No amount of Zionist propaganda can eradicate the import of this UN resolution. The key body of the UN, the Security Council, has ignored years of Israeli atrocities and brazen violations of international covenants and international law. Now it comes out with the statement in its resolution, still without naming Israel because of US qualms, that it "Condemns acts of violence, especially the excessive use of force against Palestinians, resulting in injury and loss of human life".

It makes it very clear that the Israelis are to blame stating it "Deplores the provocation carried out at Al-Haram Al-Sharif in Jerusalem on 28 September 2000, and the subsequent violence there and at other Holy Places, as well as in other areas throughout the territories occupied by Israel since 1967, resulting in over 80 Palestinian deaths and many other casualties." We can see from this and from other events as they unfold, that something is changing in the international scene. The Israelis are running out of collaborators.

On this occasion even the USA, the main backer of the Israeli entity, has had to refrain from using its veto. Not even the most compliant Arab ruler could, for long, survive continued close association with a USA which endorses the massacre of civilians and the attempted eradication of the Islamic and Christian presence from Jerusalem the Holy.

Within the USA itself there are voices raised for justice, which are more and more openly opposing the America-Israel Public Affairs Committees which have, through their strategic use of funding to candidates and highly sophisticated political lobbying, captured US foreign policy. The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs (www.washington-report.org) frequently runs analyses of how these AIPACs distort US foreign policy to the detriment of that country. The US intransigence over the mass-murdering sanctions against Iraq are also largely due to the AIPAC influence over US political life.

The repercussions of Sharon of Shatila’s provocation against Al-Aqsa and the subsequent Israeli support for this insult to the Muslim world will not become clear for some time. What is certain is that the honour of the Muslims is under scrutiny. How seriously do we in reality, take the threats to the third holiest mosque in Islam? This latest provocation could well be a test, in a series of attacks and threats, to see how serious we are. At the first Friday Prayer in Ramadan 1998, before 100,000 worshippers, Sheikh Hamed al-Beitawi, speaking of the threats and terrorist attacks upon Al-Aqsa, said of the Israeli authorities: "I send them a warning message: The destruction of Al-Aqsa will mean the destruction of Israel." An honourable sentiment, but how real?

If we just get emotional, scream aloud in public places and then go home and watch "Neighbours", with no follow up, no lobbying of the politicians, no education of the Australian public, a pattern repeated all over the Muslim world, one morning soon we will wake up to a pile of rubble in Al-Haram As-Sharif.

This article appeared in the Palestine Times Issue 73, July 1997. "Several messianic Jewish groups have been performing specific rituals in advance of the "re-establishment of the Third Holy Temple" at the site of Al Masjidul Aqsa in Jerusalem, Israeli sources revealed on Friday. According to the Hebrew daily, Ha'aretz, the leader of one of these groups, Yehuda Itzioni, has been actively organizing "exercises and rehearsals" on slaughtering sacrificial animals in preparation for the "rebuilding of the Holy Temple following the erasure of the Al Aqsa Mosque." In 1980, Itzioni was involved in a conspiracy to blow up the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa Mosque along with several other terrorists belonging to what was then labelled "the Jewish Underground." However, all the terrorists were given presidential pardon and subsequently released, only to resume their diabolical plans against Islam's third holiest shrine. Ha'aretz pointed out that Itzioni and hundreds of his followers slaughtered a ram recently at the Jewish settlement of Karmi Tsur in the Hebron area. The ram was reportedly cut up into several pieces following an ancient tradition attributed to custodians of the Temple's altar when making their sacrificial offerings to the deity. The rituals were filmed by the Canadian Television station (CTV) as part of a documentary on "Extremist Jewish Religious Trends in Israel."

According to "Ha'aretz", the rituals lasted for three hours, without the slightest interference by the police. The film included an interview with Itzioni during which he told CTV correspondent in Israel Diana Lewis that "the Aqsa Mosque is the wrong building in the right place." Itzioni added that "my followers are growing in number on a daily basis, and that a large movement is now being crystallized around the idea of the Jewish right in rebuilding the Temple."

A member of the group, who introduced herself as Banina, said she believed that an imminent war would take place after which the al Aqsa Mosque would be erased and the temple rebuilt. Indeed, most of the Jewish groups associated with Religious Zionism believe that an internecine war on an unheard-of scale (e.g. one that would leave tens of millions of casualties) is a necessary precondition for the coming of the Messiah who would save the Jewish people and bring about global Jewish domination or Redemption.

In 1980, a Jewish Underground member who was implicated in planting bombs in the vicinity of Al Masjidul Aqsa told Israeli interrogators that he thought the would-be-demolition of the Mosque would have infuriated hundreds of millions of Muslims the world over. The terrorist added that he reasoned Muslim rage would lead to a war which in all likelihood would escalate into a world war in which the scale of casualties would be formidable enough to promote the process of Redemption of the Jews and of the Land of Israel. As all Muslims would by then disappear, everything would be ready for the coming of the Messiah.

Some of the less rational Christian cults saw the coming of the year 2000 as the end of time. Some thought that they could provide a helping hand to God and set up the crisis which would permit the second coming of Jesus (p).

Khalil Marwan in Amman wrote an article in Muslimedia International on 6 Feb 1999 entitled "Al-Aqsa threatened by Jewish-Christian cultists." He wrote; "An unholy alliance of Christian and Jewish fundamentalist terrorists may bloody the streets of Al-Quds (Jerusalem) far more than anything the Islamic strugglers in Palestine could ever do in their quest to liberate Palestine. Yet for the Zionist-controlled media in the west, such developments are of marginal interest, if at all.

The world got some inkling of what may be in store when 14 members of a US-based cult, Concerned Christians of Denver, Colorado, were arrested in Israel on January 4 and deported to the US. The cult members had arrived in Occupied Palestine last September and planned to carry out a campaign of bombings as well as destruction of the Masjid al-Aqsa in what they believe would hasten the 'second coming of Jesus,' upon whom be peace. The cult members further believe that the world would come to an end in 1999 but not before there is a bloody conflict in Jerusalem in which thousands perish."

Grace Halsell, apparently a Christian, wrote in the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs March 2000 an article on the same topic entitled "Anxious for Armageddon: Militant Coalition of Christian Fundamentalist and Jewish Orthodox Cults Plots Destruction of Al Aqsa Mosque.

She wrote: "For three decades, Gershon Solomon, a militant Israeli who heads an organization dedicated to the destruction of Jerusalem’s most holy Islamic shrine, has led Zionist zealots in armed assaults on the Muslim grounds of Haram al-Sharif, or Noble Sanctuary, that encloses both the Dome of the Rock and Al Aqsa mosque."

Ms Halsell did not have a particularly detailed understanding of the situation for as she writes; "I first heard about the Israeli militants’ intent to destroy the mosque in 1979 when I went to Jerusalem. I talked at length with Bobby Brown, a third-generation American from Brooklyn who, flying to the Jewish state and instantly becoming a new citizen, confiscated land from Palestinians to help build an illegal Jewish settlement. "The mosque," he told me, "has to go. It is a blot on our land."

Militant Jews such as Brown and Solomon want a Jerusalem that is "pure" Jewish—without evidence of inhabitants of the other monotheistic faiths and their shrines. Surprisingly, millions of U.S. evangelical Christians endorse and financially support this Jewish plan."

Although united in their immediate goal of destroying the mosque, the Israeli militants and Christian zealots have different long-range agendas. The Christian extremists do not have a scientific or rational understanding of history. They follow a newly invented doctrine of "dispensations".

Halsell writes: "A growing number of Christians embrace the idea that in all history, Israel is on center stage. They say God has planned epochs of time ("dispensations") such as an "in-gathering" of Jews in the ancient land of Canaan. One epoch, they say, includes the present time when Jews are obligated to build a Jewish temple and re-institute animal sacrifice. Such epochs or "dispensations" are necessary, they say, before Christ can return. Ironically, while Christian dispensationalists place Israel as the most important nation in all the world, they do not respect or even like Jews—as Jews. Yet, because they believe Christ can only land in a "safe" area near Jerusalem, they make a cult of the land. They thus give total, unquestioned support to Israel.

Writing of how Christian Zionists welcome some of the most extreme of the Jewish religious terrorist groups into their pulpits in the USA, she states that these people "know its (Al Aqsa’s) destruction might well trigger wars culminating in Armageddon, but they welcome this. They push Armageddon along, saying they, as "Born-Again Christians," will be spared any suffering, because they will be "Raptured," wafted up to heaven to view the slaughter below. "I’m not worried," Lynchburg, Virginia televangelist Jerry Falwell shouts. "You know why? I ain’t gonna be here!"

This dispensationalist doctrine, less than 200 years old, pervades Assemblies of God, Pentecostal and other charismatic churches, as well as the 16 million-member Southern Baptist Convention and countless so-called Bible churches and mega-churches. It’s estimated that at least one out of every 10 Americans is a devotee of this cult."

It is important to understand that such notions are not well regarded by the mainstream Christians. Muslims should not make the mistake of assuming that all Christians are tarred with the same brush. There are brave European and American Christians, not just Palestinian Christians, fighting for the rights of the Palestinian people and suffering for their participation in that struggle. It is however necessary to be aware that Zionism is not to be identified with Judaism as such. There are Jewish anti-Zionists and Christian Zionists.

Here in Australia we have now had direct experience of the nature of our media. It follows a political line which appears to be tightly managed, on all matters dealing with the Middle East, especially Israel. The claims that we have a free press are starting to ring hollow in many Muslim ears. Even the attempt to justify the murder of the twelve year old boy Muhammad Al-Dura was published extensively. The contrast between the coverage of the militia atrocities in East Timor and the Israeli atrocities against the Palestinians could not be greater.

The Australian Muslim community is reaping what it has sown. Ethnic and sectarian rivalry have so debilitated the local Muslim communities, for it is not one Muslim community, that our voice is almost absent from public affairs. We are not heard because we do not speak out, and we do not speak out because we do not know or we do not know how to speak out. Emotional outbursts in demonstrations are no substitute for the long and difficult task of public education and political lobbying.

Since 1976 we have had a national organisation but it has never been able to become the real voice of Islam in this nation. It too is debilitated by rivalry from jealous would-be national figures and hostile groups which tolerate only their own viewpoint. The structure of the organisation is also partly to blame for it has become the playground of single Islamic society Councils under its present leadership, ignoring the 90% of the Muslim community in NSW and Victoria. That it has become marginalised from Muslim community affairs and national life is nowhere demonstrated more clearly than during this crisis. It appears to be sitting quietly counting its assets.

There is a real need for an organisation which brings together those who can offer their expertise to the Muslim community. We desperately need organizations like the Council for American Islamic Relations (CAIR) or even the Canadian Islamic Congress which can articulate and lobby for an Islamic point of view in national affairs. At the moment we are leaving the political and public education field completely open to the Zionist organizations. Although we might be armed with truth, truth hidden under a bushel, like a light, is not much use.

The case of Hebron receiving funding from Gutnick is a case in point. 22 February 1997 The Melbourne Age carried a report by Ross Dunn and Sandra McKay on a member of the Melbourne Jewish community’s role in Hebron. The article was headed Gutnick accused of spreading hatred. It reported that former Israeli Prime Minister, Mr Shimon Peres, accused the Melbourne mining magnate Mr Joseph Gutnick of spreading evil and hatred by privately funding Jewish settlements in the West Bank.

February 21, 1997 (JTA): A PLO spokesman on the TV program "Sunday." said the Australian government must "exert pressure on [Gutnick] to stop such irresponsible funding and projects."

Prime Minister of Australia John Howard responded, "We have a very close relationship with Israel and I am very proud of my own personal association with Israel's cause over a very long period of time."

Is Mr Howard therefore a stronger supporter of Israel than Shimon Peres?

While this sort of political ignorance can be sprouted with no sense of the stupidity it reveals, no Muslim in this country should be able to sleep well at night.