as a generous person and me a person who was in need and decided to settle in your house?

That's how it is, Palestine already existed before "Israel" was even a word, I suggest you Google Belfort's Declaration from 1948, it's a history lesson we're taught at 6th grade but westerns lack.

We also call it in the middle east:

"وعد من لا يملك لمن لا يستحق"

"A promise from those who do not have to those who do not deserve".

"Hamas' goal is not only to destroy Israel. They want to kill every person who is different as gay people. I am gay!"

I wonder who taught you that, who even gave you these ideas, is it because you think Hamas is a Muslim organisation so of course they want everybody dead? After all mostly that's what you've been taught.

So if you want a lesson from Islam, we're taught not to engage in homosexual acts & not to support them, we're not ordered to kill, or harm or anything for that matter, just not to support or engage in them.

But for you I wonder how would you feel if you discover that homophobia is huge in Israel:

So in conclusion, the Israelis your picking are not your "ally" & before you come at me, you have the links to read from Israeli newspapers.

I think this should be enough for you.

#palestine #israel #israel is a terrorist state #gaza #genocide #free palestine #ethnic cleansing #israel is an apartheid state #islam #muslim #lgbtq

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caltropspress · 9 months

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DEBRIEFING: 5 August 2023 | Brooklyn, NY | The Nursery at Public Records

Armand Hammer’s We Buy Diabetic Test Strips Pop Up Party, featuring Fatboi Sharif, Cavalier, and DJ Haram

On the helix approaching the Lincoln Tunnel I saw a Virginia plate that read PHUNKE—its occupants seemed anything but, but who am I to judge? Not since I saw EGO DETH on a Volkswagen Kombi in the artificial light of the Holland while driving in to see woods’ Church release show at Baby’s All Right in early June have I taken a license plate as a sign. Fred Moten writes that “the sign works its terrible magic precisely from within a radical non-isolation,” but it’s a bit too early in the everyday struggle for theory, wouldn’t you agree? What I’m focused on is the WE BUY DIABETIC TEST STRIPS signs plastered over walls and poles. A sight as common in NYC as POST NO BILLS and CA$H FOR CAR$. We close our eyes to these signs, oblivious to their ubiquity. We’ve become blind to them. But I saw the sign with “Armand Hammer” appended to it, and it opened up my eyes. Life is demanding without understanding. So I overstand the signs and signals sent through wires and cables when I dial 1-877-ARM-N-HMR. I focus. I fixate. I study Alexander Richter’s photograph from the forthcoming album of a lamppost covered in taped and torn flyers. The edges fray and flicker in city winds. Looks like the tendons and flesh rotting from the bones of Death in Hans Baldung Griend’s Der Tod und das Mädchen (1517) painting. Looks like some real litter-ature. Gathering on August 5th, just six days shy of hip-hop’s much-heralded 50th anniversary, I think of hip-hop flyers of the past, specifically Kool Herc’s Back to School Jam at 1520 Sedgwick. But MC Debbie D—a flyerologist of the highest order—tells us that the index card flyer is a phony, a fake, a fugazi replica, a forgery. Fifty years into this thing and we’re still searching for authentic experiences. Fifty people at a rap show and one’s an informant. I’m here to inform on what felt—brain to bone—like an authentic experience.

3PM in the sun. I lined up with the other RSVPs (the show was free, in every sense of the word) outside the venue. Summer summer summertime. Fresh Prince via Juice shit. The temp on my dash read 90°. Kids walked down Butler Street mantled with beach towels from the Douglass and DeGraw Pool. Spotted lanternflies dive-bombed my legs. Thank god I lotioned my pale neck. When the powers-that-be finally allowed us entry, the musk of maryjane and malignant body odor was thick. Now I knew (it hit me in the fucking face) what that PHUNKE license plate was all about. “Funk,” from the French dialectal funkière: “to blow smoke on.” I’m not complaining, though—it was a communal fumigation. We were funky technicians, one and all.

“The Nursery” that Public Records has built falls somewhere between greenhouse and Zen garden. The square space is essentially an urban enclosure where pine and plane trees and fresh lumber create a private performance patio, a paradise just beyond the concertina wire, as woods might say. The stage is bedecked with potted cacti, while I spied A. Richter across the way with his Fujifilm GA645Zi amongst the bamboo stalks. ELUCID’s green Champion mesh football jersey (the Bo Jackson jersey in the laundry, apparently) matched the soundsystem monitors, and I found what little shade there was to be had and huddled close to the soundman’s booth, a shed of glass. I almost managed to forget I was cordoned off by beige shipping containers.

It wasn’t long before I was entertaining the idea of going full Fatboi Sharif, i.e., shirtless. Sharif himself only made it through half his set before shedding his garb—there wasn’t even a hospital gown in sight. The heat was on as soon as he came out to Can Ox’s “Scream Phoenix”—rising from flames. El-P’s Phillip Glass sample could’ve easily made a Sharif beat (we’re only talking a single generation removal, really). Sharif made quick work of some of his most recent altered realities. “Static Vision” included a call [I ain’t scared!] and response [Motherfucker, I ain’t scared!]. He ran through “Phantasm,” “Dimethyltryptamine,” “Designer Drugs,” “Think Pieces,” and “The Christening” like a buxom blonde through an abandoned building, revving chainsaw in pursuit. At times, his speech slurred into a makeshift Swahili (word to This Heat). It was strange to see Sharif in daylight, sunstruck, as I’m so used to seeing him in blood-flooded cellars or Joseph Conrad’s heart of darkness environs, like he alludes to on “Dimethyltryptamine.” He barreled through ventricles, riding shotgun in Sir Menelik’s Space Cadillac. DJ Boogaveli (who hypes up Sharif like it’s a pep rally at Springwood High) shouted about family at the start of “The Christening,” which sounded sincere compared to the tone Sharif takes on Decay—there the family must be of the Manson or Duggar milieu. He finished the track acapella, exhausting the last of his energy, only to reinvigorate and reanimate for a rioting rendition of “Smithsonian.”

I’ve yet to invest the necessary time into Cavalier’s work, though I know him from his association with Quelle Chris. With an album coming down the pike from Backwoodz, I found myself in the lucky position of witnessing his set incapable of discerning old material from new. He took centerstage, acting as his own hype-man and DJ (though he did high-five the invisible “DJ Light-skin” at one point), and his kineticism was immediately apparent. His floral button-down danced over his body as he rapped vitally. I felt vivisected by his exhortations and incisive observations. Keep in mind, my age prohibits me from becoming enthralled by any performer whose work I’m unfamiliar with—a sort of neuropathy of the soul. But he had me open and endeared by the time he implored, Put the tiger balm on it, put the tiger balm. As you wish, Cav. I lathered my chest.

“Y’all believe in magic? No? That’s okay.” Cav said it so quickly that he didn’t give anyone a chance to answer, but he assumed correctly, I think. Still, I was smitten by his conjurations—he made me a believer (no small task). “King me,” he rapped, “I’m trying to make it all across the board.” And, by the end of it, he had the entire crowd shouting “KING ME” back at him without a problem. MAKE SOME BLOODCLOT NOISE! he growled, and we didn’t need to be asked twice. IT’S VIBRATIONAL, AIN’T IT? With a seemingly innocuous phrase he was able to summon the spirit of the crowd. Over the course of his 25-minute set, I heard him rhyme epiglottis, brag of spitting a verse while performing cunnilingus, give a lesson on homophones, and regale us with stories of winking at cops in Whole Foods. “From the Tree of Life I smoke foliage,” he said, and the trees Betty Smith saw grow in Brooklyn circulated through his lungs. “We need to bring back weed spots—it’s not nostalgia.” Though he did rap nostalgically at times, letting us know he was born in BK, went to school not far from where we stood, and though he’s representing the 504 now, Brooklyn born-and-raised ossified his being into bone.

THIS IS CHURCH, YA FEEL ME? And I did feel him. I spent the week culling quotes about improvisation from Amiri Baraka’s Black Music (1967) for another self-assignment (I don’t work for anyone, son), and highlighted this passage: “...to go back in any historical (or emotional) line of ascent in Black music leads us inevitably to religion, i.e., spirit worship. This phenomenon is always at the root in Black art, the worship of spirit—or at least the summoning of or by such force.” [Peace to Kehinde Alonge—always at the ready with choicest recommendations.] Cavalier danced upon the altar and rapped his sermon relentlessly, tirelessly. I was raised up on tippy-toes, enthralled by the force of his spirit. THIS AIN’T JAZZ?! he asked. WHAT THE FUCK THEY TALKIN’ ABOUT MAN? I don’t know who’s doing that sort of talking, but they’d be hard-pressed to say such a thing in this public gathering. “Brooklyn, this is how it feels—all of us together: this is how it feels.” I believed in Cavalier’s magic by the end of his set. I was charmed by his satchel of High John de Conqueror. Let me know where to Venmo my tithe.

The heat index had my vision tunneling. When Armand Hammer stepped on stage, sounds were moving in reverse, and the Class-A dynamite duo took us back (way back) in time, when ELUCID was in “fifth grade in [his] dad jeans” and he “played Game Boy in the backseat.” woods, with his first words of the afternoon, said he “rather be codependent than co-defendants.” This must’ve been “Landlines,” the lead-off from the new album, seeing as how they shouted-out JPEGMAFIA, ELUCID rapped “leave a message after the beep,” and a dial tone toned between verses. It was off the hook, as they say.

They seemed to be following the official We Buy Diabetic Test Strips tracklist, because next up was “Woke Up and Asked Siri How I’m Gonna Die” (a song with a title so long that it must’ve come from the magnum mind of ELUCID). She replied, she replied, she replied… they repeated, but I didn’t quite catch what that chatbotbitch said. woods refashioned a line from “Remorseless” with “Life’s a blip, I’m swimming under the radar.” Life’s a blip and then you die, that’s why we puff lye. Further deepening the uncanny valley, their third offering to the musty masses included “fake trees in the Apple Store.” I’m sensing something about the excesses of tech after a cursory listen to these WBDTS tracks, the detritus and pollution it produces. To quote my damn self, something in line with “...a cell tower with evergreen branches: / …a drone with seagull feathers.” ELUCID revived “a double portion of protection for [him] and [his] niggas,” explaining he’s “trying to only say what’s necessary.” By any means, sir.

Cavalier was welcomed back to the stage for “I Keep A Mirror in My Pocket,” another new joint with Preservation on production. We the audience felt, collectively, like we were in the belly of the beast—those shipping container walls (a real Season 2 of The Wire sensation)—as Cav chorused and signified about the Big Bad Wolf. A cautionary tale, indeed. I can see clearly how Cavalier fits within the Backwoodz cadre.

The content of the next number left no question of its title. “Niggardly (Blocked Call),” if I was asked to predict, will be the cynosure of the new album. (Yeah, you heard me right dog, I said cynosure.) Produced by August Fanon (who was in the place to be—a rare appearance from an elusive mastermind who would humbly demur if you called him such, I’m supposing), the song has an R0 = 15 infectious hook: “Admittedly niggardly, I won’t even give these niggas bad energy.” woods, what with his penchant for scales and measurements, boils everything “down to the last red cent.” How does he do it? Well, MY HEART PUMP KETAMINE, he yells. We find woods in one of his ruthless, no Vaseline moods: “I eat knowing I’m starving my enemies.” Revenge is like the sweetest joy next to spending time with your kids, and woods picked up where his verse from “As the Crow Flies” left off. He closed his eyes and rapped to the rafters and the sky:

I write when my baby’s asleep, I sit in the room, in the dark, I listen to him breathe, I walk him to school and then the park, Hold they little hands while we cross the street, I think about my brother who is long gone, And this is all he ever dreamed.

ELUCID and woods repeated admittedly niggardly back-and-forth at the end, delighted with the wordplay.

They kept riding the August Fanon beatwork like Thomas Sankara in the Renault 5 as the killer chords from “Smile Lines” crept in. The crowd response was screw-faced sneers and shouted lyrics. One youngblood knew the song front to back, beginning to end—ELUCID acknowledged him from the stage: “Peace to the homie out there—he knew every word, man.” I watched the dude beam from the compliment. Even after writing profusely—profusely (fuck Caltrops and his non-existent editor, here comes the predator…)—about woods and ELUCID, I still can’t memorize their lines. Chalk it up to some neurological incapacity that arrived in my 30s. I envy those who commit songs like “Smile Lines” and “Smith + Cross” to memory. My not-so-supple gray matter just can’t cut it anymore.

My expectations for We Buy Diabetic Test Strips were upended by the tracks they debuted. I’d speculated an abrasive noise event; a Sheet Metal Music for the new millennium we’ll never reach; a kind of Schoolly D “P.S.K.” FML swagger. There’s certainly elements of that, just not as much as I was anticipating. (And who knows what noise the as-yet-unheard tracks might bring.) I assumed the shared space with Soul Glo over the past several years, the screechings zapped through the receiver on the toll-free number, and their recent appearance on Shapednoise’s Absurd Matter would be an indication of the Shape of Rap to Come. Speaking of which, woods sludged through his verse from “Family” before DJ Haram’s scrapyard percussion ushered in “Trauma Mic.”

Haram was at the helm for the entirety of Armand Hammer’s set, and she reveled and felt every ounce of her own beat. The buzzsaw sounds were like Baraka’s description of Don Ayler’s trumpet: “long blasts…in profound black technicolor.” ELUCID’s traumatized mic draped over his shoulder for the opening anvil strikes. He needed his hands free to clap in rhythm. The gesture was reminiscent, again, of Baraka’s analysis of the saxophone held by Albert Ayler (the elder Ayler), “a howling spirit summoner tied around the ‘mad’ Black man’s neck.”

The “Trauma Mic” video had me thinking on thematics of refuse and rubbish—you best protect your dreck. I thought back to the garbology Aesop sifted through, where I saw Bakunin’s barricades in the city streets and revisited the actions of The Motherfuckers in the late ’60s—they stood in solidarity with striking sanitation workers and dumped garbage at the doorstep of Lincoln Center. Armand Hammer—outfitted as scrappers, pitching barrels and coiling skeins of copper wire—are of the same spirit. They propose a cultural exchange of garbage for garbage.

woods bodied “No Hard Feelings” and was joined by damn-near the entire crowd. Had it sounding like a tenant revolt as we all screamed, LIKE THEY STEALING! The Aethiopes track equals, if not outright overtakes, “Asylum” and “Remorseless” as most affecting in the past year’s blitz of performances.

ELUCID stood on the precipice, at the edge of the stage, as he rapped through “Barbarians.” He went swimming into the crowd with his free arm, astro-spiritually. The refrain of “Who the fuck are you?” evolved from the accusatory tone heard on Rome to an existential “Who the fuck am I?” ELUCID and woods bandied the question between them like two college kids in the dorms at 2AM, faded as fidduck. The “intelligent fist” of woods and the “mysticism” of ELUCID (to use an equation Baraka applied to Milford Graves and Sonny Murray) working together to produce a manic mix. They kept the marriage going through “Mangosteen” before turning to the heliocentric worlds they invented in collaboration with the Alchemist on Haram. “Black Sunlight” and “Falling Out the Sky” had me thinking of Baraka (again!): “It only takes two to start a group. If the two are maturely strong, and have a oneness, then the others will feel it and touch their own sound, voice, or whatever.”

ELUCID’s last solo number was “Spellling,” and by then he was spent but still perseverating in the dopest way possible. “This is a physical experience,” ELUCID said as the song began, asking the soundman to turn the volume up higher. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII been spelling, he spoketh [an ever ever elongated I and a shot-to-the-dome of “been”]. The I Told Bessie opener became what Baraka calls “an antiphonal rhythmic chant-poem-moan.” ELUCID’s voice was ragged by this point, a metallic scrape as he shouted about being “your momma’s favorite, since about ’88, ’89.” The down in “just got to heaven and I can’t sit down” was made malleable in how he twisted it around in his mouth. Split tongue heavy lifting.

He had nothing left when the alarming squeal whistle warp of “Stonefruit” started to play. But the audience assisted, screaming with him I REALLY CAME IN ON A CYCLONE as his voice gave out. woods jumped in early when it was his turn, which proved a moment of levity. To err is human, and woods—despite the adoration he’s been receiving—is endearingly human. That humanity is probably why so many of Armand Hammer’s fans have become zealous collectors, showing up at the venue with cardboard boxes full of vinyl, willing to wait patiently for woods and ELUCID to write their names in metallic Sharpies on these their prized possessions. “First Armand Hammer show in the states in a while,” woods said at one point. “Small flex,” ELUCID noted, chuckling. But they brought it home on Saturday. It was “As the Crow Flies” made manifest. woods brought all the Backwoodz family on stage at the conclusion of their set. The family atmosphere afforded by the 3PM start time was embellished by the sight of children on shoulders. It had the feel of a triumphant affair. It’s winning, it’s winning, it’s winning…

Peace to the conversations that were had with Alex Richter, Willie Green, Max Heath, and Sharif.

Photos credit: Rory Simms

AH setlist:

1. Landlines 2. Woke Up and Asked Siri How I’m Gonna Die 3. [???] 4. I Keep A Mirror In My Pocket 5. Niggardly (Blocked Call) 6. Smile Lines 7. Family 8. Trauma Mic 9. No Hard Feelings 10. [???] 11. Barbarians 12. Mangosteen 13. Black Sunlight 14. Falling Out the Sky 15. Spellling 16. Stonefruit

#armand hammer #backwoodz studioz #public records #fatboi sharif #dj haram #cavalier #underground hip hop #brooklyn

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girlactionfigure · 1 year

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The following will tell you everything you need to know about foreign interference in Israel's affairs, the bias of the 'International Community' and the absurdity of 'Palestinian' claims to our Eternal Capital : in 1930, an 'International Commission' was appointed by the 'Mandatory Power' with the approval of the League of Nations 'to determine the rights and claims of Moslems and Jews in connection with the Western or Wailing Wall' (the term 'Wailing Wall' is an insult to every Jew) The Commission (wait for it, this is a good bit) was comprised of 'experts' from the Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland. Having spent a month in Jerusalem 'hearing witnesses on both sides', the 'experts' issued the following verdict: "To the Moslems belong the sole ownership of, and sole proprietary right to the Western Wall, seeing that it forms an integral part of the Haram al-Sharif area (erm, the Temple Mount), which is Waqf property. To the Moslems there also belongs the ownership of the pavement in front of the Wall and of the adjacent so-called Moghrabi (Moroccan) Quarter opposite the Wall, inasmuch as the last-mentioned property was made Waqf under Moslem Sharia law, it being dedicated to charitable purposes. Such appurtenances of worship and/or such other objects as the Jews may be entitled to place near the Wall either in conformity with the provisions of this present verdict or by agreement come to between the Parties shall under no circumstances be considered as, or have the effect of, establishing for them (the Jews) any sort of proprietary right to the Wall or to the adjacent pavement." So there you have it, ladies and gentlemen - three thousand years of Jewish history handed over to the Moslems by Dutch, Swedish and Swiss 'experts', just like that. 18 years later, the Jordanians attacked and occupied East Jerusalem. They destroyed 56 ancient Synagogues, used Jewish headstones to pave roads and build urinals, used the Western Wall as a rubbish tip and threw Jewish families out of their homes, which they then 'gave' to Moslems. In 1967, during the 6 day war, Israel recaptured and reunified our Eternal Capital - never again will it be divided.

Likud Herut UK

#yerushalayim #YomYerushalayim #JerusalemDay #AmYisraelChai

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samuelkoltov · 2 years

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In connection to the photo project about al-Mawasin on Haram al-Sharif I shared earlier, I also wrote this article, sharing some thoughts on the purpose and significance of the whole place.

I hope you'll enjoy.

#architecture #architecture photography #architectural #black and white #bnw #photograpy #islam #islamic architecture #islamic history #religious architecture #religion #dome of the rock #haram al sharif #al aqsa #al mawasin

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jordanianroyals · 6 months

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7 November 2023: King Abdullah II, at a meeting with European Parliament President Roberta Metsola, warned of the catastrophic long-term repercussions of the war on Gaza, which have caused wide-scale destruction and exacerbated the humanitarian crisis.

During a meeting attended by Crown Prince Hussein, King Abdullah called on the international community to pressure Israel to stop its war on Gaza and to allow the uninterrupted delivery of humanitarian aid.

His Majesty warned against the continuous escalation in the West Bank and settler violence against the Palestinians, which could lead to an explosion of the situation.

These violations and provocations in the West Bank are nothing but a reflection of the extremist rhetoric of the Israeli leadership, the King said, calling for curbing the spread of these violations as they fuel the conflict. (Source: Petra)

His Majesty reiterated Jordan’s rejection of the Israeli measures and continuous violations in Jerusalem as an occupying force in restricting the freedom of worship for Muslims at Al Aqsa Mosque/Al Haram Al Sharif.

The King stressed that a military or security solution will not resolve the Palestinian cause, and that the only way to reach regional stability is by working towards just and comprehensive peace, on the basis of the two-state solution.

Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi, Director of the Office of His Majesty Jafar Hassan, and Jordan’s Ambassador in Belgium Saja Majali attended the meeting.

#King Abdullah II #crown prince hussein

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precisionwormshaft · 2 days

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Following the Israeli decision

During discussions with Netanyahu, Abdullah had demanded that Israel remove the metal detectors.A work crew removed the metal detectors from one entrance to the compound in the early hours, and cameras installed on overhead bridges in recent days were also gone, an AFP correspondent reported..The compound lies in east Jerusalem, seized by Israel in the Six-Day War of 1967 and later annexed in a move never recognised by the international community.The mosque compound has served as a rallying cry for Palestinians.The move came in the face of intensive international diplomacy seeking to stop wider Palestinian unrest, with Israel saying it would introduce subtler security measures instead to secure the site following a fatal attack.

In 2000, a visit to it by then Israeli opposition leader Ariel Sharon helped ignite the second Palestinian intifada, or uprising, which lasted more than four years. The street says yes and we say yes; if the street says no to the measures, we will say no," he told AFP following the Israeli decision."The dangers on the ground will escalate if we go through another cycle of Friday prayer without a resolution to this current crisis," Nickolay Mladenov said after briefing the UN Security Council, which met to discuss how to defuse the tensions on Monday.They continued on Saturday, leaving two more Palestinians dead.Israeli authorities said the metal detectors were needed because the July 14 attackers smuggled guns into the compound and emerged from it to shoot the officers.One person set off a firework, prompting Israeli police to use sound grenades to disperse the crowd.As word spread of the decision, a few hundred Palestinians gathered to celebrate near an entrance to the mosque compound.Muslim officials remained undecided on Tuesday morning as to whether to accept Israel&China Economy T Nuts Suppliers39;s move and end their halt to prayers at the Haram al-Sharif mosque compound, known to Jews as the Temple Mount.They decided "to change the inspection with metal detectors to a security inspection based on advanced technologies and other means," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said.Israel's security cabinet took the decision to remove the detectors early on Tuesday.

Details of the advanced technologies the cabinet planned to use were not immediately clear.The Israeli army said the 19-year-old Palestinian had spoken in a Facebook post of the holy site and of dying as a martyr.On Sunday night in Amman, an Israeli embassy security guard shot dead a Jordanian who attacked him with a screwdriver, according to Israeli officials.Israel installed metal detectors at entrances to the compound, which incorporates the Al-Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock, after an attack on July 14 that killed two policemen. They refused to enter the compound in protest and prayed in the streets outside instead.A few dozen Israeli security personnel stood quietly around the entrance, outside which Muslims have prayed for days in protest of the metal detectors.Jordan is the official custodian of Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem.Clashes erupted between Israeli security forces and Palestinians around the Old City, elsewhere in annexed east Jerusalem and in the occupied West Bank, leaving three Palestinians dead.Palestinians viewed the new security measures as Israel asserting further control over the site.A second Jordanian was also killed, apparently by accident."We as the Waqf listen to the street.It also came after one of US President Donald Trump's top aides, Jason Greenblatt, arrived in Israel for talks on the crisis and with the UN Middle East envoy warning of the risks of escalation.Friday's main weekly Muslim prayers -- which typically draw thousands to Al-Aqsa -- had brought the situation to a boil.

The decision to remove the metal detectors followed talks between Netanyahu and Jordan's King Abdullah II.Considered the third holiest site in Islam, it is the most sacred for Jews..

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Holy War: Red Cows, Gaza and the End of the World

— Published: April 05, 2024 | Newsweek

It is said that this is where the world began—and perhaps where it will end.

The true epicenter of the war in the Holy Land is not the devastated Gaza Strip, under Israeli assault since Hamas' bloody raid last October sparked the region's deadliest conflict in decades. It is a few dozen miles away in Jerusalem, at the holiest and most fiercely contested hilltop on Earth. The war has increased religious tensions and given new impetus to a group of Jews and their evangelical Christian allies who are set on rebuilding an ancient temple where millennium-old Islamic shrines now stand—a suggestion that arouses the horror not only of Palestinians and Muslims worldwide, but of many Jews in Israel and around the globe as well as that of would-be Middle East peacemakers.

Third Temple advocates have been preparing for the day when the temple can be rebuilt, complete with rabbinically-certified red cows shipped from Texas for use in sacrificial purification rituals. The architectural designs are all ready, along the lines of the detailed Biblical descriptions. Robes have been woven and utensils assembled to Biblical specifications for ceremonies at the planned temple.

Red heifer at the Israeli settlement of Shiloh in the occupied West Bank. Five of the unblemished red cows were flown from Texas for possible use in eventual sacrificial rites associated with building a new Jewish temple. Matthew Tostevin

Messianic Jewish supporters believe the rebuilding of the temple, rather than being divisive, would fulfil Biblical prophecy to bring an era of peace with the temple as "a house of prayer for all nations." Christian backers, meanwhile, believe it would be an important step towards the Second Coming of Jesus and an apocalyptic last battle with the Antichrist.

"Our holy warriors who are fighting in Gaza are actually fighting for the building of the Temple," one Jewish prayer leader pronounced recently on a controversial visit to the believed site of two previous Jewish temples in Jerusalem.

Standing before the Dome of the Rock, the gleaming Islamic shrine that has sat for more than 1,300 years on the same contested spot, Marina Sokol, an Israeli mother whose son was killed fighting Hamas in Gaza, proclaimed: "The war we are waging is a war for the Temple Mount."

In their war to destroy Israel and replace it with an Islamic state, Hamas leaders also readily draw on the symbolism of Jerusalem and the Temple Mount, known to Muslims as Haram al-Sharif (the Noble Sanctuary). It is the third holiest site in Islam with its Al-Aqsa Mosque as well as being the holiest site in Judaism. "This round of conflict is being waged by the resistance under the name 'Al-Aqsa Flood.' It is not for the sake of Gaza or the West Bank, but rather for the sake of Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa," Hamas spokesperson Bassem Naim told Newsweek.

Hamas killed about 1,200 Israelis and kidnapped more than 200 in its unprecedented October 7 attack, according to Israeli figures. Israel's ensuing offensive against Hamas has so far killed over 32,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to Hamas authorities there. They do not say how many of those were combatants. Israel said at least 13,000 of them were.

Flood

Hamas has long put the fight against "Judaization" of holy sites high on its list of reasons for seeking to destroy Israel.

During the ongoing holy month of Ramadan, Hamas leaders again urged Palestinians to rally to the 36-acre holy site, scene of frequent confrontations in the past, and spark for wider violence. Israel has restricted the number of worshippers in the name of security concerns, drawing complaints from Palestinians of unfair treatment and of breaking longstanding agreements.

A religious Jew looks at the Dome of the Rock, an Islamic shrine in Jerusalem. Groups who believe in building a Third Temple say the Dome of the Rock stands on the exact spot where it must be built. Photo credit: Matthew Tostevin

Israel's government has set its three war aims in Gaza as destroying Hamas, bringing home the hostages that remain and ensuring that the territory can no longer pose a threat—aims that have widespread support among Israeli Jews. But the hope that the conflict might be a step to the rebuilding of the temple also resonates for Third Temple advocates, who form part of a fringe that has gained strength under the right-wing government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

"The Holy Temple - Now, More than Ever!" said a social media post from the Temple Institute, one of the leading groups seeking to promote interest in rebuilding the temple.

"We're all looking forward to the day after Israel's defeat of all our enemies. Building the Holy Temple, 'a house of prayer for all nations,' (Isaiah 56:7) is the only peace plan that can & will succeed!" said the institute, which in the past was reported to have received some state funding, but says it no longer does.

"The Muslims correctly understand the historical and religious significance of the Temple Mount for the Jewish people and therefore focus their incitement on the Temple Mount," Yitzchak Reuven, director of the Temple Institute's international department, told Newsweek. "In effect, the war in Gaza is very much a war over the Temple Mount."

An Israeli government spokesperson acknowledged Newsweek's questions but did not respond by time of publication.

For Palestinians, the growing Jewish religious activity at the site is already a step towards cataclysm.

"These are the seeds of conflict and the seeds of the type of fire that could burn the entire Middle East," Palestinian academic Adnan Joulani told Newsweek. "This is the most dangerous plot of land to play with."

The Palestinian Authority, which runs parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank and seeks a state alongside Israel, did not respond to a request for comment.

According to Jewish tradition, the place known as Mount Moriah is where the world was created. This was where Abraham offered his son as a sacrifice. For Jews and Christians that son was Isaac, whereas most Muslim sources say it was Ishmael. This was where King Solomon built the First Temple, destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BC. It's thought the Second Temple was built 70 years later—the temple from which Christians believe Jesus drove out the moneychangers. That temple was destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD.

For Muslims, the site is where Muhammad made a miraculous night journey from Mecca before ascending to heaven. Muhammad and his early followers turned here for prayer before they turned to Mecca. The Dome of the Rock was built little over 50 years after Muhammad's death in 632 AD. In the Middle Ages, some Muslims, Jews, and Christians believed the gold-domed and elaborately tiled structure actually was Solomon's Temple.

Palestinian Muslims pray outside the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem's al-Aqsa Mosque compound on March 11, 2024. The site is the third holiest in Islam as well as the holiest for Jews, who know it as the Temple Mount. Photo credit: Ahmad Gharabli/AFP

Outliers

A call to rebuild the temple is part of the daily prayers of religious Jews. But those actively seeking to make it happen are outliers within a religious nationalist movement that sees a God-given right over all the land from the River Jordan to the Mediterranean Sea—a belief which has helped drive settlement of the occupied West Bank since the 1967 Middle East War. Still a tiny minority, Third Temple advocates gained momentum as Israeli politics swung towards the religious right under Netanyahu.

"The Third Temple movement have a lot of power. They are in the government, they are having a lot of support, something they never had before," said Yonatan Mizrachi of the Peace Now group, part of a once influential left-wing peace movement that has itself been pushed to the margins, particularly since the Hamas attack. "Twenty years ago, even the settlers tried to avoid dealing with the Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif. There were only a few people, a few dozen, and today we're talking about a movement," he told Newsweek. "A very loud movement, but still a minority."

Outside Israel, the movement has little traction.

"First of all, 90 percent of American Jews have no concept of a Third Temple in any traditional way," said Rabbi Asher Lopatin, director of community relations at the Jewish Federation of Greater Ann Arbor, Michigan. "The other 10 percent who are Orthodox or Traditional are almost entirely of the opinion that the Third Temple will be rebuilt only after the Mashiach (Messiah) comes and there is world peace," he told Newsweek. "Ultra-Orthodox Jews believe that only God will build the Third Temple."

The Third Temple activists in Israel distance themselves from the most extreme radicals, such as the underground group whose members were arrested in 1984 with an alleged plan to blow up the Muslim sites. Many Third Temple activists assert that ultimately Muslims themselves will ask for the temple to be built in fulfilment of divine will.

Third Temple activist Melissa Jane Kronfeld in Jerusalem on December 3, 2023. Advocates of rebuilding the temple where Muslim shrines now stand are a small minority. Photo credit: Matthew Tostevin

"Oh, we definitely need to get rid of the Dome of the Rock," said Melissa Jane Kronfeld, who came to Israel from New York and is as a vocal supporter of the movement. "I actually think it should be moved and preserved into a beautiful museum somewhere," she said. "It's not part of the plan," she told Newsweek. "God laid out exactly what the temple is supposed to be."

She and others are not fazed by the challenges over removing one of the world's most iconic structures. In addition to being an architectural emblem of Jerusalem, the Dome of the Rock is a symbol of the state long sought by Palestinians with Jerusalem as its capital. Israel also claims Jerusalem as its capital. The Dome of the Rock is part of the same compound as the Al-Aqsa Mosque, which is not itself on the land where the temples are thought to have stood.

"We will defend the mosque to the very end," said Abu Ibrahim, a retired taxi driver, on the stone plaza outside the mosque. He took a bullet through the leg during riots in 1990 when Palestinians feared a takeover by Third Temple activists. At least 17 Palestinians were killed at the time. "It is an Islamic place and not a Jewish one," he said. "They have no right to pray here."

Prayers

The struggle over prayer rights is happening right now.

Every morning that visits by non-Muslims are allowed, groups of religious Jews gather at the one gate through which they are permitted to visit. Every morning, an Israeli police officer tells them that they are not allowed to pray on the Temple Mount. Every morning, they go up under police escort and pray there, reciting from their mobile phones.

"Those who say prayers aren't happening here aren't the ones who are coming up with us," said Kronfeld, whose group, High On The Har, encourages visitors.

Jewish worshippers pray under police guard at the Temple Mount, which Muslims know as Al Haram Ash Sharif (The Noble Sanctuary). The holy site is one of the most contested on earth. Photo credit: Matthew Tostevin

The legal situation for prayers is complicated. After Israel captured the site in the 1967 war, it ignored the suggestion of the army's then-chief rabbi to blow up the Dome of the Rock and clear the way for the Third Temple. Instead, the government chose to retain a "status quo" with administration under an Islamic Waqf that bans prayer by anyone except Muslims. Although Israel's Supreme Court has ruled that Jews have the right to pray there, it also said that the right can be limited in the public interest—as in, to avoid inflaming the situation. Visits by non-Muslims are not allowed on Fridays: the day of the main Muslim prayers, or on the Jewish Sabbath. They are also curtailed during Ramadan and other Muslim holidays.

The status quo has come under strain as Israeli politics has shifted. Hardline Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir made the point of proclaiming Israeli ownership during controversial visits last year, drawing furious responses from Palestinian groups, including Hamas. The security ministry did not respond to a Newsweek request for comment.

Palestinians complain that their own prayer rights are being restricted by the Israelis, particularly since the war in Gaza.

"They are changing the status quo and creating a new agenda," Palestinian political scientist Mahdi Abdul Hadi, a member of the Waqf council, told Newsweek.

Trouble at the site quickly fires up the region. It helped to trigger the second Palestinian Intifada in 2000 as the uprising derailed peace talks. In 2021, Israeli police stormed the compound after stone-throwing protests over Ramadan prayer restrictions. The result: 11 days of fighting between Hamas and Israel, and an inexorable step towards the latest conflict.

"This is a symbol for us. We have a holy duty to save it," said Palestinian shoe seller Sami Taim, who at 24 is too young to be allowed inside the compound most of the time by the Israeli border police who patrol the Old City. "We will never give up," he told Newsweek.

A model of the Dome of the Rock Islamic shrine on top of a pile of spices in a Jerusalem market. The shrine and the Al Aqsa Mosque compound where it stands are not only holy for Muslims, but are also symbols of Palestinian aspiration for statehood. Photo credit: Matthew Tostevin

While Israeli Jews agree on the holiness of the site, there is no unified view of what should be done there in a society that has its own deep divisions among the religious; between the religious and secular; between left and right; and between Israelis whose ancestors immigrated from different parts of the world.

"The fact that our enemies recognise the importance of this place and we don't is literally the tragedy of a generation," lamented one young prayer leader during a prayer at the site one Sunday for a dozen or so people, some of whom visit several times a day.

By contrast, Sephardic Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef has said that any Jew who even visits the site is sinning—not to even mention seeking to build a Third Temple. He sent a stern letter to Ben-Gvir after his visit.

Even on the religious right, some are wary of the Third Temple movement in fear that it could undermine the immediate push for prayer rights at the holy site.

"I pray every single day for a Third Temple, but there's a difference in this time and in these generations from the practical step that we want," said Yishai Fleisher, international spokesperson for the Jewish community of Hebron, scene of frequent confrontations between Jewish settlers and Palestinians in the West Bank.

"Nobody is offering up a bill to build a Third Temple, but we do want it to be open on the Sabbath," he told Newsweek.

Israeli Divisions

A poll in 2022 found that 50 percent of Israeli Jews favored allowing Jewish prayers at the Temple Mount, with 40 percent against. But only 12 percent saw prayer at the site as a religious commandment: for the rest, it was to demonstrate sovereignty. Among secular Jews, 39 percent opposed allowing prayers because of the potential reaction from the Muslim world.

Strains are evident at the site itself. Impatient police guards chivvy the Jewish worshippers along. One secular officer draws a severe rebuke from Kronfeld when he lights up a cigarette and flicks ash on the ancient stones.

The relationship between Israeli governments and the Third Temple movement has also been equivocal—at times dismissive, but with supporters also courted for political advantage. In 2013, Israel's Army Radio revealed that the Temple Institute had been getting state funding for its cultural and educational work, although it now says it gets no government help and relies on donations and sales from its museum and gift shop.

Postcards sold by the Temple Institute in Jerusalem give an artist's impression of the Third Temple. War in Gaza has given new impetus to a small group of Jews seeking to build a temple where Muslim shrines now stand. Photo credit: Matthew Tostevin

In the Old City's Jewish Quarter, the institute's displays feature robes made using Biblical-era dyes and yarn that have been prepared for the eventual ceremonies at the temple. There is an altar and a solid gold menorah. The gift shop sells postcards with an artist's impression of the Jerusalem of the future, with pilgrims heading to a Third Temple that has replaced the Dome of the Rock.

"Most physical preparations have already been made," the institute's Reuven said. "The Temple vessels have been recreated. The Temple Institute has also recreated the garments of the high priest as well as the other priests. A modest scale-sized altar has also been made, which can easily be transported to its intended location on the Temple Mount."

"While we make every effort in our limited ability to kindle interest in building the temple, the rebuilding of the temple is not a Temple Institute project. Such a monumental effort would need to be based on broad support from the people of Israel and members of the international community," he added.

Evangelical Link

Non-Jews are among the most fervent supporters of the Third Temple: they are Christians who anticipate the Second Coming of Jesus before a Day of Judgment—a view of the End Times that is, in fact, broadly shared with Muslims.

One of those believers is Byron Stinson, a soft-spoken Texan and self-proclaimed Judeo-Christian who splits his time between the U.S. and Israel and is dedicated to helping "the fathers of the faith" build a new temple.

"This is God's plan," he told Newsweek by phone from his truck rolling across Texas. "It's being lived out right now right in front of our eyes."

Stinson helped secure five red heifers in Texas and ship them over in 2022. The cattle are needed for a purifying ceremony for the temple (sacrificial knives are on display at the Temple Institute). Not any red cows will do. They must be "without defect or blemish" (Numbers 19) and must never have worked. It was not cheap getting them to Israel: they had to be transported as pets aboard an American Airlines Boeing 777.

Once the ceremony has been performed and the ashes of a red heifer are mixed with herbs and the waters of Jerusalem's Gihon Spring, the purifying mix can last hundreds of years, Stinson said. But he reckoned 20 or 30 years would be enough for the temple.

"When we see the temple there, I'm expecting repentance, and then joy, and then celebration of the power of God, because he is showing the world that he is God," Stinson said. "It's not like it'll happen in one day, in my opinion, but it will happen."

Holy Cows

A red heifers looks from its pen at Shiloh in the West Bank on December 7, 2023. The red cows were brought from Texas for rites associated with the rebuilding of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem. Photo credit: Matthew Tostevin

For now, home for the cows is a metal shed more than 7,000 miles from their Texas birthplace at the Israeli settlement of Shiloh in the West Bank. They look out from their straw-lined pen with gentle eyes, offering up muzzles in the hope of petting or treats. Rabbis inspect them occasionally to ensure they have no white hairs.

There is symbolism to having the red heifers in Shiloh. According to believers, this is where the tabernacle—a portable forerunner of the temple—stood for more than 300 years. In the Bible, Shiloh was Israel's first capital. Now, it is at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and violence in the West Bank has intensified along with the Gaza war.

Shiloh is one of the settlements that have long been seen by Palestinians and negotiators as among the biggest obstacles to a peace agreement and as illegal under international law—a view challenged by Israel. Those settlements are now home to more than half a million people. Netanyahu, a longstanding opponent of a Palestinian state alongside Israel, planted an olive tree at Shiloh in 2019. A plaque says the tree he planted "symbolizes our hold on the ground of our homeland." Olive trees can live for thousands of years.

Long Fight

Third Temple advocates point out to those who question their ambitions that the idea of Israel itself is not much more than a century old and few believed in it when Theodor Herzl founded his movement to promote Zionism in the 19th century.

The religious dimension to the conflict and the vision of a multi-generational struggle—on top of nationalism, claims to land and the basic survival sought by all parties—further confound would-be peacemakers such as the successive U.S. administrations that have called for a two-state solution with Israelis and Palestinians splitting the land.

"Westerners have difficulties accepting this type of prism to conflict," said Efraim Inbar, president of the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security. "It's a misconception to believe that the Americans will suggest some kind of wonderful agreement and pour money on us, on them. It's nonsense."

Prospects for such an agreement appear to have receded further during the Gaza war, with Netanyahu categorically rejecting U.S. President Joe Biden's calls to back one. Support for a two-state solution had been flagging even before October 7, but a Gallup poll at the end of 2023 said it stood at 25 percent in Israel compared to 61 percent in 2012. Support among the Palestinians has also tumbled from a decade ago, although a survey in March showed that it had nearly doubled in Gaza to 62 percent since December while still only 34 percent in the West Bank.

The absence of a deal for a Palestinian state suits Third Temple advocates. Some activists believe the trauma of the Hamas attack on October 7 and the war that followed will push Israelis further towards a stronger claim to the holy sites—if only from security concerns rather than from religious convictions.

Although the war has prompted accusations from left wingers that Israel's rightward tilt and neglect of peacemaking helped to bring the conflict about, it was far right and religious parties that made notable gains in recent municipal elections in Jerusalem, the first vote since the war.

Third Temple activists sense new momentum.

"I'm always told the Third Temple is going to destablize the Middle East and it's going to start a war. Well, I'm pretty sure the war is already here and the Middle East is pretty destabilized," said Kronfeld. "I like to think about it the other way. What if the Third Temple is the answer? What if it's what brings the peace and stabilizes the region?"

Visitors in front of the holy site known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as Al Haram Ash Sharif in Jerusalem. The site is one of the most fiercely contested on earth and is the epicenter of the Middle East conflict. Photo credit: Matthew Tostevin

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