Opinion: Calling on Abrahamic faith leaders and the Biden administration

Shams Ghoneim
Special to the Press-Citizen

The horrific fighting between Israel and Hamas ruling the overpopulated Gaza was triggered by weeks of escalating clashes between Palestinians and Israeli police. During the final days of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, Israeli forces raided the holy hilltop compound of the Al-Aqsa Mosque in East Jerusalem, injuring 200 worshippers. The compound, revered by both Muslims and Jews, lies in the Old City of Jerusalem, which has been designated a world heritage site by the United Nations' cultural agency, UNESCO.

The site is important to the three Abrahamic religions. Israel restricts Palestinian entry into the compound through several methods, including the separation wall, built in the early 2000s, restricting entry of Palestinians from the West Bank into Israel.

Though the mosque itself is significant to Muslims, Palestinian Christians have also protested against Israeli encroachment on the compound, joining Muslims in prayer outside Lion’s Gate on Fridays. Muslims call Al-Aqsa Mosque the "Noble Sanctuary"; it is the third holiest site in Islam. Jews know the site as the "Temple Mount" where Creation began and the rock called the "Foundation Stone," the site where the Biblical Jewish temples once stood. 

Palestinian families in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem have been facing systemic forced displacement to build more Jewish settlements. It is one part of a systematic effort by extremist settler groups to change the demography of East Jerusalem with more than 90% of eviction orders going to Palestinians. Hamas warned Israel to stop the evictions and withdraw from the Al-Aqsa compound.

With no changes on the ground, Hamas on May 10 began its rocket assault on Israel,  triggering retaliatory air strikes in return. On May 15, Israeli air strikes destroyed a Gaza international multimedia building housing the Associated Press, other media outlets, and residential apartments.

An air raid on a refugee camp killed at least 10 persons from one extended family with only one infant surviving the horror. By May 17, 197 Palestinians in Gaza were killed including 58 children, 34 women, and more than 1,000 wounded. In Israel, 11 people have been killed including one child and many wounded. 

The worst communal violence in years is now spreading inside Israel. There is no long-term military solution: all international and UN Security Council efforts to stop the violence have failed.

American religious peace organizations called on the Biden administration and all parties to immediately stop the horror and seek a diplomatic solution. American Churches for Middle East Peace (CMEP) urged the Biden Administration to "publicly declare that Israeli settlements are illegal, oppose all settlement activity, intervene with the Israeli Government ensuring immediate cancellation of all pending eviction orders, support Congresswoman Betty McCollum’s (MN) legislation, HR 2590, calling for greater transparency on how U.S. security assistance to Israel is used, and insuring U.S. taxpayer funds are not used to abuse Palestinians, annex their land, or demolish Palestinian homes."

J Street, a nonprofit advocacy group, petitioned the Biden administration to make the Israeli-Palestinian conflict a priority and see to it that Israel and Hamas de-escalate and agree to a ceasefire. They urged the administration to publicly state that Israeli efforts to evict and displace Palestinian families in East Jerusalem and the West Bank are unacceptable, as is the use of excessive police force against peaceful protesters. J Street urged the administration to work toward sustained diplomatic efforts supporting the rights of Israelis and Palestinians to peace, security, and self-determination and to reverse all steps taken by the former administration that deepened the conflict and damaged the United States' ability to be a mediator and arbiter.

The organization also believes that permanent occupation of Palestinian territory, governing millions without full rights, is contrary to peaceful co-existence, and that the potential of two capitols for two states in Jerusalem must be maintained. J Street also argues that U.S.-sourced military equipment should not be used in connection with evictions, demolitions, and settlement expansion, as it facilitates ongoing creeping annexation of Palestinian territory and cements a permanent undemocratic and unacceptable one-state reality.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., in a recent New York Times opinion piece stated that the U.S. needs a new approach on the Middle East and that Arab evictions are one part of a broader system of political and economic oppression. 

Thankfully for now, the two warring sides are in a fragile ceasefire. Israelis and Palestinians have been fighting and dying for nearly a century over the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean. The U.S. government must go beyond easily uttered verbal commitments to peace, human rights and a two-state solution. We stand with these brave and just religious and political leaders, call on our own communal leadership, on Abrahamic faith leaders, and all peace-loving Americans to press the Biden administration and Congress to chart a course ensuring the rights and safety of both Israelis and Palestinians.

Shams Ghoneim is a retiree from the University of Iowa and a member of the Iowa City Press-Citizen's editorial board.