Last update - 00:00 11/02/2007
The Arab world: The unity the Palestinians wanted
By Danny Rubinstein and Yoav Stern
The market square in front of Damascus Gate in Jerusalem's Old City was empty yesterday. The tourists were absent, along with the Jews, who in recent years have gone back to touring the Old City. The crowds of Arabs who come to pray and shop in Jerusalem stayed away. Hundreds of police and soldiers were on duty in the streets and nearby the gates of the Old City, allowing only a few to enter. Main-line shops were shuttered.
The construction of the bridge to the Mugrabi Gate hit commerce and tourism in Jerusalem. But that is minor, compared to the political and societal rupture with Israel's Arabs.
For years the Islamic Movement has taken the protection of Al-Aqsa under its wing, since three million or more Muslims from the Gaza Strip and the West Bank are not allowed to enter Jerusalem.
The struggle against the Israeli establishment in Jerusalem has earned Israeli Arab leader Sheikh Raed Salah, known to his supporters as "Sheikh Al-Aqsa," local and international recognition. Exposure on Arab satellite TV has raised him to the level of a Muslim leader of the first degree.
The Mecca unity agreement and the bridge has also bound all the Palestinian factions together. From the southern Gaza Strip to Jenin in the northern West Bank, children and adults are carrying models of the Dome of the Rock in processions. Hamas and Fatah flags once again fly together. Palestinian spokesmen from both Hamas and Fatah note the symbolic significance of the agreement, which they say is essential in light of the danger Israel presents to the mosque.
The Palestinian diaspora and opponents of relations with Israel in Jordan and Egypt have joined the protest. Arab television stations are broadcasting stormy rallys at the al-Yarmuk camp in Damascus, in Ein el-Hilweh in Lebanon, and of course in the streets of Amman and Cairo.
In Jordan, protesters raised the usual demands: cut off relations with Israel and recall the ambassador from Tel Aviv. The entire Arab and Islamic world saw the building of the bridge as Israeli aggression against the Islamic holy places and as a provocation. The Israeli explanation, that this is a safety bridge and the excavations are an archaeological salvage dig, interests no one.