Two interconnected scenes captured the world's attention in the media during the second week of January, revealing the extent of ignorance and contradiction in the global perception—particularly the Western one—of the Palestinian people, especially our people in the Gaza Strip who have fought a fierce battle for 470 days, characterized (in short) as “genocide” by the "Israeli" forces. 

The occupation made destruction for the sake of destruction and killing for the sake of killing the hallmark of its war in Gaza; therefore, it was ultimately unavoidable to halt its futile war after it was proven ineffective in achieving the illogical goals it had declared over the course of 15 months. 

The first scene unfolded when Al Jazeera aired an investigative program titled “What Was Hidden Was Greater” presented by journalist Tamer Al-Masahal, which focused on the “Al-Aqsa Flood” operation on October 7, 2023. Al-Masahal hosted several analysts and speakers, some of whom were Western academics who attempted to analyze the reasons and motivations behind the “Al-Aqsa Flood” operation. Notably, one element was completely absent from their analyses regarding these reasons and justifications. 

It was clear that the Palestinian speakers in the documentary, representing the resistance, placed significant emphasis during their discussions in the program on what was happening at the Al-Aqsa Mosque shortly before the “Al-Aqsa Flood” operation, considering it a direct cause and motivator for that operation. Several of them asserted that the operation was largely a response to what the occupation was doing in Jerusalem and at the Al-Aqsa Mosque, which aimed to completely eliminate their cause and gain control over the mosque. 

We must not forget here that Mohammed Deif, the overall commander of the “Qassam Brigades” and the actual leader of the “Al-Aqsa Flood” operation, articulated three objectives for this operation in his first speech on October 7: the first was to stop the “Israeli” assaults on Jerusalem and the Al-Aqsa Mosque; the second was to free Palestinian prisoners from the occupation's prisons; and the third was to lift the siege on the Gaza Strip. 

The Al-Aqsa Mosque has been a powerful presence in the discourse of the Palestinian resistance since the onset of the operation and throughout the war. The mosque did not fade from events for a single day, even in many of the videos published in the media featuring the Palestinian people in Gaza during displacement or families mourning their martyrs, where Jerusalem and the Al-Aqsa Mosque were strongly present in the rhetoric of the Palestinian people in Gaza through expressions like "For the sake of Jerusalem" and "For the sake of Al-Aqsa" among others. 

The question that came to my mind was: Why do Westerners fail to grasp the centrality of Al-Aqsa Mosque in this operation? 

While watching the documentary, it was evident that the Western analysts completely excluded any connection between what was occurring in Jerusalem and the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Palestinian resistance's decision to carry out the “Al-Aqsa Flood” operation. All of them, without exception, ignored the resistance's discourse on this subject, as if they saw this discourse merely as “media consumption” or an appeal to the religious sentiments of the Arab and Muslim audiences, devoid of any real motivation for the events taking place. 

This indicates that Western circles have yet to learn the lesson of the “Sword of Jerusalem” battle in 2021, during which the Palestinian resistance launched missiles at Jerusalem on the first day in response to what the extremist “Israeli” right was doing that day at the Al-Aqsa Mosque and at the Damascus Gate in Jerusalem. The same applies to the “Jerusalem Uprising” in 2015 and other confrontations; you cannot comprehend the mentality of the Palestinian people's resistance without this fundamental factor. 

As for the second scene, it was the return of hundreds of thousands of displaced Gazans from the south of the Gaza Strip to the north, despite their prior knowledge that the north was almost entirely devastated. This perplexed the minds of journalists in the occupying state and in some Western media circles alike, leading to the most frequently repeated phrase in commenting on this legendary scene: “What are they returning to?! ”

Perhaps the new American president, Donald Trump, was the most expressive of the mindset of these Western circles when he suggested relocating the residents of the Gaza Strip to Jordan and Egypt in order to "clean the land" in Gaza. This is the strangest way to express ethnic cleansing I have ever heard in my life!

The “Israelis” and Westerners, it appears, do not understand the meaning of land and the connection to it for Palestinians, simply because they—the “Israelis” in particular—are not the owners of the land. Therefore, we see the contradiction between two scenes: an “Israeli” settler clearly announcing his refusal to return to the settlements in the Gaza envelope in the south and the northern settlements adjacent to southern Lebanon unless complete security is provided for him in these areas by the state, knowing that the “Israeli” government had, until recently, been hosting settlers from the north and the south in luxurious hotels near the Dead Sea, waiting for the defeat of the Palestinian resistance in Gaza and the defeat of Lebanon on the northern front.

This is contrasted with the scene of the Gazan who returns despite everything, even if it is to nothing. The displaced Gazans have fled several times to the south and even within southern Gaza, escaping the bombs of the occupation which pursued them everywhere, despite the occupation’s assurances that these were “safe areas.” Many Gazans could not even find a tent to shelter themselves and their families, not to mention the heartbreaking sights of rain and seawater flooding into the tents of the displaced in the southern part of the Strip.

Then comes this remarkable Gazan citizen who surprises the world by walking back to northern Gaza in a scene that astonished the world! We have seen on television various interviews with these returnees, where they confirm that they know their homes are destroyed and that they are returning to the dust, yet at the same time, many of them express regret for their displacement, insisting that they will not leave their homes again, no matter the consequences.

These two scenes have perplexed the Western world—and the occupying state, of course, since most of its inhabitants are originally European Westerners. The Western world has failed to grasp the psychological roots of these phenomena, unable to understand the nature of this people and this nation and their connection to the land, just as they are tied to sacred sites.

Therefore, it is not surprising that these people think that the Palestinian people are not normal, as what is considered normal in their view is the materialistic perspective that Western civilization is accustomed to. Unfortunately, there is little room among many of them for concepts of homeland, land, and sacred sites. So how can they understand us?

I remember that during my studies in Europe, I engaged in a discussion with a European woman who had somewhat sympathetic views towards the “Israeli” occupation in Palestine. The source of her discussion was her astonishment at my insistence on using the word “Palestine” in our conversation. She asked me: Why do you insist on calling that land “Palestine” while it is now “Israel”? Why not acknowledge the reality?

I replied: Let’s suppose, madam, that an occupier came to your city, from which you and your family have descended since ancient times, and took it from you by force, then decided in a moment to change its name and call it “Banana” or “Apple.” Would you accept that?

She surprised me with her answer: Yes, I would simply accept the reality!

So, the only thing I could say was: “Madam, if you are a dead nation, we are a living nation.”

And I do not know to this day whether she understood my words or not.