Al-Qalam 
By Dr. Ahmed Haroon Jazbhay
The Media Review Network joins solidarity movements around the world in commemorating one year since Toufan Al-Aqsa.
As a response to 75 years of genocide, epistemicide, imperialism, and ethnic cleansing, the Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, launched Toufan Al-Aqsa in an attempt to break free from the shackles of Zionist settler colonialism.
The Zionist entity then launched an unprecedented holocaust to eliminate the Palestinian people.
Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad have resisted the genocidal dictates of the Zionist entity with resilience and remained steadfast on their land and in defence of Indigenous Palestinians and Al-Aqsa.
Apart from Iran, Hezbollah, and Ansarullah, the Muslim world has largely remained silent spectators to the unfolding genocide, with regimes such as Saudi Arabia and Jordan actively shooting down Iranian missiles meant to strike the Zionist enemy.
South Africa must be applauded for attempting to use liberal institutionalism in the form of the ICJ to hold the Zionist entity accountable. It is an imperfect route but better than what most of the 57 Muslim nations have done.
It is the steadfastness and resilience of the Palestinian people, underpinned by a deep Islamic consciousness, that has permitted it to remain firm in defence of Al-Aqsa.
These sentiments are being echoed at the 7th Kuala Lumpur Forum for Thought and Civilisation currently being held in Istanbul, Turkiye and attended by MRN members Dr. Firoz Osman and Dr. Ahmed Jazbhay.
This Islamic thought leaders forum is headlined by Hamas leader Osama Hamdan, Palestinian activist in the UK, Lauren Booth, Palestinian/Turkish academic Prof. Sami Al Arian, and former head of Al Jazeera, Wadah Kanfar. All speakers express solidarity with the Axis of Resistance on the anniversary of Toufan Al-Aqsa.
Palestine is not a nationalist project but the responsibility of the ummah to protect.
Toufan Al-Aqsa has demonstrated that it is primarily up to the Palestinians to defend Al-Aqsa and all of Historic Palestine. This should bring shame to the ummah.
The ummah remains fast asleep.
*Ahmed Jazbhay is a lecturer in Political Science at UNISA, and is also a researcher at Media Review Network. He focuses on the decolonisation of knowledge and post-colonial struggles. Ahmed holds a PhD from the University of Johannesburg.
