Trump wants to wipe out Gaza's history. Saving its mosques and churches would defy him
It might already be too late to save the homes where many of the people of Gaza have been living and have memories of lives spent there. Or the recollections of people in Ramallah who spent their honeymoons in Gaza by the Mediterranean. Like many others, I too have strong and beautiful experiences of time spent in Gaza. Yet, at this time of almost unimaginable destruction of homes and lives, I turn my mind to the destruction of cultural heritage such as the Great Omari mosque, opened in the seventh century and also known as the Great Mosque of Gaza, whose minaret was partially destroyed and parts of its structure severely damaged. Or the historic Greek Orthodox Saint Porphyrius church, one of the oldest churches in the world, which narrowly escaped destruction for a second time after being struck by an Israeli missile that did not detonate. The fact that consideration is not given to their reconstruction only points to how readily it is accepted that Palestinians in Gaza are not a people who deserve to have their heritage preserved, but a pariah group who can be shunned with impunity.
Donald Trump's announcement is a continuation of Benjamin Netanyahu's policy of destroying the Gaza Strip pursued during the past 16 months. During Joe Biden's term as president, the US supported Israel with arms and ammunition; now Trump is supporting it by proposing ethnic cleansing of its people. Without a country of their own, the Palestinians are deemed disposable and stateless, people who have no country and belong to no land, and have no memories and no attachments. If proof were needed of the Palestinians' attachment to their land, the sight of tens of thousands of them returning to their destroyed homes in the north as soon as they were allowed without a moment's hesitation, despite knowing that they were returning to devastation and ruin, should suffice. They were aware of Israel's objective to forcibly remove them from the north and relocate them, and by their immediate return were collectively expressing their refusal to allow this to happen.
That all the crimes committed in Gaza should be wiped out, forgotten, left unpunished, as Trump envisages through his real estate deal for Gaza, is horrendous and too painful to consider. I am still reeling under the thought of the losses of my human rights and those of my colleagues in Gaza who lost their offices, files and homes. Years of hard work and documentation perishing under the rubble. It is also alarming that ethnic cleansing should be proposed so casually by the leader of one of the strongest countries in the world.
For Netanyahu, such an outcome would mean that all the crimes that his policies have led to would be wiped away with the destruction, forgiven and forgotten. That's what he wants and that's what he should never get. The fantasy that Palestinian refugees would be absorbed by the countries around them is not new. It was David Ben-Gurion in 1948 who predicted that in a generation or two the refugees would forget. They never did. Now many of the Palestinians from the areas that became Israel and who took refuge in Gaza are being threatened with expulsion.
Enforcement of Trump's proposal looks unlikely. Yet, as long as Israel is in control of the borders of the Gaza Strip, and if the US does not lend its support to the third phase of the ceasefire when reconstruction is due to start, Israel can in effect stop any funding directed to reconstruction, as well as prevent the importation of material needed for reconstruction of the Strip from entering. This would leave the Palestinians living under intolerable conditions. It was the failure to reconstruct what was destroyed by Israeli bombardment in the 2014 war that led to future wars against the Strip.
The present war has not ended, but there is no mention yet of any negotiations for resolving the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. I had some hope that after witnessing the gravity and extent of the destruction Israel has caused to its Palestinian neighbours, and the suffering that the Israeli hostages endured over the long period of their incarceration in Gaza, the people in Israel would be brought to their senses and there would be revulsion on both sides against the continuation of the ravages of war and military conflict. Yet this seems far fetched.
An international effort at reconstructing the Great Omari mosque and Saint Porphyrius church would indicate that the world is refusing Trump's attempt at turning the fate of Palestinians in Gaza into a real estate project. A more humane approach than to transform Gaza into a Riviera would be a patient reconstruction of these two monuments of world heritage, as the start of rebuilding the devastated Strip. It would be a partial symbolic expiation for what was done to the people of Gaza and the world.
Raja Shehadeh is a Palestinian lawyer and writer, and founder of the human rights organisation Al-Haq. He is the author of What Does Israel Fear From Palestine?
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Reuters
17 minutes ago
- Reuters
US B-2 bombers involved in Iran strikes, U.S. official says
WASHINGTON, June 21 (Reuters) - U.S. B-2 bombers were involved in strikes on Iran's nuclear sites announced by President Donald Trump on Saturday, a U.S. official told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity. Reuters had reported earlier on Saturday the movement of B-2 bombers, which can be equipped to carry massive bombs that experts say would be ideal to strike the sites.
Spectator
23 minutes ago
- Spectator
America hits Iran's nuclear sites
Just before 1 a.m GMT on Sunday morning, Donald Trump announced that the United States had bombed three nuclear sites in Iran: Fordow, Natanz, and Esfahan sites. It followed a tense 72 hours in which senior White House advisers became increasingly convinced that diplomatic channels had been exhausted, with military action the only available recourse to eliminate Iran's nuclear programme. Following the attack, Trump declared: We have completed our very successful attack on the three Nuclear sites in Iran, including Fordow, Natanz, and Esfahan. All planes are now outside of Iran air space. A full payload of BOMBS was dropped on the primary site, Fordow. All planes are safely on their way home. Congratulations to our great American Warriors. There is not another military in the World that could have done this. NOW IS THE TIME FOR PEACE! Thank you for your attention to this matter. It comes after Trump announced on Thursday that he would decide on whether to strike within two weeks, citing a 'substantial chance of negotiations that may or may not take place with Iran in the near future.' His Truth Social post emphasises both American military prowess and the need for peace – a nod to the two horses that he has been trying to ride. Trump's 'MAGA' base is heavily split on Iranian intervention. An Economist/YouGov poll conducted last weekend found that 53 per cent of voters who backed Trump in the 2024 presidential election do not want the country to join in Israel's strikes. Influential conservatives like commentator Tucker Carlson and ex-aide Steve Bannon have both urged restraint too. The attack comes on the ninth night of the Israel-Iran war. Reports by Reuters and Axios suggest that the U.S used B2 bombers to launch the aerial assault and that senior Israeli officials were given prior notice too. More details will emerge in the coming days: Tehran previously pledged retaliation and warned that American engagement would prove 'very, very dangerous for everyone.'
Daily Mail
26 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE Queensland's Donald Trump - how a ruthless Aussie pollie wrote the playbook for the US President
As US President, Donald Trump uses federal agents, police and threatens National Guard intervention against opponents - but it's a blueprint first drawn up in Australia. Queenslanders who lived through Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen's 21-year reign over the state will recognise the right-wing premier's fingerprints all over that playbook. Bjelke-Petersen began life as a farmworker on his father's rural property near Kingaroy, 220km north-west of Brisbane - but went on to dominate state politics for a generation. New Stan docudrama 'Joh: The Last King of Queensland ' drops on Sunday - featuring Rake star Richard Roxburgh as the notorious politician- and has drawn astonishing parallels between the Trump and the controversial premier. 'You look at Joh and you think [he was a] once-in-a-generation character,' Queensland author and journalist Matthew Condon told the filmmakers. 'And then you look at Trump - and some bells start to ring in terms of what we've gone through a generation or two before. 'The template was already here with a peanut farmer at the bottom of the world.' The comparisons to Trump are frequent throughout Bjelke-Petersen's time in power from 1968 to 1987, when he was known as the 'law and order' premier - a catchcry often now repeated by Trump. In 1970s, at the height of South African apartheid and battles over Indigenous land rights, Bjelke-Petersen welcomed an all-white Springboks rugby squad to Queensland, sparking protests across Brisbane. Police were deployed to disperse protesters gathered outside the team's Tower Mill Hotel, where excessive force was used. Actor Roxburgh, playing the National Party leader in speech recreations for the film, relives the politician's famous insistence: 'I declared a state of emergency.' It was reported that he brought in country cops housed in military camps, and gave the force 'the green light to do what they needed to do without repercussion'. 'He gave police carte blanche to do whatever they wanted,' said one commentator. Lindy Morrison OAM, member of indie rock band The Go-Betweens, accused police of 'bashing people in the head'. 'We were trapped. It was massively brutal,' she said. Lawyer Terry O'Gorman, who was also there at the time, said police 'in effect took it into their own hands'. 'They chased protesters in the dark,' he added. Bjelke-Petersen also railed against union strikes and the city's punk music scene, prompting graffiti in Brisbane reading 'Pig City'. Bjelke-Petersen proudly embraced his ties to the police and described it publicly as a 'jolly good relationship'. Others claimed he ran it as his private militia. And like Trump, he had a penchant for describing anyone who opposed him - notably ousted former Prime Minister Gough Whitlam - as socialists and communists. He was described as 'not liking protests, hippies, unions, the unemployed, and gays - and used his police force against them'. But Bjelke-Petersen was of the attitude that it was 'law and order - if you don't like it, you know what you can do.' He was described in Stan's docudrama as everything from 'innovative' and 'mundane and boring' to a 'power-hungry, hillbilly dictator' who 'wrote the playbook for Trump'. Bjelke-Petersen was finally ousted from power in 1987 after an unsuccessful tilt to be prime minister, which John Howard described as 'showing appalling judgement'. He died aged 94 in 2005, and in the Stan docu-drama, Queensland MP Bob Katter recalled his final meeting with the onetime political powerhouse. 'I carried him to bed the last time I saw him,' he said.
