I will not execute unless I am taken out by force. This is how Sheikh Bkirat faces the decision to deport him for the 33rd time from Jerusalem

Occupied Jerusalem – Instead of going to his office near Al-Aqsa Mosque to stand on his job as Deputy Director General of the Jerusalem Waqf, Sheikh Najeh Daoud Bkirat (65 years old) is holding a sit-in in his house in the village of "Sur Baher" south of occupied Jerusalem, refusing to leave it, after receiving a decision on Sunday to deport him from Jerusalem for 6 months.

The commander of the Israeli Home Front, Rafi Melwa, issued a decision to deport Bkirat on June 20, giving him 72 hours to object to the decision, but legal efforts to appeal the deportation were all rejected after 13 days, arguing that Bkirat "is an activist in the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), involved in security activities and his presence in Jerusalem poses a threat to security," as Melwa put it.

"These charges are unjust and fabricated, I will not implement the decision and will not accept deportation on myself, unless I take out by force, there is no power but God," this is what Bkirat told Al Jazeera Net, which recalls how the occupation kept him away from Al-Aqsa Mosque for the first time in 2003, and saw then that silence on the deportation decision will open the door wide for a wave of greater deportations in Jerusalem.

Bkirat stressed that his determination to reject the deportation decision stems not only from his love for Jerusalem, but also to stand as an obstacle to the subsequent leniency in the deportation decisions, adding, "I ate the day the white bull ate, tomorrow deportation from Jerusalem will become common for activists and non-activists, even in exchange for the simplest violations from their perspective."

Sheikh Najeh Bkirat holds a sit-in at his home, refusing to implement the deportation decision from Jerusalem (Al Jazeera)

Half a century in the service of Jerusalem

Born in June 1958 in the village of Sur Baher, south of Jerusalem, Bkirat studied until preparatory school in his village, then secondary schools in Al-Aqsa Mosque and joined the Sharia Institute there, and received a bachelor's degree in Islamic law from the Faculty of Da'wah and Fundamentals of Religion, and years later he obtained a master's degree after his thesis on the mosques of Jaffa, and concluded with a doctorate in the history of Jerusalem from the University of Zitouna in Tunisia.

"Since the ninth grade, I have been at Al-Aqsa Mosque, I have lived my childhood and youth there, until I completed half a century between its sides and in its service," Bkirat says, explaining how he held many positions in the Islamic Waqf Department in Jerusalem, ranging from the director of Al-Aqsa Mosque, the director of endowment properties, and the director general of Sharia education, to the position of deputy director general of the Jerusalem Waqf.

Despite his work inside Al-Aqsa Mosque, the occupation deported Bkirat from Al-Aqsa 32 times for a total of 7 years, and was summoned dozens of times for interrogation by the occupation intelligence, arrested 30 times, banned from traveling for a total of 8 years without continuing, and was tried in 2015 and prevented from speaking to the media for a period of 6 months, renewed until it reached a full year, and then finally ended up being deported from Jerusalem.

The occupation pursues Bkirat because of its influence on the Jerusalem community (Al-Jazeera)

Impact charge

Bkirat was active at the media, academic and community levels, contributing to the initiatives to restore the old Marwani and Al-Aqsa chapels in the nineties of the last century, and chaired the Islamic Heritage Committee, which was based in the Bab al-Rahma chapel, and was the director of the Al-Aqsa Academy for Science and Heritage, and initiated the "Charity Meter" project, which he says was very popular and contributed to the establishment of many endowments, schools and health centers.

After the Lions Gate uprising in 2017, the occupation began to closely monitor Bkirat and charged him with "influencing the Jerusalem community", and Bkirat explains that this influence was nothing but initiatives to reform society, preserve endowments and defend Jerusalem and its holy sites, in addition to his media influence, as he has been active in the media since 1987 and participated in many television and radio programs, some of which are still broadcast today.

Bkirat participated in more than 100 seminars and local and international conferences in support of Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa Mosque, and studied the course of Jerusalem for 7 years at the University of Jerusalem, as he wrote 5 books on the endowments of Jerusalem and Palestine and other books are still under publication, and says to Al Jazeera Net that he contributed to the opening of dozens of houses of the Koran in Jerusalem.

The occupation targeted the Bkirat family and arrested his eldest son Malik for 19 years (in the front photo) (Al Jazeera)

Family targeting

The Bkirat family has not been spared from the restrictions, as he has 6 sons and daughters, and he is the grandfather of about 20 grandchildren, and he says that the occupation over the past decades has repeatedly stormed his house, searched it and wreaked havoc in it, and arrested his children for varying periods, the longest of which was 19 years against his eldest son Malik, who was liberated at the end of 2020.

Passing heavy minutes on Sheikh Najeh Bkirat, waiting for the door expecting the implementation of the deportation decision at any moment, and describes the moments of waiting, saying, "By God, Jerusalem to love the country to me, and if they did not take me out of it I would not have come out, I always say: I am Jerusalem and Jerusalem I, I have a memory with every stone in it, if they keep me away from it, it lives in my soul, and I ask God that my conclusion will be in Jerusalem and I am buried next to my grandfather, the companion Ubadah bin al-Samit."

It is noteworthy that the occupation pursues a policy of deportation from Jerusalem against Jerusalemites temporarily or permanently, as it expelled 23 Jerusalemites last year, most notably lawyer Salah Al-Hammouri, who was exiled to France and deported from Jerusalem in mid-December 2022, and the occupation expelled Murad Al-Abbasi to Ramallah in early June last year.

The largest deportations were in 2010 against former Jerusalem minister Khaled Abu Arafa and Jerusalemite MPs Ahmad Attoun, Muhammad Totah, and Muhammad Abu Tair, whose Jerusalem residency cards were permanently withdrawn because of their participation in the tenth Palestinian government in 2006.