JEWS FROM DOWNTRODDEN TO TYRANTS

Cağfer KARADAŞ

The Immigration, Exile and Oppression of Jews

Even though Jews start their history with the Exodus of Abraham from his Pharaoh’s Land of Egypt to the Promised Land in Canaan, also known as “"the land of the Philistines", the Holy Quran denies this and emphasizes that Abraham was neither a Hebrew nor a Christian, but he was a hanif which means a pure monotheist Muslim. Similar invalid claims were made by both Meccan polytheists and Christians(1).

According to Jews, the Exodus of Abraham was for determining and laying claim on the Promised Lands by Yahweh for Hebrews to establish a home. Taking into the information on the Holy Quran and data on historical resources regard, the Exodus of Abraham into Jerusalem was not voluntary; it was involuntary because of Pharaoh and his people’s oppression and their attempt of assassination. Besides, taking the tales into consideration, it can be perceived that Allah Almighty did not allocate a specific land to any prophet. Moreover, many prophets left their lands because of destruction or the oppression of their people. As a matter of fact, all lives of prophets include emigration. On the other hand, had Allah Almighty allocated a homeland for Abraham, it would definitely be Mecca where the first holy place Kaaba was built. As stated by the Holy Quran, the establishment of Kaaba happened by Allah’s command and Abraham prayed for it to be blessed(2).

The most memorable emigration of Jews happened in Egypt at Jacob’s time. When Joseph became one of the confidants of Pharaoh in Egypt, he invited his whole family to Egypt and entertained them in his mansion. When they respectfully thanked him, Joseph turned to his father and said “O my dear father! This is the interpretation of my old dream(3). This was how Jews settled in Egypt. According to resources and the tales in the Holy Quran, the pharaoh of that time accepted Joseph’s faith of monotheism and thus, treated Israelites well. Be that as it may, when soothsayers said to Egypt’s Pharaoh “a boy born from Israelites in this year will harm the kingdom” in Moses’ time, the newborn Hebrew boys were ordered to be gathered and killed. Moses’ mother received a revelation and in line with it, she put him in a coffin after he was born, secretly caste him on the waters of Nile river, the coffin drifted away in the river, ended up near the shore of Pharaoh’s palace and adopted by Pharaoh’s wife Asiya, then was given to his mother for breastfeeding again(4).

(1) Ali ‘Imran 3/67.

 (2) Al-Baqarah 2/124-131; Ali ‘Imran 3/95-97.

 (3) Yusuf 12/4-101.

 (4) Taha 20/37-40; Al-Qasas 28/7-13.

Moses who lived in the palace till he was forty started to feel himself close to Hebrews and pay attention to the problems of Hebrews. One day, he witnessed an argument between a Hebrew and an Egyptian Copt; he tried to break the fight as the Hebrew asked for help and then, he killed the Copt with a slap. The next day, he saw the same Hebrew arguing with another person and while he was intervening, the Egyptian Copt reminded him of yesterday’s event and said “Do you intend to kill me as you killed a man yesterday?” After these events, Moses learned that the Pharaoh was looking for him and thus, he immediately left the city and fled to the Palestine.

Moses married the daughter of the person who offered him a shelter in Palestine and his daughter’s hand in exchange for becoming a a shepherd for an amount of time. After the end of allocated time, while traveling with his wife toward Egypt, he saw a fire in Mount Sinai and when he went there to check, he was bestowed with prophecy by Allah Almighty. Afterwards he was given two miracles when his staff was turned into a snake and his hand turned shining white, unblemished. Additionally, he asked for his brother Aaron to be a helper for him. Allah Almighty accepted his wish. Allah reminded him of the blessings he granted him when he was a baby and encouraged and comforted him by emphasizing that his divine support would always with him anywhere(5).

Two bothers reached Egypt and entered into Pharaoh’s presence and declared that he was a messenger of Allah and asked for him to accept Allah’s existence and unity, and hereby release the Hebrews whom he forced to stay and work in Egypt and tyrannize. Pharaoh said, “I know no other God buy myself. Who is your Lord?” and Moses answered “He is the Lord of you and me and the whole universe.” When Pharaoh asked for a sign/miracle, Moses showed him his staff which turned into a snake and his hand which turned into a blindingly shining object upon putting it into his pocket. Baffled and scared by the miracles he witnessed, Pharaoh listened to the words “Our sorcerers could do the same” of his consultants and asked for every sorcerer of Egypt to be brought to him and made them put on a big show. In this era, the men of cloth in Egypt were also sorcerers and thus, Pharaoh assumed that Moses and his brother were also sorcerers and ordered a competition between them with the advices of his consultants. Upon seeing the staff of Moses turning into a snake and swallowing all of sorcery materials, the sorcerers panicked and then, realized that this was a genuine miracle and all of them acknowledged and confirmed the faith of monotheism. They did not give up on their faith despite all threats of Pharaoh(6).

Completely defeated Pharaoh immediately gathered his consultants and broke his promise to release Hebrews free. Upon this, he was punished with a series of disasters such as pestilence of livestock, locusts, boils and waters turning into blood by the command and will of Allah. Frustrated by these disasters and plagues, Pharaoh promised to release Hebrews again if Moses pray and save them from this torture but did not keep his promise yet again. When Moses took the Hebrews out of Egypt, Pharaoh followed them with a huge army. When they came to the shore of Red Sea, they were stuck between the sea and the army; later, Moses hit his staff to the sea by the command of Allah, the waters parted, opened a wide path and all Hebrews crossed the sea safe and sound. The Pharaoh and his army attempted to cross too; however they were drowned as the waters closed(7).

The lives of Hebrews after this exit from Egypt were passed with immigrations and exiles. Most of these exiles were of consequences of their errors, disobedience and betrayals. For instance, their first exile was when they were punished to live in desert by Allah’s wrath because they disobeyed and betrayed Moses and Aaron who saved them from Pharaoh’s tyranny(8). Indeed, their exile was told in Hebrew texts as “For so it was, that the children of Israel had sinned against the Lord their God, which had brought them up out of the land of Egypt, from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and had feared other gods, […] Notwithstanding they would not hear, but hardened their necks, like to the neck of their fathers, that did not believe in the Lord their God. And they rejected his statutes, and his covenant that he made with their fathers, and his testimonies which he testified against them; and they followed vanity, and became vain, and went after the heathen that were round about them, concerning whom the Lord had charged them, that they should not do like them”(9).

The following exiles occurred because of an invasion of their lands and as a consequence of their revolts against occupying forces. As a matter of fact, the most powerful period of Hebrews was at the time of defeat of Goliath by Saul and David becoming king. Even though they became more powerful when the First Temple was built in Jerusalem during the reign of King Solomon, Hebrews could not protect their political unity and became weaker due to internal turbulence. Consequently, they were exiled to Assyria when their neighboring Assyrian Empire conquered their land in 722 BC(10). This was their first exile. Their second exile happened when they rebelled against Babylonia Kingdom and thus, King Nebuchadnezzar II conquered Jerusalem and destroyed the Temple of Jerusalem(11). In the Roman era, the Second Temple of Judaism in Jerusalem was burned by Roman soldiers in 70 CE during the Jewish-Roman Wars that happened because of the revolts by the Jews. Later, a pagan Roman temple was built at the site of the Second Temple. The Jews who did not accept this and revolted again were sent away to an exile in different parts of the world. With this exile, they were banned from entering Jerusalem. This ban was lifted by Muslims when Jerusalem was conquered by the second Rashidun caliph Omar.

(5) Taha 20/25-47.

(6) Al-A’raf 7/124; Taha 20/71; Ash-Shu’ara 26/49.

(7) Cağfer Karadaş, Hidayet Rehberi Peygamberler -Kur’an’da İsmi Geçen 25 Peygamber-, Bursa: Emin Publishing, pp. 95-100.

(8) Al-Baqarah 2/49-73; Al-Ma'idah 5/20-26; Al-A'raf 7/103-156; Yunus 10/75-93; Hud 11/96-102; Al-Kahf 18/60-82; Taha 20/9-98; Al-Qasas 28/3-44; As-Saffat 37/114-122; Ghafir 40/23-46; Az-Zukhruf 43/46-56; Adh-Dhariyat 51/38-40.

(9) Old Testament, 2 Kings 17/7,14,15

(10) Old Testament, 2 Kings 17/1-33.

(11) Ballı, A. & Gökçe, A. F. (2021). Yahudi Göçleri ve Yahudi Kimliğinin Oluşumu. İletişim ve Diplomasi, 5, 57-80.

Apart from exiles, Jews faced severe tyranny and tortures from Christians who deemed them as “Christ-killers”. The most notorious one is when they were massacred in and expelled from Andalusia by Catholics. A certain number of them were taken in by Ottoman Empire and they were placed in cities such as Istanbul and Bursa. Similar atrocities, also, took place in France, Poland and Imperial Russia.

The most disastrous tranny and massacre were executed by Nazis in Germany and named as “Holocaust”. It has been estimated that approximately six million Jews were poisoned and/or torturously massacred by Nazis. This atrocity executed by Germans influenced the Jewish mind and faith so much so that when famous Jewish psychiatrist Irvin D. Yalom asked his father who fled from Germany if he believes in God, his father answered as “After the Shoah, how can anyone believe in God?” When in fact, his father was a shopkeeper who was seemingly bound to Jewish traditions and participated in Jewish rituals and ceremonies​​​​​​​(12). Jews brought up this incident so frequently and created a Holocaust literature and thus, made Germans to pay serious material and moral indemnities. Similarly, the “Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide” were adopted in 1948 by UN with the initiative taken by Jews, and it entered into force on 1951. Perhaps as a historical irony, Jews are being prosecuted in International Court of Justice because of contravening the same Convention.

The Rebellions and Betrayals of Jews

The first rebellion of Hebrews started after the crossed the Red Sea and saved from Pharaoh, they asked for an idol that was similar to the idol of a tribe which they saw while passing through from Moses. Their first betrayal was when Moses left for Mount Sinai to seek an audience with God; they worshipped to a golden calf-shaped idol created by Samiri, going against the warnings of Aaron. In Torah, this incident was described similarly; however, the one who created the calf was claimed as Aaron, not Samiri​​​​​​​(13). This is an example of falsification in Torah. On the contrary, Aaron was the brother and helper of Moses; he was a prophet who tried to prevent them from converting to idolatry. During the time of Muhammad, this incident was mentioned and it was claimed that they said, “We are the children of Allah and His most beloved!” and will stay in hell only for a period of forty days, the exact time that they worshipped to the calf​​​​​​​(14).

After this period, they made a habit of rebellion and betrayal; Allah Almighty fed them with manna and quail in the dessert, bestowed each tribe with a spring and yet, they asked for a place where they could find “herbs, cucumbers, garlic, lentils, and onions” like in Egypt. When they were asked to “fight” for their Holy Land, they said to Moses, “You and your Lord go in and fight” and displayed a new type of betrayal and rebellion. Upon this, Hebrew were punished by Allah and sentenced to wander the wilderness for forty years(15).
 

(12)  Yalom, Irvin. Becoming myself: A Psychiatrist’s memoir. New York: Basic Books, 2017 p. 45.

(13) Old Testament, Exodus 32/1-35; also see Mahmut Salihoğlu, “Samirî”, DİA, İstanbul 2009, XXXVI, 78-79.

(14) see Al-Baqarah 2/80; Ali ‘Imran 3/24; Al-Ma'idah 5/18.

 (15) see Al-Baqarah 2/57-61; Al-Ma'idah 5/24; Al-A’raf  7/160-162.

One of their rebellions mentioned in the Holy Quran was when they broke the Sabbath. Even though it was forbidden for them to catch a fish on Saturday, a group of people amongst them broke this prohibition, a second group warned the first one whereas a third group intervened the second group instead of the rebellious first one by saying “it would be better to stay silent and this warning would be useless​​​​​​​(16). There are striking similarities between this tale about Hebrew and the current situation in Gaza. There are a number of Jews who warns and opposes against the slaughtering Jew whereas the number of Jews who prefers silence and thinks that this massacre is more righteous is not low.

On the other hand, nearly all of the abovementioned exiles occurred as a consequence of Hebrew’s rebellion against the rule of kings and states that they lived under. The Holy Quran points out these rebellions and punishments without giving any specific name and time​​​​​​​(17).

The incidents concerning Zechariah, John the Baptist, Jesus and Hebrews indicates a chain of events that include both rebellion and betrayal. When Mary miraculously gave birth to a child without a father, the first person whom Hebrews doubted was Zechariah. They blamed him of having an out-of-wedlock relationship, tortured him and then, killed him. Another prophet who was killed by Hebrews was the son of Zechariah, John the Baptist. This rebellion and betrayal of them was described in the Holy Quran as “They were stricken with disgrace and misery, and they invited the displeasure of Allah for rejecting Allah’s signs and unjustly killing the prophets. This is ˹a fair reward˺ for their disobedience and violations”(18).

Their oppression, torturing and assassination attempts against Jesus Christ were mentioned both in the Bible and the Holy Quran. The Holy Quran depicts their denial, slander, and tortures and their failed assassination attempts against Jesus and his mother Mary as such: “And [We cursed them] for their disbelief and their saying against Mary a great slander; and for boasting, “We killed the Messiah, Jesus, son of Mary, the messenger of Allah.” But they neither killed nor crucified him—it was only made to appear so. Even those who argue for this ˹crucifixion˺ are in doubt. They have no knowledge whatsoever—only making assumptions. They certainly did not kill him. Rather, Allah raised him up to Himself. And Allah is Almighty, All-Wise(19)”

In the versions of Bible, it was described that Jews managed to make the governor of Roman Province Judaea (which included Jerusalem) Pontius Pilate forcefully crucify and kill Jesus by yelling “Let him be crucified, let him be crucified!” and moreover, they broke his legs along with the other prisoners. At one point, Pilate found no fault in him and gave up on crucifying him and then, Jews blamed him for betraying Caesar by crying out “If thou let this man go, thou art not Caesar’s friend​​​​​​​(20). 

After this incident, Jews are named as “Christ-killers” in Christian faith. The reason of the tendency to relate every negativity, bad luck, evilness and trouble with Jews in Europe and other Christian countries is this underlying belief.

Another rebellion and betrayal of Jews was the falsification of their holy book. This betrayal was chronicled in the Holy Quran as such: “But for breaking their covenant We condemned them and hardened their hearts. They distorted the words of the Scripture and neglected a portion of what they had been commanded to uphold. And you will still observe deceit among them, except a few of them”(21)“So woe1 to those who distort the Scripture with their own hands then say, “This is from Allah”—seeking a fleeting gain! So woe to them for what their hands have written, and woe to them for what they have earned(22)”
 

(16) Al-A’raf  7/163-166.

(17) see Al-Isra 17/4-6.

 (18) Al-Baqarah 2/61.

 (19) An-Nisa 4/156-158

 (20) Matthew 27/11-65; Mark 15/1-47; Luke 23/1-56; John 19/1-42

 (21) Al-Ma'idah 5/13.

(22) Al-Baqarah 2/79.

In the history of Islam, the face-to-face interaction between Muslims and Jews occurred in Medina. Muhammad signed the Constitution of Medina which was a constitution that established cohabitation and alliance with Jews and he made them give their promise to not help the enemies of Muslims. However, Jews broke their promise as usual by secretly forming an alliance with Meccan polytheists who besieged Medina during the Battle of Trench and thus, broke the terms of Convention and betrayed the Muslims. After the Quraysh withdrew from the invasion due to army’s tiredness and weariness, Muhammad confronted them about their betrayal. A similar thing happened with the Jews of Khaybar and Fadak but they were not exiled upon their request and stayed where they were in line with the terms of convention. The second caliph Omar expelled them to Syria in 641 because they killed Muzahhir ibn Rafi' from Ansar(23) and broke the hands of Omar’s son Abd Allah by throwing him over the roof while sleeping. Afterwards, there were no mass exile and punishment against Jews from Muslims except for certain isolated incidents. The Muslims’ punishment against Jews was not because of their faith and race but because of their behaviours and attitudes. As a matter of fact, most of the time, they were given more privilege than other polytheist tribes within the framework of rights given to the people of the book. Jews exiled from Andalusia and other places usually took shelter in the Ottoman Empire(24).

Jews living in Ottoman Empire and community were never treated negatively due to their faith and descents. Besides, Ottoman state treated its non-Muslim citizens equally. However, certain Jews who escaped from Russia in 19th century disrupted the population balance and social order in Palestine when they settled in the region under the British mandate. Upon this, Ottoman Empire took up a new policy with which they offered the right to asylum for Jews who escaped from Russia and Balkans but was chary of and even prevented them from settling in Palestine(25). Despite of the fact that the good intentions of Ottoman Empire saved them from the tyranny in Andalusia, settled them in the most beautiful cities such as Istanbul and Bursa, they harmed the state through their brokerages and attempted to buy Ottoman land with their financial resources in order to achieve their Zionist goals. Zionists that could not establish the state of Israel due to Sultan Abdul Hamid II’s prevention were able to achieve their goal by collaborating the colonialists when British army invaded Jerusalem during the World War I. Afterwards, the tyranny of Zionist Jews started in Palestine.

(23) Local inhabitants of Medina who took the Islamic prophet Muhammad and his followers (the Muhajirun) into their homes when they emigrated from Mecca during the hijra. (t.n.).

(24) see Adem Apak, Ana Hatlarıyla İslam Tarihi I, İstanbul: Ensar Neşriyat 2020, p. 399-431; Muhammed Hamidullah, “Hayber”, DİA, İstanbul 1998, XVII, 20-22

The Tyranny, Slaughters and Massacres of Jews

The violence and massacres by Zionist Israel against Palestinians have been going on non-stop and nearly more than a century. The world politics underwent drastic global and regional changes in 20th century, two historic wars occurred, a number of empires dissolved, regimes fell, the country borders changed, striking technological improvements happened, space age began and the land extortion, violence and massacre by Zionist Israel against Palestinians became permanent.

The oppression of Palestinian people started way before the establishment of the State of Israel. First of all, the conflicts between Palestinian locals and Jewish immigrants arose; after the establishment of the State of Israel, the unbalanced violence, intimidation, massacre and exile continued non-stop with the help of imperialist powers.

Following the First World War, the distribution and balance of the population in the land of Palestine organizedly changed while the percentage of Jewish population was only 10. Jewish immigration to Palestine started to increase since 1880s before the First World War. These waves of immigration were named by Zionists as “Aliyah” which literally means “ascend/rise”. The First Aliyah was between 1882-1903, the Second Aliyah 1904-1914, the Third Aliyah 1919-1923, the Fourth Aliyah 1924-1928 and finally, the Fifth Aliyah was between the years of 1929 and 1939. During the time of the immigration waves, tens of thousands of Jews immigrated to Palestine and the Jewish immigration reached its peak between 1948 and 1951 after the Second World War.

Jewish immigrants founded terrorist groups named Haganah in 1920 and Irgun in 1931 in order to intimidate, displace and expel Palestinian civilians and pave the way for the establishment of the State of Israel. The fights between Jews and Palestinians commenced during this period, many Jews and Palestinians were injured and killed at the riots of 1920 and 1921. The revolt and strike started in 1936 continued until 1939. In 1940, Irgun paramilitary organization bombed the King david Hotel in a terrorist attack and 91 people of different nationalities which include mostly civilians were killed. It was recorded that 41 Arabs, 28 Britons, 17 Jews, 2 Armenians, 1 Russian, 1 Egyptian and 1 Greek were killed in the attack.

One of the turning points of Zionist terrorism was the Deir Yassin Massacre. On April 9, 1948 Zionist paramilitaries; primarily by the Irgun, led by Menachem Begin and Lehi (also known as the Stern Gang), led by Avraham Stern who were supported by the Haganah and Palmach attacked the village of Deir Yassin near Jerusalem, Mandatory Palestine, killing at least 254 Palestinian civilians. Many children and 25 pregnant women were amongst the victims. During this attack, cases of rape, disembowelment of pregnant women and cremation of people by tying them up to trees were reported by witnesses to the British officials who were conducting an investigation. Due to the gross atrocity of the attack, a number of rabbis reacted to it. The main suspect of this massacre Menachem Begin were appointed as a high ranking official and then, became the sixth Prime Minister of Israel as if nothing happened. Years later, they tried to justify (!) themselves to the Zionist public opinion by claiming that “There would be no Israel if we did not commit this act.

Following the establishment of the State of Israel, the Nakba, which literally means “the catastrophe” and occurred on May 15, 1948, became a historical massacre and viewed as a collective trauma in Palestinian national narrative. After the 1948 Palestine war, Israel continued to its tortures, rapes and massacres in order to force local habitants to immigrate and expand its invasion; thereupon, a number of Palestinians were forced to leave their lands with fear. After this ethnic cleansing; according to Israeli resources, five hundred thousand; according to Palestinian resources, nine hundred thousand and according to UN records seven hundred twenty six thousand Palestinians were expelled or fled from their homes and became refugees. These numbers referred to the approximately 65-70 percent of Palestinian population around that time. During this period, six hundred seventy five Palestinian villages were destroyed and depopulated. This catastrophe had overwhelming repercussions in the world press and with the UN Resolution 194 in 1948, it was resolved that Palestinians should be permitted to return to their homes and yet, the Israel state terrorism did not end.

The massacres that started after the 1967 Six-Day War were deemed as Naksa which literally means “the setback”. The consequences of this war created a new and major wave of immigration; hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees were driven from their lands. It was recorded that approximately five hundred thousand Palestinians were expelled from their homes during this immigration wave. This date also indicated the beginning of the establishment of new Jewish settlements by seizing Palestinian lands, homes and properties by extortion and theft. This marks the institutionalization of Zionist Settler Terrorism.

Since 1967 to today, more than two hundred fifty new settlements were established in East Jerusalem and West Bank. It is known that nearly six hundred fifty thousand Jews inhabit in these settlements. This settler terrorism still continues and clearly it is the aim of recent Gaza attack. Indeed, when Zionist Israel started Gaza massacre, certain Jewish real estate companies attempted to gather customers with images for the building complexes that they are going to construct on Gaza Strip. Harey Zahav real estate company which built homes for invaders in West Bank before, saw the massacre in Gaza as an opportunity, announced its new project, broadcasted its plans on an image of destroyed Gaza, produced a slogan that said “Wake up, a coastal home is not a dream. Now with pre-sale prices(26). 

Zionist Israel created blocks around West Bank cities and built gigantic walls which became a tool and a symbol for violence against oppressed Palestinian people as a cruel method of tyranny. These walls were initially planned as seven hundred twenty kilometers long and now nearly five hundred kilometers of them are finished. These walls narrow down the Palestinian land by 9,4 percent and complicate the living conditions of approximately three million Palestinians. West Bank and Gaza nearly turned into open-air prisons because of these walls. During the building period, Palestinian lands were dig up by construction equipment, Palestinian properties were seized by force, hundreds of Palestinian homes were destructed, ten thousands of olive and fruit trees were uprooted, irrigation facilities and thousand meters long water pipes were demolished. In other respect, the aforementioned wall divided certain villages into two, separated families and relatives, even split a number of Palestinians’ homes and lands.

I saw these walls in the city of Qalqilya on West Bank when I visited there in May 2017 for a symposium and for a few days, I breathed the prison atmosphere that Palestinians experience every day. Palestinians enter into and exit from their own cities surrounded by high walls through security check as if they are living in a prison.

During the First Intifada which began in 1987, Palestinians, especially Palestinian children tried to defend and protect their lands, freedom and human rights by throwing stones to the armed Israeli forces. At the time of this First Intifada movement which lasted until 1993, the arms of Palestinian children who were caught were broken with stones and sticks by Israeli soldiers in front of the cameras. The symbol image of the First Intifada became a child whose arm was broken with a stone as it was broadcasted on televisions. More than one thousand two hundred Palestinian civilians were lost their lives around this time and more than thirteen thousand were injured, two thousand five hundred homes were destroyed and more than two thousand Palestinians were arrested.

In 21st century, neither the oppression of Israel diminished nor the suffering of Palestinians ended. During the period of The Second Intifada between 2000 and 2005, four thousand four hundred Palestinians lost their lives, more than forty eight thousand Palestinians got injured and thousands of Palestinian homes were destroyed. The symbol image of The Second Intifada was again a child. Muhammad al-Durrah and his father who sheltered behind a cylinder near a wall were stayed under a gunfire for 45 minutes. The killing of Durra on the lap of his father in front of the cameras was broadcasted from all over the world(27).
 

(25) see Gülnihal Bozkurt, “Osmanlı-Yahudi İlişkilerine Genel Bir Bakış”, https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/download/article-file/1731382.

(26) https://www.trthaber.com/haber/dunya/israilli-sirketten-isgal-ilani-enkaza-donen-gazzede-konut-satisi-icin-reklama-basladi-821665.html, 15.05.2024; 12:06.

(27) For an evaluation, see Ahmet Hüsrev Çelik, Düzce University, Head of ORAFMER, https://www.aa.com.tr/tr/analiz/filistindeki-yahudi-teroru-yuz-yili-asti/2245469, 14.05.2024; 16:57; see also Avd er-Rucub, https://www.aljazeera.net/politics/2022/12/5/, 14.05.2024; 12:46

Genocide on Live: Gaza

The destruction, violence and massacre in Gaza became genocide in the eyes of the world through the live footages that show images which document the happening atrocities way worse than before. This reminds us a historical event which was mentioned in the Holy Quran and happened centuries ago; “Condemned are the makers of the ditch— the fire ˹pit˺, filled with fuel— when they sat around it, to watch what they were doing to the believers. And they resented them not except because they believed in Allah, the Exalted in Might, the Praiseworthy, ˹the One˺ to Whom belongs the kingdom of the heavens and earth. And Allah is a Witness over all things. Indeed, those who have tortured the believing men and believing women and then have not repented will have the punishment of Hell, and they will have the punishment of the Burning Fire(28).

BIn the interpretations of Quran, it is stated that this incident passed in Najran. It depicts the mistreatment of a Jewish King named Zûnuvas who ruled over Yemen before Islam to the Najran Christians. Zûnuvas punished people by throwing them into pits of fire and forced them to give up on their faith(29).”

The old tyrants tortured and terrorized people by throwing them into the fire whereas the tyrants of today do the same by throwing phosphor and other types of bombs onto victims. The things that are happening today in Palestine, especially in Gaza are not that different from what Jewish Zûnuvas did to the Najran Christians. The time, place and the tyrant changes but the tyranny recurs.

A similar incident happened when Hebrew who were oppressed by Pharaoh a cornered near the sea by Pharaoh and his army while they were escaping from Egypt under the leadership of Moses and Aaron. This incident was described in the Holy Quran as such: “Pharaoh and his people pursued them at sunrise, and as soon as the two sides came within sight of one another, Moses’ followers said, ‘We shall definitely be caught.’ Moses reassured ˹them˺, “Absolutely not! My Lord is certainly with me—He will guide me(30) Today, Israelites placed on the opposite side and took the role of tyrant Pharaoh. This time, those who stuck near the water were people of Gaza and Netanyahu and his soldiers are modern day Pharaoh and his soldiers.
 

(28) Al-Buruj 85/4-10.

(29) Cağfer Karadaş, On Kapı Kırk Pencere, Bursa: Emin Publishing, 2018, pp. 31-33; Muhammed Eroğlu, “Ashâbü’l-Uhdûd”, İslam Ansiklopedisi DİA, İstanbul 1991, c. 3. p. 471; Nuh Aslantaş, “Zûnüvâs”, DİA, İstanbul 2013, c. 44, pp. 511-513.

(30) Ash-Shu'ara 26/60-62; also see Cağfer Karadaş, Hidayet Rehberi Peygamberler, p. 98

Gaza massacre of Zionist Jews did not start on September 7. In Israel’s attack on Gaza which began on December 2008 and ended on January 2009 under the title of “Operation Cast Lead”, a thousand four hundred people including three hundred fifty five children and nearly a hundred women were killed and five thousand four hundred Palestinians were injured. On November 8, 2012, Israel organized an attack on Gaza strip under the name of “Operation Pillar of Defense”, in other words “Pillar of Cloud” which started with killing of 13-year-old Palestinian kid while playing soccer by Israeli fire; a hundred sixty seven Palestinians who involved mostly women and children were killed and more than one thousand two hundred Palestinians were injured. In 2014, “Operation Protective Edge” attacks which continued for 50 days devastated the Gaza Strip. In the aftermath of these attacks, more than two thousand one hundred fifty Palestinian comprising five hundred fifty one children were killed and more than eleven thousand Palestinians were injured and more than six hundred thousand Palestinians lost their homes. In 2018 protests which stated after Donald Trump's decision to move the Embassy of the United States to Jerusalem and coincided with the anniversary of Nakba Day, more than sixty Palestinian civilians including many children were killed and more than three thousand Palestinian civilians were injured within two days. An eight-month-old baby, Leila al-Ghandour was amongst the victims of tear-gas at the border.

Be that as it may, for the first time ever, Zionist Israel seems to experience a psychological destruction in the face of Palestinian heroes. In 1956, Israel invaded the Gaza Strip within eight days and then, captured the whole Sinai Peninsula. Since October 7, 2023, despite unleashing every kind of barbaric attacks and committing genocide for more than seven months, Israel could not capture Gaza and break the Palestinian people’s resistance. In spite of the supports from every high technology company in Silicone Valley, Zionists could not militarily and psychologically outmaneuver Hamas.

Despite all the digital censures by social media companies, conscientious humans from all strata struck a big blow to Zionists in political and diplomatic war. Anti-Zionism keeps increasing amongst Western elites in spite of their governments’ attitudes. Millions of people from all over the world keep condemning Israel for its genocide in Gaza every day. Anti-Israel tent protests which started in the USA universities spread around the world starting with the universities in Europe. Thus and so, the genocidal and racist face of Zionist Israel came to the surface after it lost the propaganda war. Even Western nations saw the truth. The “war against Hamas” lie of Israel Defense Forces which slaughter Palestinian babies, elders, pregnant women and civilians walking on the street fell into pieces, the hypocrisy of its Western supporters became blatantly obvious(31).

The Systematic Violence Against Children

Every day, news agencies broadcast news about Palestine such as; “Israel soldiers wounded a sixteen-year-old kid who was passing near the Jewish settlement of Talmon in West Bank by opening a gunfire, claiming that he threw stones at Israeli vehicles(32)” This kind of news is a representation of the pain and suffering experienced by Palestinians in the hands of Israel’s tyranny in world public opinion.

Now, Zionists does not feel the need to hide their violence. As a matter of fact, the confession-like statements of Israeli soldiers take place in open source while the world plays ostrich. Erez Katrav, describing his time as medical personnel in the Kfir Brigade, noted that children who had been "beaten" were frequently brought to the area where he worked. Katrav narrated an incident where a child with a broken arm was brought, and despite needing medical assistance, no intervention was made. "There is no concept of being unfit for detention," he said, highlighting that children had become a part of the systematic violence.

In the past, Inbar, a soldier who remained on night duty at the Erez checkpoint, reported in a statement about a male child near the Gaza border, describing incidents where the child was "burned with cigarettes and treated like a toy" during detention. Hillel Cohen, a former member of the army, revealed that while patrolling with a soldier who knew the innocence of a Palestinian child aged 13 - 15, they stopped the child, verbally harassed him by saying: "I saw you throwing a stone," and applied physical violence. Cohen said such behavior was considered normal in the army(33).

(31) https://www.sabah.com.tr/yazarlar/bercan-tutar/2024/05/16/silikon-vadisinin-gazze-hezimeti, 16.05.2024; 22:16.

(32) https://www.aa.com.tr/tr/dunya/israil-askerleri-tas-attigi-iddiasiyla-bati-seria-da-filistinli-bir-cocuga-ates-etti/2252914; 15.05.2024; 12:17.

(33) https://www.aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/former-israeli-soldiers-confess-to-oppressing-palestinians-for-years/3099887; 14.06.2024; 12:25.

According to the latest numbers given by Palestinian Ministry of Health, more than thirty five thousand of Palestinians were martyred since the start of Gaza attacks on October 7, 2023. 14.280 of these martyrs were children and 9.340 of them were women. Approximately, 4 children are being killed every hour. The number of injured keeps escalating, the aftermath of those who trapped under the wreckages are unknown. On the other hand, Israeli forces martyred more than four hundred fifty five Palestinians including one hundred seventeen children in invaded West Bank since October 7. More than four thousand seven hundred Palestinians were injured, seven hundred twenty four them were children. Moreover, one thousand six hundred twenty Palestinians comprising seven hundred ten children were forced out of their homes in West Bank since the beginning of 2023. One thousand eighty five children were under arrest; five hundred of them were taken in after October 7. According to he United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) data, nearly seventeen thousand children lost one or both of their parents in Gaza since October 7. Commissioner-General of UNRWA Lazzarini stated that more children were killed in the Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7 than in the wars of last 4 years around the world(34).

Today it is estimated that Palestinian population is around five million and seventy percent of this population is young. Since the invasion started in 1947, Palestinian children went through immigration, exile, detention, prison and massacre along with their families. They tried to exist and resist under arduous conditions. They endured inferior treatment in their own land and struggled for their lives in refugee camps. A new generation grew up in refugee camps and exile. Palestinian families resisted against every kind of socio-economic difficulties, terrorism and human rights violations under the hands of occupying Israel army, while children came today with the yearning of freedom, honor and becoming a nation. Being the children of a people who have been resisting for their freedom more than half a century, they developed their own methods of fighting and called it as intifada/resistance(35).

Those children are now resisting in Gaza, fighting for their faith, honor, humanity and homeland. They are resisting by opening tunnels, using simple handmade weapons, sometimes obtaining improved weapons donated by imperialist powers to Zionists and using them against massacrists. Like the heroes of Saul who resisted against Goliath’s army despite being only three hundred people, again like the soldiers of Badr who defeated Meccan Quraysh army despite being only three hundred soldiers, in a similar spirit resembling the Kuva-yi Milliye (Nationalist Forces) spirit of the Turkish War of Independence, they are resisting with the fire of their faith that says the tyranny of the tyrant will end one day.

Meanwhile, Israel keeps committing its crimes against humanity by stomping on beliefs and humanistic principles. The five of Ten Commandments are “Thou shalt not murder. Thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s house, wife, or his slaves, or his animals, or anything(36)”. Israel is breaking all of these bans in Palestine for more than a century and especially in Gaza since October 7 and declares that it denies all values and sacred things.

Perhaps, this Gaza incident enables world nations to escape from the mangle of Zionism. Because Zionists seem to psychosocially and economically oppress world nations by using their financial, commercial and technological power in the same way that they divided Palestinian cities with concrete walls and turned them into pen air prisons. This can be easily understood simply by looking at the reactions of the USA and EU to Gaza. Seemingly, Zionist powers managed to create a terror atmosphere in everyone and every nation around the world. From this perspective, Gazaians are fulfilling a duty of starting the liberation from the terror atmosphere, oppression, captivity and being downtrodden for world nations by putting their lives in danger.

(34) https://www.aljazeera.net/news/liveblog/2024/5/16/, 16.05.2024; 20:51; https://www.trthaber.com/haber/dunya/israil-gazzede-her-saat-4-cocugu-olduruyor-848928.html, 18.05.2024; 00:33; https://www.aa.com.tr/tr/dunya/bm-gazzede-olduruldugu-bildirilen-cocuk-sayisi-son-4-yilda-savaslarda-oldurulen-cocuk-sayisindan-fazla/3162834.

(35) https://www.yenisafak.com/arsiv/2000/kasim/05/dunya.html; 14.05.2024; 12:20.

(36) Old Testament, Exodus 20/13-17.