Preacher: Israel is "defiling" the Al-Aqsa Mosque
Official PA TV, broadcast of Friday prayers and sermon from a mosque in Nablus
Preacher: "The land is the homeland, and the more the faithful grow in their faith, the more they grow in their devotion and defense of their land… The righteous Muslims love their homeland and defend it… This is true of every homeland. And regarding Palestine, Jerusalem, and Jerusalem’s surroundings, love of the homeland and devotion to it - despite the occupation's terror – means an exceptional reward… Ribat (i.e., religious conflict/war over land claimed to be Islamic) – in other words Jihad, in other words resistance - resistance is divided into two types...
Resistance is divided into two schools of thought, two levels: One is resistance by proxy – in other words, that a thousand or a few thousand good young people make themselves available to defend the homeland and resist the racist occupying invaders. And the role of the millions – according to the resistance by proxy school of thought – is to send love and prayer to those resisting. Whereas the second school of thought, the second level of resistance, is resistance by participation, in other words everyone's resistance, by everyone, for everyone… all streams, levels, sectors, and ages. Resistance by participation means joint responsibility… as resistance is Jihad, and Jihad is worship of God, and worship of God is like prayer. Therefore, it cannot be that a thousand or a few thousand will pray, while none of the millions will pray.
The occupation has not changed its golden rule… We have not and will not change our duty or our responsibility, and we will not change the awareness of the danger of the occupation and its threat to our existence… There are no limits to the occupation's aspirations. They decided to expropriate more land in the Galilee and our people rebelled in 1976, and this day is known as Land Day (see note below –Ed.)… It is essential that we know and remind ourselves that the occupation has no limit to its aspirations. I remember the members of my generation, or the generation after us, when the Israeli radio constantly said: 'Come to the negotiation table'… We came to the negotiation table, we extended our hand, [and they] cut- swallowed the hand. Then they swallowed the arm, and then they wanted to swallow all of us. We want history… We tended towards peace, and to put an end to the bloodshed. But despite this, the occupation has not stopped spilling blood. The occupation has not stopped stealing our land.Our mosques and their crown – the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque… the occupation has not stopped targeting it, defiling it;and it has even carried out a crazy, deliberate escalation in order to take control of the place of our Prophet [Muhammad's Night] Journey, may Allah's blessing be upon him. Therefore, the occupation does not target only lands in Jericho, Khan Al-Ahmar (a site where Palestinian Bedouins illegally erected dwellings; see note below –Ed.), and such. No, it also targets our land in the Galilee; beyond the fact that it has stolen land, it wants to steal more. And this is the case in the village of Al-Araqeeb (i.e., an illegal Bedouin village that has been demolished and rebuilt numerous times) in Be'er Sheva… The occupation does not want anyone to be in this homeland. Its golden rule, as I said: the most land and the least Arabs. And if it is necessary, from the Zionist perspective, that there be Arabs, then they should be in small numbers, less than 7%. And they should become a group of people serving Israeli society - the racists, the occupiers. Therefore they have a basic rule: A good Arab is a dead Arab. And if he is not dead in the sense of a living person who has become a corpse, then he should be dead in his awareness, in his morals, and in his mental state."
Land Day – annual commemoration of the general strike and demonstrations organized by Israeli Arab residents of the Galilee on March 30, 1976 to protest the Israeli government's decision to expropriate land in the Galilee for security and building purposes, which it later implemented. During the protests, demonstrators burnt tires, blocked roads, and threw rocks and firebombs. Six demonstrators were shot and killed by the Israeli army and police. Israeli Arabs and Palestinians consider Land Day a national day.
Khan Al-Ahmar is a site where Palestinian Bedouins have illegally erected dwellings and a school, mostly simple shacks, on land in Area C (i.e., land under full Israeli administration according to the Oslo Accords). The Israeli authorities have ordered the demolition of these structures and offered alternative sites for them. A number of petitions to the Israeli Supreme Court against the demolition orders have been considered and then rejected by the court. As of October 31, 2018, the illegally constructed buildings have not been demolished. Palestinians have held protests at the site against the demolition, some of which have turned violent.