We should keep our eyes on Jerusalem for the next month. Since 1967, there have been a number of accommodations made around the site of the al-Aqsa mosque. That mosque is considered by many Muslims to be the third holiest site in Islam and is visited by Muslims for prayers during the month of Ramadan. The mosque was also used as a church by the Christian crusaders after they captured Jerusalem in 1099, but after Saladin retook Jerusalem in 1149 it has remained a mosque. After Israel captured Jerusalem during the Six-Day War in 1967, the control of the mosque was given to Jordan and regulated by a series of agreements between Israel and Jordan. The difficulty is that the mosque rests on the Temple Mount, which is the site of the Jewish First Temple (built by King Solomon and destroyed by King Nebuchadnezzar) and the Second Temple which was destroyed by the Roman Empire. Many Jews (but not all) believe that the area of the Temple Mount should be completely under Israeli control. The site is the scene of unresolved conflict.
“The administrative body responsible for the whole Al-Aqsa Mosque compound is known as “the Jerusalem Waqf“, an organ of the Jordanian government.
“The Jerusalem Waqf is responsible for administrative matters in the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound. Religious authority on the site, on the other hand, is the responsibility of the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, appointed by the government of the State of Palestine.
“The waqf employed architects, technicians and craftsmen in a committee that carry out regular maintenance operations. The Islamic Movement in Israel and the waqf have attempted to increase Muslim control of the Temple Mount as a way of countering Israeli policies and the escalating presence of Israeli security forces around the site since the Second Intifada. Some activities included refurbishing abandoned structures and renovating.
“Ownership of the al-Aqsa Mosque is a contentious issue in the Israel-Palestinian conflict. During the negotiations at the 2000 Camp David Summit, Palestinians demanded complete ownership of the mosque and other Islamic holy sites in East Jerusalem.”
Those agreements have periodically been tested, and the current situation is highly volatile. After the Hamas attacks on Israel in October 2023, there has been a systematic campaign to increase Israeli control over the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, and a concerted effort to bring the Temple Mount under complete Israeli control. The Guardian outlines the collapse of the previous agreements:
“A six-decade agreement governing Muslim and Jewish prayer at Jerusalem’s most sensitive holy site has ‘collapsed’ under pressure from Jewish extremists backed by the Israeli government, experts have warned.
“A series of arrests of Muslim caretaker staff, bans on access for hundreds of Muslims, and escalating incursions by radical Jewish groups culminated this week in the arrest of an imam of al-Aqsa mosque and an Israeli police raid during evening prayers on the first night of Ramadan.
“The actions by the Jerusalem police and the Shin Bet internal security force, both now under far-right leadership, represent a rupture in the status quo agreement dating back to the aftermath of the 1967 war, which stipulates that only Muslims are permitted to pray in the sacred compound around the mosque, known as the al-Haram al-Sharif to Muslims, which also encompasses the seventh-century Dome of the Rock shrine. To Jews it is the Temple Mount, the site of the 10th-century BC first temple and second temple, which was destroyed by the Romans in AD70.”
The Times of Israel outlines how changes have affected the ability of Muslims to pray at the mosque:
“Police extended visiting hours for Jewish worshipers on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem by an hour more than is customary during Ramadan on Wednesday, the first day of the Islamic holy month.
“The change comes as Israel has repeatedly shifted norms on the flashpoint holy site where the Biblical Jewish temples stood and that today houses the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock Shrine under far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir.
“Jewish visitors were able to ascend the flashpoint holy site in the morning from 6:30 to 11:30 a.m., following pressure from activists. In previous years, visiting hours during Ramadan were from 7 to 11 a.m, with the Al-Aqsa compound completely closed to Jewish visitors throughout the afternoon.”
The issue is not necessarily the limitation of prayers, but rather the unilateral moves by Israel which stimulates fear among Muslims that Israel is moving toward complete control of the site. The Guardian outlines some of the moves that have inspired this fear:
“Tensions have escalated steadily around al-Aqsa mosque as far-right Israelis have taken up key security positions. The national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir – who had eight criminal convictions before taking office, for supporting a terrorist organisation and incitement to racism, among other charges – has said he wanted to raise the Israeli flag at the compound and build a synagogue there.
“Ben-Gvir has made inflammatory visits to al-Aqsa over the past year, and backed a series of unilateral changes to the status quo, allowing Jews to pray and sing in the compound. In January, he installed an ideological ally, Maj Gen Avshalom Peled, as the Jerusalem police chief, and with the reported backing of the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, allowed Jews to take printed prayer sheets on to the site, in ever-more clearcut violations.
“’The status quo has collapsed because there are prayers on a daily basis,’ Seidemann (Daniel Seidemann, a Jerusalem lawyer) said. ‘In the past, the police were very strict about preventing any kind of provocation … but these measures are displays of ‘we’re in control here, get used to it or get out of the way’.”
The Israelis have taken actions to limit the ability of the waqf to exercise effective control over the mosque.
“In the run-up to Ramadan this year, the Jerusalem Waqf, the Jordanian-appointed foundation charged with managing al-Aqsa’s site as part of the status quo agreement, has come under increasing pressure. Waqf sources said five of its staff had been put in administrative detention (detention without charge) this week by the Shin Bet, while 38 staff members had been banned from entering the site. Six imams from the mosque had also been denied entrance, they said.
“They said six Waqf offices had been ransacked in recent weeks and the staff prevented from rehanging doors or doing other repairs. The Waqf has been prevented from installing sun and rain shelters or temporary clinics for worshippers. Officials allege they have even been prevented from bringing toilet paper on to the site.
“The cumulative effect, the officials said, had been to strain the Waqf’s ability to cater to the 10,000 Muslims expected to come to pray at al-Aqsa mosque over the month of Ramadan.”
The Palestinians have lost control over the land in the Gaza Strip and are witnessing the steady encroachment of Israeli settlers in the West Bank. Losing access to the al Aqsa mosque would amplify these fears to an incredible extent. At this writing, however, there does not seem to be any US to restrain the Israelis. Many states in the rest of the world are objecting to the creeping annexation of the West Bank and the UN Security Council has condemned many of the moves. The Washington Post reports:
“This month, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s security cabinet, in a closed-door meeting, adopted measures to make it easier for settlers to purchase land and circumvent the Palestinian Authority in areas it has controlled since a 1995 agreement under the Oslo accords. The move was widely condemned in the Arab world and globally as a violation of international law and an undoing of decades-old regional security agreements….
“In the meantime, Palestinians continue to face an ever-quickening transformation of the West Bank, which, in the shadow of war on Gaza, has seen new Jewish settlements approved at record rates — and more than 1,300 Palestinians killed by settlers or Israeli forces — since Netanyahu took office in 2022, according to U.N. statistics.
“Now, many say they fear not only being displaced, but losing all legal claim to their land. Many international lawyers and even some Israeli cabinet ministers who supported the measures say they are a clear reach toward seizing territory.
“’We are continuing the revolution of settlement and our hold on all regions of our land,’ Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said, adding: ‘The State of Israel is taking responsibility for its land and acting according to the law with transparency and determination.’”
We should pay attention to how this situation evolves over the next month.
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