The Jerusalem Landscape in 2024
Date
2025-05
Authors
Said Abu Ali
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Al-Quds University
Abstract
As Israel’s relentless campaign of annihilation and destruction continues to
ravage Gaza, its criminal machinery has, by the end of this dark year, claimed the
lives of over 150,000 martyrs and wounded countless others. The devastation is
unfathomable, with over 80% of Gaza’s infrastructure obliterated under the weight
of more than a thousand tons of explosives—greater in destructive power than
the atomic bombs dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima. The resulting wreckage,
according to UN estimates, will take over a year to clear. The world stands
paralyzed, unable to halt any aspect of this catastrophe, including the ruthless
starvation campaign—a humiliating indictment of the international community’s
moral integrity. This siege of death extends beyond Gaza to the West Bank, where
the aggression rages on unabated, marked by systematic killings, demolitions,
mass arrests, forced displacements, settlement expansion, and the relentless
Judaization of Palestinian lands—all sanctioned and declared as official Israeli
policy.
Throughout 2024, Jerusalem has borne the brunt of an intensified and expanding
campaign of Judaization, with Israeli authorities executing their schemes with
near-total impunity. A deafening silence pervades the political and media spheres,
as if Jerusalem’s isolation and transformation into an Israeli stronghold were
a foregone conclusion, barely warranting protest—let alone resistance. The
prevailing Arab and Islamic responses remain largely confined to rhetorical
stances that underscore a state of impotence rather than offering tangible action.
It is precisely this dichotomy—between Israel’s escalating measures and the Arab
and Islamic world’s reactions—that al-Maqdisiyah seeks to examine.