There is something deeply unsettling in the way Arab and Western diplomats continue to dismiss Israeli political declarations as mere rhetoric.
Equally puzzling is the extent to which Israeli politicians have proven honest and explicit about their intentions.
Now, 21 months into Israel’s genocide in Gaza, we can look back and see how Israel has, step by step, implemented nearly all the promises it made on 8 October 2023, while the world has stood by and watched as entire cities were wiped off the face of the earth.
Over time, the global consensus has shifted toward acknowledging that what is happening in Gaza is a campaign of extermination and starvation, but only after the catastrophe has taken place.
Yet, even as the world follows this unfolding horror, Israel presses on.
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The rhetoric has not stopped, nor has its implementation. In the Occupied West Bank and Jerusalem, and particularly Al-Aqsa Mosque, Israel continues to advance a policy of irreversible annexation and provocation.
Unilateral actions
In the past month alone, the Israeli Knesset passed a symbolic but politically significant bill endorsing de facto annexation of the West Bank.
Then, in late July, the Ministry of Defence transferred administrative control of the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron, second-largest mosque in Palestine, from the Palestinian Waqf and local authorities to the Kiryat Arba Religious Council.
Since the 1997 Hebron Protocol, part of the Oslo II Accords, Palestinian authorities – specifically the Islamic Waqf and the Hebron Municipality – were responsible for civil matters concerning the mosque’s Muslim section, including safety infrastructure, electricity, sanitation and surveillance systems, while Israeli forces controlled security and Jewish access.
However, these administrative and legal constraints, which had previously limited Israeli authorities from altering management structures or making physical changes without Palestinian consent, have now been bypassed or removed by the Israeli military’s Civil Administration.
Al-Aqsa Mosque: The significance of one of Islam’s holiest sites
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This shift paves the way for unilateral changes, including construction projects and settler oversight, and is widely condemned as a violation of international law and the long-standing status quo agreement at the site.
Over the weekend, Jewish settlers, under heavy police protection, stormed Al-Aqsa Mosque complex in unprecedented numbers. They were led by far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who then conducted prayer services inside the complex itself.
This marked his eighth such intrusion since the genocide began, and his eleventh since taking office. Whereas in the past, police had restricted Jewish visitors to the eastern plaza and prevented them from praying.
Although, according to official Jewish religious authorities, there is a prohibition on Jews entering Al-Aqsa Mosque complex, and despite the status quo arrangement established after the occupation of Jerusalem in 1967 – which prohibits Jews from praying there and leaves its administration in the hands of the Islamic Waqf, allowing only Muslims to pray there – this time, Jewish settlers were allowed access to the entire complex and pray freely.
What made this visit even more significant was Ben Gvir’s statement during his march to the mosque on Tisha B’Av, the Jewish day of mourning for the destruction of the First and Second Temples. He declared that the day should not only be one of grief but of “building” – the building of the Third Temple.
This declaration came only months after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu released a video from tunnels excavated beneath Al-Aqsa Mosque – a decades-long project Palestinians have repeatedly warned threatens the structural foundations of the mosque. They have linked visible erosion and damage to the ongoing Israeli excavation.
Palestinian warnings unheeded
What’s even more frustrating is the international and Arab disregard for what the Palestinians say and warn about.
Time and again, the Palestinians have warned about Israeli intentions – especially regarding Al-Aqsa Mosque- and time and again, their warnings were dismissed as baseless.
Palestinians’ warning that Israel intends to alter the status of Al-Aqsa Mosque is now unfolding before our eyes
And now, tragically, the Palestinians were right, as reflected in the press statement from the Jerusalem Governorate that stated: “Today, the spatial division of Al-Aqsa Mosque has begun in an open and dangerous manner, and we warn of a religious war in the region.”
For decades, Palestinians have warned that Israel intends to alter the status of Al-Aqsa Mosque. Today, this is unfolding before our eyes and we stand witness to these changes.
Despite all these developments, a dismissive attitude persists in international diplomatic circles, based on the false assumption that Israel’s actions are exaggerated or unserious. Yet each year brings a new level of transgression. Whereas the police once prohibited Jewish prayer inside the mosque complex, today the minister in charge of the police leads it himself.
The genocide in Gaza has proven that Israel is not only capable of mass atrocities but it is also emboldened by global impunity. Over the past 21 months, Israel has violated hundreds, if not thousands, of international laws and conventions.
Other than the United States, no country would be allowed to behave as Israel does. Even Russia, due to its invasion of Ukraine, remains under heavy sanctions despite its economic and energy importance to Europe.
Yet Israel, despite global protests and mass public outcry, continues to enjoy Western and Arab support as it proceeds with the genocide.
Rewarding brutality
Western countries are still supplying Israel with weapons. Arab regimes are increasingly exploring normalisation, in what can only be interpreted as a reward for Israel’s brutality.
This reality demands a strategic recalibration from the Palestinians: what does power look like in the 21st century, and how do we confront a world in which genocide is not punished but incentivised?
Israel is now pursuing a long-held plan: the mass transfer of Palestinians from Gaza. The only missing component is a willing host country or countries.
Since the beginning of the war, Israel has openly floated this plan, and following US President Donald Trump’s endorsement of the idea during his presidency, Israel has poured resources into making it a reality.
The belief that Israel will simply fail without facing resistance is nothing more than a delusion. Trump’s special envoy to the middle east, Steve Witkoff, visited Israel and Gaza recently and declared there is “no famine in Gaza”, even as American soldiers and aid workers report catastrophic failures on the ground.
If the world continues to dismiss the statements of Israeli politicians, they will not stop at the genocide in Gaza
The same envoy continues to support the so-called Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), the Israeli-controlled organisation managing humanitarian flows, despite overwhelming evidence of its complicity.
The developments on the ground only reaffirm that the Palestinian people are alone in this struggle, forced to confront a state to which international law does not apply – a state capable of committing genocide and starvation with the support of western governments.
Israel is now exploiting the situation to engineer the demography and geography of the land from the river to the sea, and seemingly also within Al-Aqsa Mosque.
It’s true that Israel has not succeeded in achieving all of its objectives and continues to pay a price in the form of soldiers’ lives and social instability. I am convinced that international public opinion will eventually translate into political action in the future.
More importantly, the purpose of this text is not to say “we told you so”, but to warn you: if the world continues to dismiss the statements of Israeli politicians, they will not stop at the genocide in Gaza.
The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.
