Over and over again our media present scenes of devastation in Israel and Gaza that are almost stripped of context. Behind most of the human actions that cause these is the world of thought and motivation. National identities and aspirations have become bitterly opposed.
Free of Jews
How is it, we might ask, that there are no Jews in Gaza, whilst in the 9.5 million population of Israel in 2021, 21% were Arabs, having the same legal rights as Israelis. Of the almost two million inhabitants of Gaza, none are Jewish: it has been completely ‘Judenrein’ since the eviction of thousands of Israeli citizens and the total withdrawal of IDF soldiers under Ariel Sharon’s initiative for peace in 2005.
The scary thing about the oft-repeated slogan chanted in the streets of liberal Britain, “From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free” (i.e. from the River Jordan to the Mediterranean Sea) is that it does not mean ‘free’ in our democratic sense, but in the ‘Jew-free’ sense. The allegedly moderate Mahmoud Abbas, in a press conference in Cairo in 2013 declared, "In a final resolution, we would not see the presence of a single Israeli - civilian or soldier - on our lands.”1 His language is chillingly reminiscent of Hitler’s ‘final solution’.
Gaza has been completely ‘Judenrein’ since the eviction of thousands of Israeli citizens and the total withdrawal of IDF soldiers under Ariel Sharon’s initiative for peace in 2005.
Significantly, 
Haj Amin al-Husseini meeting with Adolf Hitler,1941during the second World War, the Muslim leader, Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Hajj Amin al-Husseini, having fled from Jerusalem to Berlin, sought Nazi support for an independent Arab nation that would eliminate the proposed Jewish homeland in the British Mandate of Palestine. At meetings with Hitler and Himmler, he discussed the removal of the Jewish element residing in the Arab sphere and, in radio broadcasts from Berlin, called for the destruction of Jewish settlements in Palestine.2 This was an ominous foreshadowing of the militant Islamism we see today.
Al-Aqsa misnomer
The logos of current militant Palestinian 
parties are indicative, using the Islamic Dome of the Rock as a prominent motif.
Only relatively recently has ‘Al-Aqsa’ become a term of incitement to violent action against the Jewish population of Israel. It has often been used to refer to the Dome of the Rock and as such is a complete misnomer. Worse, there are claims that the term applies to the entire compound, giving the whole area ‘mosque’ status!
Early maps of the Temple Mount area, such as the Wilson & Warren (1884) and Baedeker (1907) editions are consistent with the 1924 guide issued by the Supreme Moslem Council3 in which ‘Al-Aqsa’ only applies to the mosque at the southern end of the ‘Haram al Sharif’ compound. The maps accurately use Arabic terms. The 1924 guide makes it quite clear that the Dome of the Rock is not a mosque, and the only restrictions on visitor behaviour are to abstain from smoking and from bringing their dogs.
the Dome of the Rock is not a mosque, and the only restrictions on visitor behaviour are to abstain from smoking and from bringing their dogs.
In marked contrast to this, the Chairman of the Palestinian National Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, said in a speech, segments of which were aired on Palestinian Authority TV and posted on his website, "The Al-Aqsa is ours... and they have no right to defile it with their filthy feet. We will not allow them to, and we will do everything in our power to protect Jerusalem... We bless every drop of blood that has been spilled for Jerusalem, which is clean and pure blood, blood spilled for Allah, Allah willing. Every martyr will reach Paradise, and everyone wounded will be rewarded by Allah."4 This is blatant antisemitic Islamism in the political arena.
Flag flying
Although, following the Six-day War in 1967, a prohibition was established against displaying flags on the Mount, in practice, the only flags not displayed there are Israeli ones. Flags of the Palestinian Authority, PLO, Hamas, and Hizb al-Tahrir (an international pan-Islamic-fundamentalist political organization) can often be seen there, sometimes even Islamic State flags, and the Israeli police take no action (thus avoiding consequent rioting).
Yet, many years ago, even a small Israeli flag on the desk of an officer at the Temple Mount police station was removed following Muslim protest. On the final day of Ramadan 2021, amid chants. “We are all Hamas”, multiple Hamas flags were prominent. After riots on the mount in April 2022, a PLO flag was even flown for days on the Dome of the Rock itself.5
This is blatant antisemitic Islamism in the political arena.
On the religious front, Twitter posts translated by the Investigative Project on Terrorism include, "The International Union of Muslim Scholars requests the Ulema [Muslim community] and preachers of the Muslims to begin the campaign 'Rescue al Aqsa' and proclaim a state of general alarm among the sons of the Muslims in the world to defend al Aqsa mosque.”6 No doubt this kind of incitement has influenced the behaviour of Muslims in the extensive protests seen in our streets recently.
‘Islamic land’
Back in 2015, in a ‘Friday Prayers’ sermon in Gaza, Sheikh Muhammad Sallah ranted, “Brothers, we must constantly remind the world, and everyone who has forgotten… The world must hear, via these cameras and via the Internet: This is Gaza! This is the place of trenches and guns! The soldiers of the Prophet Muhammad are here. Brothers, this is why we recall today what Allah did to the Jews. We recall what He did to them in Khaybar…. Stab the myths of the Talmud in their minds! … next time, attack in a group of three, four, or five. Attack them in groups. Cut them into body parts. ”7
In the same month, Sheikh Iyad Abu Funun, a Gaza Imam, broadcast on Al-Aqsa TV, …”we will not leave a single Jew on our Islamic land – no child, no adult, no settler, no soldier…… No Jew will remain on the land of Islam and the Muslims”.8
At this time Israel was experiencing the “Knife Intifada”, with over 70 Jews stabbed in the first 20 days of October, deliberately incited via Facebook.
There can be no doubt whatsoever that the underlying cause of the Gaza tragedy is militant Islamism.
Here 
'Rain your knives upon them'the caption reads, “Rain your knives upon them”; the image of an Orthodox Jew superimposed on the meat cleaver recalls the horrendous Har Nof Synagogue massacre of November 2014. The golden dome of the misnamed ‘Al-Aqsa is once again prominent.9 In a video, made in Khan Yunis in Gaza in 2015, posted on the Facebook page of the ‘Jerusalem Intifada’s Young People’s Coalition’, an interviewer asks a very young child: “What do you tell the youth in the West Bank?”10 The attached image provides an extract from 
her chilling answer:
Militant Islam the root
According to an Islamic website regarding ‘al-Quds’ (Jerusalem), “We Muslims have more right to it than them, because land does not belong to the people who lived there first, but to those who establish the laws of Allah therein. Allah created the land, and He created people to worship Allah in the land and to establish therein the religion, laws and rulings of Allah”.11
There can be no doubt whatsoever that the underlying cause of the Gaza tragedy is militant Islamism. The sheer bloodthirsty viciousness of the mindset of, and overt incitement by its spokespersons and its effects on the wider Arab population is utterly staggering. It is truly remarkable and reprehensible that our sensation-seeking media fail to report this context.
Endnotes
1. Abbas wants 'not a single Israeli' in future Palestinian state | Reuters 30 Jul 2013; re-accessed 30 Oct 2023. Hajj Amin al-Husayni: Wartime Propagandist | Holocaust Encyclopedia (ushmm.org); also Full official record: What the mufti said to Hitler | The Times of Israel 21 Oct 2015; accessed 27 Oct 2023. See also https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2017-03-30/ty-article-magazine/himmler-wished-mufti-success-in-fight-against-jewish-invaders/ accessed 30 Oct 2023
2. Supreme Moslem Council (1924), A Brief Guide to Al-Haram Al-Sharif Jerusalem, Moslem Orphanage Printing Press, Jerusalem
3. Abbas: "Filthy" Jews' Feet Not Allowed on Temple Mount :: The Investigative Project on Terrorism, 17 Sept 2015; accessed 23 Oct 2023
4. 'We are all Hamas': Palestinians wave terror group's flag on Temple Mount | The Times of Israel 07 May 2021; accessed 30 Oct 2023
5. See ref.4
6. Rafah Cleric Brandishes Knife in Friday Sermon, Calls upon Palestinians to Stab Jews | MEMRI 08 Oct 2015; re-accessed 27 Oct 2023
7. Hamas Cleric and TV Host Abu Funun: We Will Not Leave a Single Jew, Dead or Alive, on Our Land | MEMRI 13 Oct 2015; re-accessed 28 Oct 2023 (The Jews of Khaybar were forcibly expelled in their entirety in the 7th century).
8. Photos: Social media and Palestinian incitement during terror wave - The Jerusalem Post (jpost.com) 16 Oct 2015 also: Hamas Cleric and TV Host Abu Funun: We Will Not Leave a Single Jew, Dead or Alive, on Our Land | MEMRI 13 Oct 2015; both re-accessed 28 Oct 2023
9. https://www.facebook.com/StandWithUs/videos/disturbing-incitement-from-infanacy-where-is-the-outrage-palestinian-media-watch/ 09 Dec 2015; re-accessed 30 Oct 2023
10. The importance of al-Quds for the Muslims – and do the Jews have any right to it? - Islam Question & Answer (islamqa.info) 29 March 2000; accessed 29 Oct 2023. PS another bloodthirsty image linking with ‘Al-Aqsa’ provocation (if needed!)
Posted on Twitter with message “Jews, we are coming soon. Have your rotten heads cut off by the lions of the Caliphate, Allah willing!”
11. Social Media As A Platform For Palestinian Incitement – Praise For Stabbing Attackers, Threats Of Further Attacks | MEMRI 13 Oct 2015; accessed 30 Oct 2023 (example 13 of many).
