GAZA

The whole area from south Lubnan in the north to Sinai Peninsula in the south, from Jordan river in the east to the Mediterranean sea in the west belongs to Muslims. The land is known as Palestin or “Daulah Filastiniyyah”.

The key of Jerusalem, or Baitul Maqdis, or Illyaa’ was given to Caliph Umar Al-Khattab by the Patriach of Jerusalem. Among these two, there was an agreement, known as “The Treaty of Umar”. An extract of the agreement:-

“In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Beneficent.

This is what the slave of Allah, Umar b.Al-Khattab, the Amir of the believers, has offered the people of Illyaa’[1] of security granting them Amaan (protection) for their selves, their money, their churches, their children, their lowly and their innocent, and the remainder of their people.

Their churces are not to be taken, nor are they to be destroyed, nor are they to be degraded or belittled, neither are their crosses or their money, and they are not to be forced to change their religion, nor is any one of them to be harmed.

No Jews are to live with them in Illyaa’...”

And so, the Christians and Muslims lived together peacefully. But that is not the end.

When the Crusaders attacked and conquered Baitul Maqdis about 477 years later (492H), they massacred more than 70,000 Muslims in Masjidil Aqsa. They killed Islamic scholars, imams and students. The Muslims then lived under the oppressions of the crusaders. 91 years later, Sultan Salahuddin Al-Ayyubi liberated Jerusalem from the Crusaders.

That was a very brief intro on Muslims’ Sacred Land, Palestine.

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Gaza, or Ghazzah, is the second largest city in Palestine after Jerusalem. Most of the Gaza people stays in refugee camps such as Khan Yunus Camp, Dir Balah Camp, Rafah Camp and Jabalia Camp, just to name a few.

There are 7 ways out of Gaza strip but 6 of these are controlled by the Zionist. The one not controlled by the Zionist is Rafah which is controlled by Egypt since 2005. Although Rafah crossing is controlled by Egypt, a country with the same religion and race as Palestine, Egypt had never make it easier for the Palestinians. Egypt is very worried that Palestinians might use the Rafah crossing as a way for them to get weapons and help.

With all the gates out of Gaza strip controlled, Gaza strip had became a jail for its own people.

Gaza was occupied by the British until she was given to Egypt in 1948. In 1956 however, British launched an attack on Egypt, seizing Gaza from Egypt. But after 5 months, the Israeli army withdraw from Gaza and Egypt continued to rule Gaza starting March 1957.

On June 7^th 1967, Israel occupied the whole Gaza peninsula, Sinai Peninsula and the West Bank. 3 days later, Israel succeeded in seizing Golan Heights from Syria.

6 years later, in 1973 Husni Mubarak led Egypt Air Force with Syria to attack Israel to liberate Sinai Peninsul from Israeli occupation. They succeeded gloriously, Israel was chased out until Taba border.

But Gaza remained occupied by Israel. And Egyptian President, Anwar Sadat began to be “friendly” with Israel. On 19^th November 1977, Sadat became the first Arab leader to make an official visit to Israel and signed Camp David Accord (17^th Sept 1978). Egyptian however, cannot accept this fact that their leader betrayed fellow Muslims thus, Sadat was assassinated by his own army officer in 1981.

Fighters of Gaza, Hamas and Jihad Islami tried their best to chase Israelis out of Gaza. They launched intifadha(s), one of them known as amaliyyah istisyhadiyyah where they invented their own explosives. But, the only way to explode it is by bringing the explosives themselves to the middle of the enemy’s group. This was the “suicide bombers” described by the western world. However, most of Muslim scholars not only said the act was not a suicide, but went further by declaring them martyrs (asy-Syahid).

Israel was shocked by these brave attacks by Gaza fighters who dreamt of martyrdom more than the Israelis dreamt of luxurious lives.

But the fighters knew they can’t depend on amaliyyah istisyhadiyyah for long, as that will mean they will have to sacrifice more of their youths. Thus, they invented their own rockets, known as Al-Qassam Rocket. Unable to stand with the amaliyyah istisyhadiyyah and Al-Qassam Rockets attacks, the Israelis withdraw from Gaza in September 2005.

The whole world savoured the moment of that freedom. Gaza is at last independent. Gaza crossing is at last open for the Muslim world to channel their aids to the people in Gaza. People of Gaza can also cross to Egypt to get their daily needs. But all these remained a dream. Egypt closed the Rafah crossing with the excuse that Gaza is still under the rule of Israel. The whole world criticised Egypt but Husni Mubarak; the man who was the hero of people of Egypt; the man who led Egypt Air Force against Israel thus liberated Sinai Peninsula did not even moved an inch from his decision to close the Rafah crossing.

As time passes, Palestinians lose their trust on Fatah leaders as Fatah did not show any signs that they will liberate Palestine from Israel. Thus, in the 2006 election, Fatah lost to Hamas, with a Hamas leader; Said Siyam got the highest vote, 75 880 votes. With this, he was entrusted with the post of Minister of Home Affairs.

As Hamas is the “smaller brother” of another movement in Egypt, “Ikhwanul Muslimin” which means “Brotherhood of Muslims”, Mubarak was afraid that Ikhwanul Muslimin might win in the Egypt election. Thus, Mubarak placed a heavier oppression towards Gaza. He threatened to close Rafah crossing forever unless Hamas returned the ruling power to Fatah and accept an international observer.

On 25^th December 2008, the Foreign Minister of the Haram State of Israel; Tzipi Livni paid a visit to Mubarak in Cairo, to inform him of the condition in Gaza that is posing greater threat to Israel. 2 days later, 60 US-made Fighting Falcons F16, attacked Gaza strip, killing more than 200 Muslims in just one day. The attack did not stop there, it went further for 3 weeks, with the number of deaths amounting to 1350, mostly civilians.

Reference: Aris Hazlan Ismail, Gaza Menangis, Jundi Resources, Kuala Lumpur (2009)