IDF Storms Al-Aqsa Mosque During Final Days of Ramadan
Dave DeCamp / AntiWar.com
OCCUPIED EAST JERUSALEM (June 2, 2019) — Israeli forces entered the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound on Sunday, clashing with Palestinians who protested the entrance of Israeli settlers marching to celebrate the anniversary of the occupation of East Jerusalem.
The entrance of Jews into the facility marked the first time in about 30 years such a visit was allowed during the final days of Ramadan. Omar al-Kiswani, Al-Aqsa mosque director, accused Israel of violating an agreement to not allow visits during this time.
Early in the morning hundreds of settlers marched up to the gates demanding entrance to Al-Aqsa, according to Al Jazeera reporter, Harry Fawcett. The arrival of the settlers sparked Palestinian protests and the IDF stormed the mosque with stun bombs, rubber bullets and tear gas.
One Palestinian man was suffered a head injury and others were treated for gas inhalation, according to a medic for the Palestinian Red Crescent.
On Friday, a Palestinian teenager was shot dead by the IDF while trying to enter occupied East Jerusalem to offer Friday prayers at Al-Aqsa mosque. He was identified as 16-year-old Abdullah Loyd Gaith, from the occupied west bank city of Hebron.
Israeli Forces and Settlers Enter Al-Aqsa Mosque Compound
Hundreds of ultra-nationalist Jews guarded by riot police stream into the compound, sparking violence.
(June 2, 2019) — Protests erupted on Sunday after Israeli forces entered the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound along with hundreds of ultra-nationalist Jews whom they allowed to access the compound on Jerusalem Day — when Israelis celebrate the anniversary of their occupation of East Jerusalem at the end of the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.
The Muslim Waqf organisation which oversees the mosque compound — the third holiest site in Islam — said police used rubber bullets and pepper spray and arrested seven people.
One Palestinian man suffered a head injury, while others were treated for gas inhalation inside the compound, a medic from the Palestinian Red Crescent said.
It was the first time in about 30 years that Jews were allowed into the site during the final days of the fasting month of Ramadan, which coincided this year with the Israelinational holiday commemorating control over the city.
Al-Aqsa mosque director Omar al-Kiswani accused Israel of violating an agreement not to allow such visits during the last days of Ramadan.
Earlier in the morning, Israeli police had deployed hundreds of their forces around the mosque compound and across the city as hundreds of Jews waited at the compound gates to enter.
Israeli Police Decision
Reporting from West Jerusalem, Al Jazeera‘s Harry Fawcett said: “What had been announced was that Jews would not be allowed into the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound because of the sensitivity coming up to the end of Ramadan.”
“But what actually took place was that hundreds of what we would expect to be right-wing settler and religious nationalists assembled at the gate demanding entrance.
“Once the police had apparently decided they would be allowed in, protests by Palestinians started and forces moved in to put down the demonstrations. At that point, the Jewish settlers were allowed to come in,” said Fawcett.
Video inside the compound showed Palestinians shouting “Allahu Akbar” (God is great) and throwing chairs and other objects at a doorway before tear gas and stun bombs were thrown at them.
The annual march through the city, including the Muslim quarter of the Old City which forces Palestinians to shutter their businesses, often sparks clashes.
Security measures have been tightened and police are on high alert after a Palestinian teenager was shot dead by Israeli forces as he tried to enter occupied East Jerusalem to offer Friday prayers at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound.
‘An Act of ‘Terror’
Palestinian political parties condemned the incident. Fatah, the party that leads the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority, described the incident as an act of “terror”.
Hamas, the group that governs the besieged Gaza Strip, said the Palestinian people’s stance and perseverance indicated their refusal of the “occupation’s policies” that aimed to change the status quo of the al-Aqsa mosque compound.
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) said the incident marked a new escalation that confirms the “occupation’s intent to Judaize” al-Aqsa. It also said the incident was an attempt by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right wing party to advance politically, especially after planning on dissolving the Knesset.
In a separate incident on Friday, a Palestinian man was shot dead by Israeli police after an alleged stabbing attack on two Israelis in the Old City of East Jerusalem.
The Al-Aqsa Mosque, located inside the 35-acre compound, is referred to as al-Haram al-Sharif, or the Noble Sanctuary, by Muslims, and as the Temple Mount by Jews.
The compound’s Western Wall, known as the Wailing Wall to Jews, is believed to be the last remnant of the Second Temple, while Muslims refer to it as al-Buraq Wall and believe it is where the Prophet Muhammad tied al-Buraq, the animal upon which he ascended to the sky and spoke to God.
The area has always been closed to Jews during the last 10 days of Ramadan, when large numbers of Muslim worshippers stay at the site.
“The police really aren’t giving any explanation as to why they made this decision,” Al Jazeera‘s Fawcett said.
“The police spokesman is merely saying that access to non-Muslims was allowed today as it is on any normal day” but didn’t acknowledge the Israeli holiday or that it was the end of Ramadan.
The last time when Jerusalem Day coincided with the end of Ramadan in 1988, the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound was closed to Jews.
Al-Aqsa Mosque: Five Things You Need to Know
Al Jazeera explains why the holy site is a flashpoint
(December 6, 2017) — Here’s a breakdown of why the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem is a constant point of contention in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
INTERACTIVE: Inside al-Aqsa: A 360 tour of Jerusalem’s holiest mosque
1. Why al-Aqsa Is So Important
Al-Aqsa is the name of the silver-domed mosque inside a 35-acre compound referred to as al-Haram al-Sharif, or the Noble Sanctuary, by Muslims, and as the Temple Mount by Jews. The compound lies in the Old City of Jerusalem, which has been designated a World Heritage site by the United Nations cultural agency, UNESCO, and is important to the three Abrahamic religions.
The site has been the most contested piece of territory in the Holy Land since Israel occupied East Jerusalem, including the Old City, in 1967, along with the West Bank and Gaza Strip. However, the conflict dates even further back, to before the creation of Israel.
In 1947, the UN drew up a partition plan to separate historical Palestine, then under British control, into two states: one for Jews, mainly from Europe, and one for Palestinians. The Jewish state was given 55 percent of the land, and the remaining 45 percent was for a Palestinian state.
Jerusalem, which houses the al-Aqsa compound, belonged to the international community under the administration of the UN. It was granted this special status for its importance to the three Abrahamic religions.
The first Arab-Israeli war broke out in 1948 after Israel declared statehood, capturing some 78 percent of the land, with the remaining areas of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza coming under Egyptian and Jordanian control.
Israel’s increasing encroachment on the land intensified in 1967, after the second Arab-Israeli war, which resulted in the Israeli occupation of East Jerusalem, and eventually the illegal Israeli annexation of Jerusalem, including the Old City and al-Aqsa.
The illegal Israeli control of East Jerusalem, including the Old City, violates several principles of international law, which outlines that an occupying powerdoes not have sovereignty in the territory it occupies.
Over the years, the Israeli government has taken further steps towards controlling and Judaising the Old City and East Jerusalem as a whole. In 1980, Israel passed a law that declared Jerusalem the “complete and united” capital of Israel, in violation of international law. Today, no country in the world recognises Israel’s ownership of Jerusalem or its attempts to change the geography and demographic makeup of the city.
Palestinians in Jerusalem, who number around 400,000, hold only permanent residency status, not citizenship, despite being born there — in contrast with Jews who are born in the city. And, since 1967, Israel has embarked on a quiet deportation of the city’s Palestinians by imposing difficult conditions for them to maintain their residency status.
Israel has also built at least 12 fortified Jewish-only illegal settlements in East Jerusalem, housing some 200,000 Israelis, while rejecting Palestinian building permits and demolishing their homes as punishment for building illegally.
2. The Compound’s Religious Significance
For Muslims, the Noble Sanctuary hosts Islam’s third holiest site, the al-Aqsa Mosque, and the Dome of the Rock, a seventh-century structure believed to be where the Prophet Muhammad ascended to heaven.
Jews believe the compound is where the Biblical Jewish temples once stood, but Jewish law and the Israeli Rabbinate forbid Jews from entering the compound and praying there, as it is considered too holy to tread upon.
The compound’s Western Wall, known as the Wailing Wall to Jews, is believed to be the last remnant of the Second Temple, while Muslims refer to it as al-Buraq Wall and believe it is where the Prophet Muhammad tied al-Buraq, the animal upon which he ascended to the sky and spoke to God.
Referring to Trump’s intention to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, Saudi Arabia’s king said: “such a dangerous step is likely to inflame the passions of Muslims around the world due to the great status of Jerusalem and the al-Aqsa Mosque”.
3. The Site’s Status Quo
Since 1967, Jordan and Israel agreed that the Waqf, or the Islamic trust, would have control over matters inside the compound, while Israel would control external security. Non-Muslims would be allowed onto the site during visiting hours, but would not be allowed to pray there.
But rising Temple movements, such as the Temple Mount Faithful and the Temple Institute, have challenged the Israeli government’s ban on allowing Jews to enter the compound, and they aim to rebuild the Third Jewish Temple in the compound.
Such groups are funded by members of the Israeli government, though it claims a desire to maintain the status quo at the site.
Today, Israeli forces routinely allow groups, some in the hundreds, of Jewish settlers who live in occupied Palestinian territories to descend on the al-Aqsa compound under police and army protection, stirring Palestinian fears of an Israeli takeover of the compound.
In 1990, the Temple Mount Faithful declared it would lay a cornerstone for the Third Temple in place of the Dome of the Rock, leading to riots and a massacre in which 20 Palestinians were killed by Israeli police.
In 2000, Israeli politician Ariel Sharon entered the holy site accompanied by some 1,000 Israeli police, deliberately reiterating Israeli claims to the contested area in light of then Prime Minister Ehud Barak’s US-brokered peace negotiations with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, which included discussions on how the two sides could share Jerusalem.
Sharon’s entrance to the compound unleashed the Second Intifada, in which more than 3,000 Palestinians and some 1,000 Israelis were killed.
In May 2017, the Israeli cabinet held its weekly meeting in tunnels below al-Aqsa Mosque, on the 50th anniversary of the Israeli occupation of East Jerusalem, “to mark the liberation and unification of Jerusalem” — a move that infuriated Palestinians.
Israel already restricts Palestinian entry into the compound through several methods, including the separation wall, built in the early 2000s, which restricts the entry of Palestinians from the West Bank into Israel.
Of the three million Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, only those over a certain age are allowed access to Jerusalem on Fridays, while others must apply for a hard-to-obtain permit from Israeli authorities.
The restrictions already cause serious congestion and tension at checkpoints between the West Bank and Jerusalem, where tens of thousands must pass through security checks to enter Jerusalem to pray.
4. Recent Tensions
Tensions have been simmering near al-Aqsa for the past two years. In 2015, clashes broke out after hundreds of Jews tried to enter the mosque complex to commemorate a Jewish holiday.
A year later, protests also erupted after visits by groups of Jewish settlers to the compound during the last 10 days of Islam’s holy month of Ramadan, in contravention of tradition.
Most clashes in the compound have occurred because of Israeli settlers trying to pray within the compound, which directly violates the status quo.
Tensions have risen after Israel shut down al-Aqsa Mosque compound for the first time since 1969, after a deadly gun battle between Palestinian citizens of Israel and Israeli forces.
The attack, which took place on July 14, ended in the deaths of two Israeli police officers and three Palestinian attackers. Israel subsequently closed the site for Friday prayers and reopened it the following Sunday with new measures of control, including metal detectors and additional cameras, at the compound’s entrances.
Palestinians refused to enter the compound until Israel removed the new measures, which were seen as the latest move by Israel to impose control and Judaise the city. Meanwhile, protesters prayed outside the gates.
During Friday prayers in July 2017, thousands of Palestinians came out to pray in the streets outside of Lion’s Gate, one of the entrances to the Old City. Tension raged after peaceful demonstrations were violently suppressed by Israeli forces, resulting in hundreds of injuries. Four Palestinians were shot dead in occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank, one of whom was shot by an Israeli settler.
Israel had deployed 3,000 Israeli police and border police units around the compound.
5. The Greater Context
Al-Aqsa is a small area within Palestine, but symbolically it is a large part of the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians.
Though the mosque itself is significant for Muslims especially, Palestinian Christians have also protested against Israeli encroachment on the compound, joining Muslims in prayer outside Lion’s Gate on Friday.
“The issue of al-Haram al-Sharif stands as a symbolic, but very strong catalyser of the routine of injustice and oppression that Palestinians in Jerusalem are facing, and that causes a continuous eruption of popular anger and uprisings,” Yara Jalajel, a former legal adviser to the Palestinian minister of foreign affairs, told Al Jazeera in July 2017.
With more restrictions placed on Palestinian access to the compound and ongoing calls by Israeli religious groups to allow Jews to pray at the site, many Palestinians fear a possible division of the compound.
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