I have just returned to London after attending the “One State Conference” at Harvard University.

Click here to read my thoughts on it.

The Palestinian Authority wants Muslims to visit Jerusalem in a bid to keep Israel from “Judaizing” the city, but it may be thwarted by one of Sunni Islam’s most important clerics.

On Monday, Sheikh Yussef Qaradawi reiterated a religious edict banning Muslims from visiting Jerusalem, which he says is a form of normalizing relations with Israel.

He spoke at the “International Conference for the Defense of Jerusalem,” convened in Doha this week by Qatari leader Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani.

The Qatar-based Sheikh’s words came one day after PA President Mahmoud Abbas called on Arabs and Muslims across the world to visit Jerusalem.

“Visiting the holy city does not mean normalization [with Israel],” Abbas told the conference participants. “Visiting the prisoner is not normalization with the jailer.”

Qaradawi had previously issued a fatwa, or Islamic legal opinion, banning visits of non-Palestinians to Jerusalem as long as the Israeli occupation is in place.

“Visits are banned in order to deprive the occupier of legitimacy,” Qaradawi declared from Doha. “Those who visit legitimize an entity which plunders Palestinian lands, and are forced to cooperate with the enemy’s embassy to receive a visa.”

“We must feel as though we are banned from Jerusalem and fight for it until it is ours,” Qaradawi added.

The 85-year-old Qaradawi, who heads the World Union of Muslim Scholars and hosts a popular TV show on Al-Jazeera, is widely considered the highest authority on matters of Islamic law.

But the Palestinian Authority would not allow Qaradawi to have the last word, unleashing its own religious artillery in the form of Minister of Religious Endowments Mahmoud Habbash. The Palestinian minister called on Qaradawi to retract his edict, saying it plainly contradicted Quranic verses and reliable Islamic traditions.

Habbash told the Palestinian daily Al-Quds on Tuesday that visiting Jerusalem was both a “religious commandment and a political necessity,” adding that Qaradawi’s ban “gave a free service to the Israeli occupation which wants to isolate the holy city from its Arab and Islamic surroundings.”

The prophet Muhammad himself visited Jerusalem when it was under Byzantine rule, Habbash pointed out, and never did a subsequent Muslim scholar ban visitation to the holy city due to foreign occupation.

This was not the first time debate has erupted surrounding Arab tourism to Jerusalem. In August 2010, Egyptian Endowments Minister Mahmoud Hamdi Zaqzouq called on Arabs to flock to Jerusalem in order to assert its Islamic identity, criticising the long-standing Arab tourism boycott of Israel.
 

The top news in Israel today is the abolishment of the “Tal Law” by the Supreme Court yesterday. The law, enacted ten years ago, allowed ultra-Orthodox Jews to choose whether to be exempted from the army by studying Torah in religious academies known as Yeshivot, or be integrated into the country’s workforce following a symbolic military service. Israeli law does not allow those who did not serve in the military to work in most public jobs.

The Supreme Court, which is normally extremely careful in overturning Knesset laws, defined the Tal Law as anti-constitutional and discriminatory. Now legislators will have to come up with a new law which will ensure a more egalitarian system.

Many Israelis, myself included, see this as a historic moment for Israel. The collective exemption of the ultra-Orthodox male population from national service, military or civilian, dates back to the early days of the state under Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion. But with their numbers growing exponentially, the current situation is untenable for Israeli society.

The Israeli political system often operates by turning a blind eye to the thorniest issues in society, enacting temporary, haphazard measures. The Supreme Court has now said “no more.” Will it ever do the same on even touchier political issues?       

The split within the ranks of the Islamic Palestinian movement Hamas occupies much of the attention of Arab media these days.

London-based liberal daily Al-Hayat reported on its front page on a meeting between the Iranian Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei and Hamas Prime Minister, Ismail Haniyah in Tehran on Sunday. According to the report, Khamenei "warned" Haniyah against any compromise with Israel. According to Khamenei's website, the daily reports, Haniyah replied that Hamas' goal remains "liberation from the river to the sea and refusal of negotiations with Israel."

The Iranian embrace of Haniyah comes days after an agreement was reached with the head of Hamas' political bureau Khaled Mashal to accept Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas as interim prime minister, a move Iran views as preceding a dangerous rapprochement with Israel.

Al-Quds Al-Arabi claims that the split within Hamas on future relations with the PLO have reached the ranks of the Al-Qassam Brigades, the organisation's military wing. Muhammad Deif, the organisation's founder, reportedly opposes reconciliation with Fatah while his deputy, Ahmad Jaabari, endorses it. Hamas' parliamentary deputies are also divided on the question of reconciliation, with Gaza deputies opposing it and the West Bank deputies supporting it.

A year into the revolution, Egypt's political and cultural landscape is changing. Islamic politicians are growing increasingly self-confidant as the country's diminishing liberals go on the defensive.

A striking example of this trend took place in the Egyptian parliament this week. Islamist MP Mamdouh Ismail spontaneously began sounding the traditional call to prayer at noon in the session hall, to the protest of other MPs and house speaker Muhammad Saad Katatni. "I did not permit you to do this, there is a mosque for that," Katatni reprimanded the MP-turned-Muazzin."You are no more Islamic than us."

Is this merely the dramatic gimmick of a media-starved parliamentarian or is it an indication of a deeper, more meaningful trend in Egyptian politics?

If you ask veteran Egyptian actor Omar Sharif, he will confirm the latter. In an interview with Arab TV channel MBC, Sharif expressed his angst on the prospect that Egyptian actresses may be lashed under Egypt's new constitution, if the phrase "on condition that it [the civil law] does not contradict Islamic Sharia" is inserted into it.

MP Mamdouh Ismail did not wait for the constitution change. He added the phrase himself while taking his vow for office, provoking a media controversy.

"This elastic sentence makes me very uneasy regarding the situation and future of Egyptian art, which may resemble Iranian art overnight," said Omar Sharif. "[In Iran] an actress was lashed for revealing her hair while acting."

Another Egyptian actor who already paid the price for his art is leading comedian Adel Imam. Imam was sentenced in absentia to three months in prison and a 1000 Egyptian Pound ($165 US) fine for insulting Islamic symbols, including beards.

It seems like Imam, an icon of Egyptian cinema and theatre will not be returning to Egypt any time soon.

But perhaps all of this is actually Egypt’s version of democracy?

I smiled to myself when I saw Ismail, because he reminded me of how similar Israel’s parliamentary scene can be to that of the Arab world. Televised provocations are nothing new in Israel: just a few weeks ago MK Anastasia Mikhaeli splashed a glass of water on her parliamentary rival Ghaleb Majadleh. MKs from Kadima have an affinity for waving various objects in protest during parliamentary sessions. We never saw things like this in Egypt, but perhaps they are finally learning a lesson in parliamentary democracy from their northern neighbors?    

A surprising article appeared today in the economic Israeli newspaper Calcalist. According to the report, Israelis are breaking the international economic isolation of Iran by importing authentic Persian carpets. According to sources in Israel’s carpet industry, the importers deceive the customs authorities by hiding the source of the carpets, importing them through the UK or Belgium.
Israeli law prohibits trade with enemy countries.

The daily randomly called a number of local carpet shops that did not even attempt to hide the source of their quality rugs, even offering a certificate of authenticity. International furniture chain IKEA, which sells Persian rugs worldwide, does not do so in Israel.