Posted by: Sammi Ibrahem,Sr
Talks going on here and there via WhatsApp and Facebook, and contacts between friends, through which they plan how they will spend Friday in Jerusalem, a great yearning for a meeting that they have been denied for several years.
Every Friday they race to the roadblocks of the Nazi occupation, which for many years has denied them access to their beloved city of occupied Jerusalem. They carry their bags with them, and they spend a night in the al-Aqsa mosque.
Despite the violations they are subjected to through checkpoints punctuated by the inspection and launch of sound and gas bombs, the number of worshipers in each Friday of Ramadan gathering increases greatly, and this is what we will lose this year.
The journey to reach the Al-Aqsa Mosque begins, by starting from the homes with the dawn hours towards the checkpoints, and after hours of waiting, they are allowed to enter and reach the buses that will take them to Jerusalem.
Another hardship awaits them is occupation barriers inside the city, and thus all worshipers are required to disembark from buses and walk long distances to the Al-Aqsa Mosque in the Old City, and this procedure imposed by the occupation forces on everyone, including the elderly and children, but the Palestinian medical teams are trying as much as possible Helping to transport elderly and sick people through large and small ambulances, despite the obstruction of their work by the occupation forces.
As for the young men, their story begins with exploring the gaps of the wall and walking between the vineyards that connect to Jerusalem, or the stairs that hang on the wall that separates Jerusalem from other Palestinian cities. They were subjected to breakage due to the fall or escape from the pursuit of the occupation forces during the previous years.
Today, we did not see crowds of worshipers in the streets of Jerusalem, which seemed completely empty except for some, and we did not see the scout teams distributing informative leaflets about Al-Aqsa Mosque and its facilities and doors and organizing the entrance of worshipers at the doors, and we did not see medical crews like the beehive working on the comfort of the worshipers.
This year, we did not plan for anything, so Koruna deprived us of everything that delights our hearts in this sad city, which was saddened by the closure of its mosque, the first of the two kisses and the third of the Two Holy Sanctuaries, 33 days ago, this month in which the alleys of the old city are completely decorated with all its alleys and dialogues to receive the pioneers of Al Aqsa from the West Bank Gaza, inside and Jerusalem, too.
Al-Aqsa Mosque today seemed completely sad and empty of worshipers, with the exception of its guards, sardines and workers in the Islamic Endowments Department, who were building it in the time of “Corona”.
Today we will not race to see how many worshipers performed Friday prayers at Al-Aqsa Mosque, and journalists will not climb to the roof of the tribal chapel to document the most beautiful scenes for us. She lived through the most difficult months of the year.
Today, for the first time, we will not see the congregation praying as it holds all prayers, prepares its tables in the courtyards, children will not play here and there, and the Tarawih prayer will not take place as we have done every year, and it will be limited to guards, masters and employees.
