The recent Palestinian protests against Israeli settler expansionism in Jerusalem and an Israeli raid on the al-Aqsa Mosque have attracted global attention, including from Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham and the group's prominent online supporters like 'al-Shimali al-Hur,' who has previously issued calls for the liberation of Palestine from the Jews. Below is a translation of a new statement from Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham on the recent events in al-Aqsa, Jerusalem and wider Palestine. As usual, any parenthetical insertions in square brackets in the translation are my own. The statement illustrates the group's thinking of the Palestinian cause in terms of the Muslims of the greater Levant (al-Sham) and the global Muslim community (the Ummah), contrary to the notion that Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham is some kind of nationalist group.
In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham:
Palestine is our cause and the cause of every Muslim
Praise be to God the Lord of the Worlds, and the best prayers and most complete salutations be on our Prophet Muhammad (SAWS), and on all his family and companions. As for what follows:
The Israeli occupation sitting over the blessed land of Palestine continues with its systematic attack, as it has recently desecrated the al-Aqsa Mosque through assaulting its courtyards and seizing in oppression and aggression the homes of the inhabitants of one of the neighbourhoods of the city of al-Quds [Jerusalem], and attacking the land of Gaza of might and destroying the homes of the besieged in it.
Indeed the choice of the occupier of the blessed month of Ramadan to increase the level of its attacks is a game of provoking the Muslims in the entire world, so we condemn in the strongest expressions this oppressive aggression against the land of Palestine and its people and holy sites. And we ask the states, commissions and councils of 'Ilm to stand by our people in the holy abode, for indeed Palestine is our cause and the cause of the entire Islamic Ummah.
And as we have been waging the battle of liberation in our blessed Syrian revolution throughout ten continual years- by the grace of God- we draw inspiration from the Palestinian people in the battle of will and steadfastness in resisting the occupier and confronting the aggression, for indeed the truth does not perish and will inevitably return to its people one day.
We also direct the most sincere condolences to the families of the martyrs who have departed in every region of Palestine while defending the first of the two qiblas [referring to Jerusalem as the first qibla in Islam before Mecca] and the masra of our Prophet Muhammad (God's blessings and peace be upon him and his family) [NB: the masra refers to the Prophet's night journey and its association with the site of the al-Aqsa Mosque].
So oh God, bridle the hearts of the steadfast people of al-Sham on ribat [frontline duty] in Syria and Palestine, and reward them for their patience, and console them, and have mercy on their dead, and heal their wounded, and grant them victory over the one who is hostile to them. Amen.
And praise be to God the Lord of the Worlds.
30 Ramadan 1442 AH corresponding to 12 May 2021 CE.