Al-Aqsa Mosque
by Micki Luckey
“The most contested piece of territory in the Holy Land,” the Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem has been a hot spot for Israeli provocations and Palestinian defense for decades. Just this week (on August 12, 2024) over 2200 Israeli settlers and ultranationalists stormed the Al-Aqsa compound accompanying Itamar Ben-Gvir, the far right National Security Minister, who used the occasion to promise to defeat Hamas. While police prevented the intruders from entering the mosque itself, they allowed Ben-Gvir to lead prayers at the site, which is illegal.
Each Israeli incursion into the Al-Aqsa compound (and there have been many, see below) is painful to the Muslims who worship there and see their holy sanctuary under threat. Indeed, a similar foray on the mosque led by Ariel Sharon triggered the Second Intifada, called the Al-Aqsa Intifada. And last year Hamas named their October 7 insurrection Operation Al-Aqsa Flood. What is the history of Al-Aqsa, and why is it so crucial to Palestinian resistance?
The Al-Aqsa Mosque is the holiest Islamic site in Palestine and the third most holy in the world, after Mecca and Medina. The mosque is situated on a 34.6-acre compound that includes the Dome of the Rock in the old city of Jerusalem, which has been occupied by Israel since the 1967 war. Known as al-Haram al-Sharif (the Noble Sanctuary), it is believed by Muslims to be the site where the Prophet Muhammed rose to heaven and is visited by thousands of Muslim worshipers each year. The mosque was built in the 7th century by the caliphs who reigned following the death of Muhammed and rebuilt following an earthquake in the 11th century. The Jerusalem Waqf, an Islamic foundation in Jordan, administers the care and finances of the mosque.
The site is also holy to Judaism: known as the Temple Mount, it is believed to be the place where Abraham offered his son as a sacrifice. It is venerated as the location of the first two temples, Solomon’s Temple (10th to 6th century BCE) and Herod’s Temple (516 BCE to 70 CE.) A destination for pilgrims for over a century (except between the wars of 1948 and 1967), the Western Wall of the Temple Mount is the most visited holy site for Jews. However, scant archeological evidence and skepticism about the literal truth of the biblical texts leave questions about the location of the temples. (Finkelstein, Israel; Silberman, Neil Asher (2002), The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology’s New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Sacred Texts) Today there are organizations in Israel that want to build/rebuild a temple to replace the mosque (see below.)
Since Jerusalem is a holy city to three major religions, Islam, Judaism and Christianity, the 1947 UN Partition Plan stipulated it would be an international city when the state of Israel was established. In fact, Israel’s own declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel states that “it will safeguard the Holy Places of all religions.” When then Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion quickly annexed West Jerusalem, the UN General Assembly passed Resolution 303 “declaring that Jerusalem would be placed under a permanent international regime. It never was.”
When Israel occupied East Jerusalem in 1967, it agreed to accommodate worshipers in the following manner: Muslims may enter at any time, while non-Muslims, including Jews, may enter only at certain times and only through the Mughrabi Gate and are not allowed to pray there. In recent years, the number of Jewish visitors has increased and some insist on performing rituals there. Furthermore, some Israeli parties like the right-wing Likud are demanding equal visiting hours, and the ultranationalist Religious Zionist Party is campaigning for construction of a synagogue on the site. [same source]
Palestinians have reason to fear that Israeli forces will threaten the integrity of Al-Aqsa, given what took place in Hebron. Hebron is a town where 700 Jewish settlers control the lives of 200,000 Arab inhabitants (2017 population figures.) In the 1990’s Israel partitioned Hebron’s Ibrahimi Mosque, making half into a synagogue, with soldiers patrolling all entrances.
The other threat to the integrity of Al-Aqsa comes from archeological excavations that Israelis have carried out since 1967. Arabs have raised the alarm because of extensive digs to the south and to the west of the Temple Mount to which they are denied access. Expanding the excavations to the west is envisioned in a design for a ‘Jerusalem Archaeological Park’. This step could secure Israeli control of the area and “bring settlers into Palestinian parts of East Jerusalem… right up to the limits of the mosques” according to Kais Nasser, a Palestinian lawyer. When in 2014 UNESCO told Israel to stop archaeological excavations around religious sites, Israel simply suspended its cooperation with UNESCO.
Provocations at the Mosque have increased dramatically since the 1990’s. The list includes:
· In 1996 the building of a new access tunnel near the Mosque, seen as a desecration, led to three days of clashes that killed 80 people.
· In 1999 at least 300 Israeli settlers stormed the Mosque in the first of repeated actions by settlers, protected by Israeli troops, over the next decades.
· In 2000 Ariel Sharon entered the compound accompanied by 1000 Israeli riot police, a clear provocation by the head of the Israeli right wing and future prime minister. This act, along with the failed Camp David negotiations, triggered the Second Intifada, a Palestinian uprising that lasted more than four years.
· In 2016 and again in 2018 Israel shut down the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, preventing Friday prayers during the 2018 closure.
· In 2018 and 2019 hundreds of Israeli settlers, many ultranationalists, repeatedly stormed the compound under heavy police protection.
· In 2021 Israeli police stormed the compound and fired tear gas and stun grenades at Palestinian worshippers in the prayer hall of the mosque. (Video footage captures the invasion and ensuing clash.) Hamas responded with rocket fire from Gaza toward Jerusalem, after which Israel bombarded Gaza for eleven days, killing 256 Palestinians and demolishing 94 buildings.
· In 2022 Israeli forces raided the Mosque after Palestinians tried to prevent Jewish extremists from ritual sacrifice of a lamb. Later that year, 1800 Israeli settlers escorted by military forces stormed the al-Aqsa Mosque compound, while Israeli troops besieged Palestinian worshippers inside the site.
· In 2023 Ben-Gvir, Israel’s National Security Minister, “toured” the Al-Aqsa Mosque accompanied by many security forces. This provocation was widely condemned by neighboring Arab countries, leading the UN to stress the importance of upholding the status quo in the holy sites. As described above, the incursion was repeated in 2024.
Many of these “visits” to the Al-Aqsa Mosque have been organized by the “Temple Mount groups,” an organization comprised of over 20 groups (including the Temple Mount Faithful and Beyadenu) that claim the land for Israel and promote the building of a third temple to replace the first two historically destroyed temples. According to Israeli media, the Temple Mount groups receive funding and other assistance from Israeli authorities.
Palestinian Muslims have resisted these incursions into their most holy site, leading to many clashes with settlers and Israeli troops. Hanadi Halawani gives a poignant description of the role of women, the Murabitat (steadfast women), who stood guard in the 1990s “against all attempts to degrade Al-Aqsa and to deny Palestinian rights in the occupied city.” (from “We are the Murabitat” by Hanadi Halawani in Our Vision for Liberation edited by Ramzy Baroud and Ilan Pappé ) Starting in a class at Al-Aqsa to study the Quran, these women became activists, confronting the armed settlers by forming a wall in front of them, raising their books and shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’ (God is Greater.) The women were attacked and beaten by soldiers. Halawani, along with other Palestinians, was arrested and eventually forbidden access to the Dome of the Rock.
To Hamas, established as a Palestinian wing of the Moslem Brotherhood, the attacks on Al-Aqsa Mosque are attacks on Islam and on Palestinians’ religious freedoms. Already the Palestinian Islamic Jihad had responded to the Israeli attacks at Al Aqsa Mosque in 2021 with rocket attacks that killed 12 Israeli civilians, which led to Israel bombing Gaza for 11 days.
By 2023 Hamas leaders had noted the increase in Israeli attacks at the Mosque along with the increase in paramilitary settler actions and aggressive annexation of land in the West Bank. In a televised address their commander Mohammed Deif stated, “The Israelis have attacked our worshipers and desecrated Al-Aqsa …[and] dared to harm the Prophet’s path.“ It was in response to these attacks that they named their October 7 operation the Al-Aqsa Flood.
The repeated intrusions at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound by Israeli politicians, settlers and soldiers arouse regular international condemnations. They are direct attacks on an Islamic sacred site and provocations that threaten the status quo as well as any peace process. The recent armed incursion by Ben-Gvir suggests that is the desired goal and underscores the Israeli government’s demonstrated preference for war over negotiations.
