Not Just the Visit; What Does It Mean to Allow Jews to Worship Inside the AL-Aqsa Mosque?

On July 18, 2021, coinciding with the incursion of 1,700 settlers into the Temple Mount on the anniversary of the so-called "temple ruins," Israeli far-right Prime Minister Naftali Bennett issued a statement supporting Jewish prayers inside the temple.

Since the occupation of Jerusalem in 1967, there has been an "existing situation" that allows Jews to enter Al-Aqsa Square only to visit, so Bennett's assertion — for the first time — of what he called the right of Jews to "worship" there as well, marked a major change in the equation.

On that day, for the first time, the police allowed settlers to pray inside the Temple Mount, not just visit.

Bennett thanked them for "preserving the freedom of worship of Jews on the Temple Mount," according to a statement from the prime minister's office.

The statement sparked controversy: Has the new government decided to change the status quo on the Temple Mount since 1967? What will be the reaction of the Muslim world, not just the Palestinians?

 

Controversial Statements

The Palestinians considered what has taken place to be a radical change in Israeli policy since former Israeli Army Minister Moshe Dayan entered occupied Jerusalem in 1976 towards the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

After meeting with the imams of the mosque on June 17, 1967, Diane adopted a "status quo" policy that allows Muslims only to pray in Al-Aqsa and gives Jews the right to visit without praying.

According to David Horowitz in the Times of Israel, July 19, 2021: Israeli police were removing Jewish visitors from the Temple Mount "just to muzzle a few words of worship" because they had the right to visit without praying.

This time, however, police allowed settlers to pray publicly for the first time inside the Temple Mount, after the blessing of the first ultra-religious prime minister (Bennett) wearing a Jewish hood.

The broadcast of the Jewish prayer, which was publicly turned a blind eye by the police on July 17, 2021, sparked outrage among Muslims over this radical change in Israeli policy toward al-Aqsa.

They considered allowing Jews to pray officially during the visit, as the start of plans to "divide the prayer" in the extreme, as the occupation did by dividing prayers at the Ibrahimi Mosque on February 25, 1994, between Muslims and Jews.

The United List (Islamist) party threatened to overthrow the Bennett government it supports, stressing in a statement that "the Al-Aqsa Mosque, blessed with all its 144 square sizes, is a pure right of Muslims and no one else has any right to it."

"Bennett made a mistake when he said that both Jews and Muslims enjoyed freedom of worship in the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and that the status quo in the mosque would remain the same," his office said.

A source in the Prime Minister's Office told Israel Army Radio: "Bennett meant to say that Jews had the rights to visit, not worship," i.e., they had the right to break into al-Aqsa under police protection to visit but without worship inside.

 

Changing the Situation

During Ottoman rule, the "status quo" or "status quo" in Jerusalem stemmed from "Fermanat" or Ottoman legal regulations governing the status of holy sites in Jerusalem’s Old City.

Under this Status Quo, Jordan exercised comprehensive powers and authority exclusively through the Jordanian Waqf Department in the administration of the Al-Aqsa Mosque/Temple Mount, organizing the exit and entry of Muslim worshippers and visits by non-Muslims.

Key elements of the "status quo" included not allowing non-Muslims to pray in the al-Aqsa Mosque area (144 dunums including al-Aqsa, tribal chapel, Dome of the Rock, and all chapels, buildings, walls and courtyards).

When Israel occupied Jerusalem on June 7, 1967, General Mordechai Gore, commander of the 55th Paratrooper Brigade, who entered the Al-Aqsa Mosque, declared that "the Temple Mount is in our hands" and raised Israel’s flag over the Dome of the Rock mosque.

The Israeli flag on the mosque lasted two hours until the Then Turkish Consul asked Moshe Dayan to remove the Israeli flag from the mosque and assured him that the Al-Aqsa Mosque belonged to Muslims.

Moshe Dayan, in the anger of the Muslim world at the time, was forced to demand that Gore immediately remove the Israeli flag from the Dome of the Rock.

The day after the occupation of Jerusalem on June 8, 1967, Moshe Dayan held a meeting with Khatib al-Aqsa, the head of the Shariah court and the director of the Waqf department, and assured them of the continuation of the "status quo" policy, i.e., allowing only Muslims to pray there.

But he asked them for the key to the Door of the Moroccans to allow Jews to pray at the Al-Buraq (Wailing) Wall, and allowed Jews to visit the Temple Mount without praying inside it.

In July 1967, Diane issued his first official statement on the Al-Aqsa Mosque, asserting that Jews were entitled to visit the Al-Aqsa Mosque as tourists without practicing Jewish prayers and religious rites inside it.

Writers and analysts in Israeli newspapers considered Bennett's recent statement on freedom of worship for Jews in Al-Aqsa "playing with fire at an already burning point, the Temple Mount."

Writer David Horowitz called Bennett's statement a "coup against previous Israeli commitments," and said that even (former Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu had pledged to abide by the "status quo."

"Bennett essentially demonstrated the changes that took place on the campus by allowing Jews to pray there in public," he wrote, contrary to the status quo policy established in 1967.

Since the May 2021 aggression against Gaza, Israel, Jordan, the United States and the Palestinian Authority have worked behind the scenes to break the link created by the Islamic resistance movement Hamas with Jerusalem, he said.

But Bennett's announcement "embarrassed them all" and was a gain for Hamas, he said.

 

Breach of Agreements

Bennett was not the first Israeli official to violate the status quo, and the Jewish breach of this agreement began years ago until it was about to collapse.

In the past, the mechanism of entry to the mosque was specific, as the “Moroccan” gate was designated as the sole outlet for Jews, and Muslims entered from the rest of the gates.

Later, tourists were allowed to enter through the gates: Moroccan, chain, and cotton, and settlers began to be allowed in from other gates or stormed under the protection of the occupation police.

In September 1996, following the Al-Aqsa intifada, which came after Jews dug a tunnel under the mosque, the status quo collapsed.

At that time, the Al-Aqsa Mosque was closed to settlers by the militants of the Islamic Movement in occupied Palestine in 1948.

Four years later, in September 2000, former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon stormed the mosque, leading to massive Palestinian uprising that closed al-Aqsa to settler incursions again until 2003.

In August 2003, the status quo policy began to be severely eroded by the organization of successive incursions into the Al-Aqsa Mosque by Jewish religious currents with the support of Israeli rabbis and police.

The current status quo has been further eroded by the occupation police starting to set certain ages for Muslims to enter the mosque and prevent others since 2013, following the counter-revolutions in the Arab world and the assumption of rulers who remained silent about violations in Al-Aqsa.

Following the assassination attempt on fanatic rabbi Yehuda Glick, al-Aqsa's most prominent perpetrator on October 30, 2014, and clashes in Jerusalem, the Knesset (Israeli parliament) began discussing for the first time the formal abolition of the "status quo."

In August 2019, Internal Security Minister Gilad Erdan stressed "the need to change the status quo at al-Aqsa Mosque to enable Jews to pray there as the holiest place for the Jewish people," he said.

The anniversary of the "destruction of the first and second temples", which coincides with the al-Adha feast period, has become an occasion for successive incursions into the mosque, and the number of Jewish visitors to Al-Aqsa Square has increased by 350 percent, according to the Israeli interior ministry.

Now the news of the incursion of the mosque by Jewish religious people from doors other than the door of the Moroccans such as Hatta and King Faisal doors in the form of large groups and the performance of Talmudic rituals opposite the Dome of the Rock has become frequently protected by the occupation police.

Bennett's announcement about the right of Jews to "pray" and not just "visit" (despite the formal decline) effectively paved the way for the abolition of the "status quo."

In an article written in the extremist newspaper Israel Haartez, 20 July 2021, Jewish writer Jonathan Tobin admitted that Jews had already been praying inside Al-Aqsa Square for two years and only lacked official confirmation.

He said: "Since 2019 Jews have been praying loudly, regularly and publicly there without police intervention, but without participants wearing prayer shawls. Had it not been for the report aired by Israel's Channel 12 for their official prayers inside it this uproar would not have been raised."

 

Temporal and Spatial Division

"The occupation now believes that this period has become conducive to the imposition of its sovereignty over the Al-Aqsa Mosque in light of the preoccupation of Arab and Islamic countries with their internal problems, in addition to the flatness of some countries through normalization."

Al-Aqsa Mosque preacher Sheikh Ekrama Sabri explained what was going on in remarks to Turkish television TRT Arabi July 18, 2021.

"The Israeli occupation is seeking to impose its control over the Al-Aqsa Mosque by closing the entrances to the Old City and the mosque, preventing Muslims from entering it, forcibly removing Muslim worshippers from the mosque and dragging young people and women in its squares," he said.

The "temporal division" means defining the occupation as certain times in the Al-Aqsa Mosque that are reserved for the entry of Jews only, and other times for Muslims.

The occupation forces Muslims to leave Al-Aqsa between 7:30 a.m. and 11:00 a.m. and after afternoon prayers even before The Maghreb prayers, to allocate this time to the Jews, after which Muslims are allowed in.

The "spatial division" means the gradual seizure of parts of the Temple Mount and a number of mosque chapels to turn them into Jewish synagogues to perform their prayers.

To achieve temporal and spatial sharing, settlers backed by various Israeli governments organize almost daily trips to the Al-Aqsa Mosque to impose a new fait accompli.

When the Corona epidemic spread, the occupation sought to exploit it to stabilize the temporal division of the mosque between Muslims and Jews by dividing the time of entry between them and cutting off parts of the mosque floor for the benefit of the settlers who had divided the mosque daily.

The occupation also sought to push Jordan to waive its exclusive right to supervise the Al-Aqsa Mosque by provoking a crisis between it and Turkey, claiming Ankara's quest to control Jerusalem through its projects there instead of Amman.

Arab countries have once claimed to Israel that there should be a greater role for Saudi Arabia in the management of holy sites.

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz, June 28, 2018, published a report, alleging that Arab countries led by Saudi Arabia and the Palestinian Authority had addressed the Israeli authorities with a warning about turkey's role in east Jerusalem.

It also published a report on October 6, 2019 claiming that arrangements were under way to give Saudi Arabia a role in managing Al-Aqsa's affairs, to stand up to Turkish influence there.

These reports aim to strike two birds with one stone: planting a wedge between Jordan and Turkey regarding the Turkish presence in Jerusalem, and intimidating Oman from the Saudi role as an alternative, to push it to make concessions to the occupation on the issue of guardianship of holy sites.