Amman, Dec. 31 (Petra) – With their alleys, stones, embroidery and timeless cultural heritage, occupied Palestine and its jewel, Jerusalem, continue to defy Israeli occupation and its crumbling narrative, their historic Arab identity standing firm despite what many describe as systematic extermination across the blessed land a reaction, observers say, of those who lack proof for their claims.

Deep shifts in global and Western awareness, driven by the crimes of the Israeli occupation, have opened a widening breach in what speakers describe as the wall of Zionist falsehood that has monopolized truth since the Nakba decades ago. This has been reflected in growing global alignment with the Palestinian cause against oppression and its machinery and against what is seen as attempts to “uproot Palestine from its Palestinianness and kill the Palestinianness of Palestinians.”

Speakers told the Jordan News Agency (Petra) that it is imperative to strip away the aura created by Israeli misinformation in the Western popular imagination particularly as awareness grows of the ongoing crime since Israel was implanted in Arab land. They noted that Israeli propaganda succeeded for decades in infiltrating global music and cinema, shaping a Western and global imagination sympathetic to an entity alien to its Arab surroundings, but that the force of Palestinian truth has altered the equation and brought global reason back on course.

Abdullah Kanaan, secretary-general of the Royal Committee for Jerusalem Affairs, said Palestinian culture in general, and Jerusalemite culture in particular, is strong enough to defend Arab Jerusalem culture against Israeli attempts at erasure, cancellation and identity theft. He noted that more than 100 cultural institutions in Jerusalem alone have been shut down, while the occupation bans any cultural, artistic or theatrical events or festivals.

Kanaan pointed to Israel’s continued assault on the cultural landscape through racist legislation, including a 2018 Knesset law banning support for cultural and artistic works. He said the war on Palestinian culture escalated sharply after Oct. 7, 2023, and the Israeli aggression on Gaza and the West Bank, with many poets, writers, artists and historians killed, alongside the deliberate destruction of historic buildings, heritage sites, museums, mosques, churches, cultural centers, theaters, publishing houses, libraries, universities, schools and artistic murals.

Despite this, Kanaan stressed that Palestinian culture, in all its forms, retains its capacity for struggle and resilience, firmly entrenching identity and promoting the Palestinian and Jerusalemite narrative that Israel seeks to erase through a fabricated Talmudic story. He said Palestinian intellectuals have devised ways to transcend borders, imprisonment and Israeli restrictions, contributing to the formation of a global public opinion supportive of Palestine reflected in Western political, diplomatic and cultural positions condemning Israel and its actions that violate international legitimacy, law and cultural values.

He also highlighted Jordan’s success, under the Hashemite Custodianship, in registering the Old City of Jerusalem and its walls on UNESCO’s World Heritage List in 1981 and the List of World Heritage in Danger in 1982, and in supporting Palestine’s registration of other sites after its full UNESCO membership in 2011.

Culture at the Heart of the Struggle

Artist from Jerusalem Shihab Qawasmi said the battle against Zionism and its misinformation is open on all fronts, with the cultural front the most dangerous, as it represents a weapon of steadfastness and resistance against an occupation that persistently falsifies and erases Jerusalem’s Arab Islamic and Christian identity.

“I do not paint Jerusalem merely to show its beauty, nostalgia or longing,” Qawasmi said. “I paint to awaken memory and awareness against theft and destruction so that the city of eternal monuments remains a legacy for future generations.” He recalled that in the 1970s, Israel confiscated and destroyed artworks and arrested Palestinian artists on charges of incitement and resistance, viewing the artist’s brush as it did a resistance rifle.

On another front of confronting Israeli misinformation, historian Mohammad Hashem Ghosheh compiled “Encyclopedia Palestinnica” in English, a 24-volume work spanning around 7,000 pages, regarded as the largest academic documentation of Jerusalem and Palestine. Completed over 12 years, it draws on Ottoman-era documents and sources, dismantling occupation claims through rigorous scholarly investigation.

Ghosheh, a specialist in Islamic architectural history, has authored around 100 books and published more than 150 specialized studies on Jerusalem, Palestine and civilization. His research focuses on Jerusalem’s urban heritage, including his acclaimed work “The Dome of the Rock,” described by American archaeologist Robert Schick as the most important study published on the shrine. His 2014 book, “Al-Aqsa Mosque,” relied on field research, architectural and photographic documentation, Sharia court records and Ottoman archives, while his surveys documented 50,000 historic Arabic inscriptions across Palestine, preserving the country’s material memory.

Embroidery and Dress Undermine the Zionist Illusion

Traditional Jerusalem dress and embroidery embody an Arab history that dismantles the Zionist illusion, said Palestinian Canaanite heritage fashion designer Imtiyaz Abu Awwad. She described heritage as a living identity pulsing through the city’s stones, alleys and daily life.

Abu Awwad said Al-Aqsa Mosque forms the heart and soul of Jerusalem’s heritage, with its prayer halls, courtyards, gates and domes constituting an integrated civilizational system intertwined with the religious, cultural and social life of Jerusalemites. She noted the inseparable bond between Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre as testimony to Jerusalem’s authentic Christian depth and its Arab Islamic history, built on acceptance of plurality rather than the exclusion practiced by the occupation.

Jerusalem’s markets from Al-Qattanin to spice and butcher markets she said, are social spaces that speak the city’s dialect, exude its scents, echo its songs and recount the stories of its people across centuries. Traditional Jerusalem women’s embroidered dresses carry Canaanite, botanical and geographical symbols, with each stitch telling a story and every color bearing significance tied to neighborhoods and place.

She added that Jerusalem cuisine, from maftoul and maqluba to Jerusalem ka’ak, is not merely food but social rituals passed down through generations, tied to daily life, seasons and occasions. Folk proverbs, stories, songs and “maijana” chants, sung across hills, valleys and olive groves, form a living cultural archive embedded in Palestinian and Jerusalemite consciousness in defiance of attempts to erase memory.

“How can a foreign occupier grasp the meaning of a bride’s dress in Jerusalem’s villages?” Abu Awwad asked. “Or understand aghbani fabric from Homs and Aleppo, the embroidery on bodices and sleeves, or the symbolism of colors and motifs? This is a history that compels acknowledgment that the maker of this enduring culture is the land’s rightful owner.”

Civil Society Confronts Judaization

Jerusalem affairs researcher Aziz Mahmoud Al-Assa said Jerusalem’s civil society includes 507 organizations across education, sports, culture, arts, health, charity, youth and religious work. He said the occupation admits its inability to dominate Jerusalem’s civil society, recognizing its role in preserving the city’s Arab identity and obstructing efforts to Judaize it.

He noted that the Hashemite Custodianship gives significant attention to Islamic and Christian holy sites and endowments, safeguarding the city’s Arab character and empowering Jerusalemites to reaffirm its identity despite Israel’s use of excessive force and vast financial resources. He added that national Palestinian culture, heritage and embroidery days are held to preserve and protect cultural inheritance as a pillar of Palestinian identity.

//Petra// AF
31/12/2025 22:53:40