Arab Information Center

Sheikh ‘Ikirma Sa'id Sabri

Name : Palestine, Man and Land
Author : Sheikh ‘Ikirma Sa'id Sabri, the Mufti of Jerusalem and the [whole] Palestinian territory
Publisher : Arab Information Center, al-Giza, Egypt

A portrait of the author
	Sheikh ‘Ikirma Sa'id ‘Abdallah Sabri has been the Mufti of Jerusalem since 1994. He is a senior preacher in al-Aqsa mosque and the highest religious Islamic authority in the PA-administered territories. He was appointed Mufti by the PA to create a Palestinian presence on the Temple Mount, the third holiest Muslim site (which includes the mosque of the Dome of the Rock, Al-Aqsa mosque and the area between them), a very sensitive place for the Arab and Muslim world.
	Sheikh Sabri is known as a talented speaker of extreme opinions , whose sermons in the past have expressed support for a jihad and for violent Palestinian activity against Israel, including suicide bombing attacks , calling them a means for the “liberation” of Jerusalem as well as Palestine from the Jordan river to the Mediterranean sea. He has also included strong anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli sentiments in his sermons along with frequent attacks on the United States and its Western allies, mainly Britain.

General description

Inroduction

According to the publisher's foreword (p. 3), the Arab Information Center is pleased to issue the treatise by Sheikh ‘Ikirma Sa'id Sabri for both the Arab and Muslim reader . Its aim is a short, simple presentation of the “Palestinian problem.” In his own introduction (p. 5), Sabri says he brings his readers a blessing from their Palestinian brothers, who are standing guard over Palestine on their behalf “from the Mediterranean sea in the west to the Jordan river in the east,” adding that according to some religious Muslim scholars the blessing is also relevant for Greater Syria ( bilad al-Sham ). ⁷⁷ For many years Palestine was considered (and still is, especially in Syria) as the southern part of Greater Syria, which includes, besides Syria itself, Lebanon, Palestine and Jordan, and for some, even Cyprus.

The Jewish ambitions in Palestine

In a pseudo-historical survey under the heading “ The Jewish ambitions in Palestine ,” (pp. 9-12) he says:

“It is absolutely clear that for hundreds of years the Jews have coveted Palestine. They convened several strictly secret conferences to plot their strategy for realizing their goals. That was made most apparent at the [Zionist] Congress [in Basel, Switzerland in 1987] where decisions were made according to The Protocols of the Elders of Zion , which claim that a Jewish state is to be established in Palestine , and that the Jews must subjugate the rest of the peoples of the world and rule them through corruption and artificial conflicts.” (p. 9)

Page 9: The Protocols of the Elders of Zion as the basis for the decision to establish a Jewish state in Palestine and for the Jews to rule the rest of the world.

“…then world Zionism took the next step: world Jewry joined the camp of the allies in the First World War… and they were awarded their prize [The Balfour Declaration] at someone else's expense… That declaration was issued ‘by someone who did not own it [i.e., Palestine] to someone who did not have the right [to it].' For in fact, Balfour did not own Palestine and the Jews had no right to such a declaration [from him, representing a promise or commitment] because they had no presence in Palestine .” (pp. 9-10)

“After the First World War… there was a terrible holocaust [sic] of the Palestinian people, because for some time Britain had been plotting to establish a Zionist entity for the Jews on Palestinian land… the [filaments of the spider] web of the conspiracy stretched from Britain to Palestine. I stress this point so that the generations to come may be aware of the extent of the plot against Palestine, and so that the generations after them do not forget . The conspiracy was too strong for the Palestinian people to deal with properly.” (pp. 10-11)

“In 1948 a strange, foreign entity was established in Palestine and given the name ‘The State of Israel .' It occupied a considerable portion of Palestinian lands including West Jerusalem, the lands of the Negev and Beersheba… In 1967 the June war broke out… and what was left of Mandatory Palestine fell into Israeli hands… The Israeli occupation government began its arbitrary, aggressive actions against Jerusalem… because it seemed to the Jews that al-Aqsa mosque had been built on the ruins of Solomon's fictitious temple.” (pp. 11-12) s

The Jewish Zionist settlement in Palestine ⁸

⁸ In Palestinian political terminology (including textbooks used in the PA-administered territories) the word settlement ( al-istitan ) refers not only to Jewish settlement in the PA-administered territories but to all of the territory occupied by the State of Israel , as part of the delegitimization of the of Zionist settlement in the land (later the State) of Israel since its beginning.

Following are excerpts dealing with the Jewish Zionist settlement in Palestine:

“It is perfectly clear that the [Zionist] Jews focused on [carrying out] their plots in two important areas: men and land [also the title of the booklet]. As far as men were concerned, they initiated a mass migration to Palestine from various countries so that their numbers would slowly increase and become greater than the number of the original Palestinian [inhabitants]… When it came to land, they plotted to take over the lands of Palestine through the British Mandatory government… and thus established settlements for themselves – namely “colonies” [ musta'marat , quotation marks in the original text].” (p. 14)

“The most prominent reasons for establishing settlements – or “colonies” -- in Palestine were to encircle Palestine from all sides… [and] to sever it from [the Hashemite emirate, later the kingdom of] Jordan… and by means of a girdle of settlements, from the Arabs of 1948 [the Israeli Arabs]… and to sever the Gaza Strip from the rest of the Palestinian territories, to separate the Palestinian cities from one another.” (p. 22)

The conclusion includes a quotation from the tradition [ hadith , the accepted sayings of the prophet Mohammed] very popular in Islamic and Palestinian discourse, which hints at the potential existence of an elite group of Palestinians from Jerusalem and its surroundings. The group represents the Muslims (especially the Palestinians) who are temporarily in distress but they are ready to set out on a jihad to liberate Jerusalem and Palestine (p. 27):

“There is still a group [chosen from among] our nation which behaves in accordance with the truth [i.e., Islam]; its members manage to subdue their enemies and they are not harmed by those who disagree with them or by any trouble visited upon them -- until the word of Allah [Judgment Day] reaches them when they are in that condition [i.e., behaving in accordance with the true precepts of Islam]; when it is then said: Oh, prophet of Allah [Muhammad], where are they [the members of the chosen group]? And [the prophet] then answers: [they are in action and can be found] in and around Jerusalem .”