Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir led hundreds of settlers in storming Al-Aqsa Mosque complex on Sunday, were they loudly performed Jewish Talmudic prayer, under a heavy police guard, and attempted to antagonise Muslim worshippers.
Videos seen by Middle East Eye showed hundreds of settlers storming the courtyards of Al-Aqsa Mosque, where some could be seen dancing and shouting, disrupting the sanctity of the Muslim place of worship.
The status quo in Jerusalem has long maintained that Jewish prayer is forbidden on the raised plateau in occupied East Jerusalem’s Old City, where Al-Aqsa Mosque stands.
However, over the past century, Zionist groups have repeatedly violated the fragile arrangement, launching unprecedented attacks on one of Islam’s holiest sites.
Residents in Jerusalem’s Old City told MEE that before and after Ben Gvir’s raid, the area had come to resemble a “military base” due to the “many checkpoints” that had been set up and the “heavy Israeli security presence”.
They said that Israeli forces severely restricted Palestinians from accessing the mosque, with only a few residents allowed to pass.
Speaking to reporters after the raid, Ben Gvir said: “The Temple Mount is for the Jews, and we will remain here forever.”
Since becoming a minister in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, Ben Gvir has led at least 11 assaults on the mosque. Meanwhile, several other far-right politicians have advocated for the destruction of Al-Aqsa and the construction of a temple where they claim Jewish temples once stood.
Among the hundreds of people to take part in Sunday’s raid was right-wing Likud lawmaker Amit Halevi, who has repeatedly advocated for Israel to destroy all water, food and energy sources in Gaza.
In June 2023, he tabled a bill that would divide Al-Aqsa Mosque between Muslims and Jews, a plan that would see shared access from the courtyard of the Dome of the Rock to the end of the northern border of Al-Aqsa Mosque.
Palestinians fear that the incursions at Al-Aqsa, which have intensified since Israel went to war on Gaza in October 2023, are laying the groundwork for the mosque to be divided similar to how the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron was in the 1990s.
Muslims currently have limited access to that site, and just last month, Israel transferred the authority of the mosque from the Palestinian-run Hebron municipality to a settler council.
‘Incitement to violence’
Aouni Bazbaz, the director of international affairs at the Islamic Waqf, the organisation that administers Al-Aqsa Mosque, described Sunday’s raid as “painful and regrettable”, telling MEE that it was a threat to the “historical status quo and an incitement to violence”.
“There were terrifying numbers of people [Israeli settlers] present, and some were important figures,” he said.
“This was part of a project. The extreme religious right seeks to undermine the status quo and to follow the example of the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron.
“There are no worshippers here right now, the place is empty, the Old City is empty. It’s a military barracks,” he added.
The Jerusalem Governorate also decried the raid and appealed to the international community, in particular Muslim states, “to take immediate action”.
“What happened today is not just a traditional incursion. Rather, it represents a pivotal stage aimed at forcibly imposing Jewish sovereignty over Al-Aqsa Mosque and dividing it spatially between Muslims and settlers, after the occupation authorities have persisted in imposing a temporal division over the past years,” it said.
“The Jerusalem Governorate considers this escalation to be a declaration of religious war against Islamic and Christian holy sites and a prelude to a comprehensive explosion whose flames could spread beyond the borders of Palestine, threatening security and stability in the region and the world,” it added.
The Jordanian foreign ministry also strongly condemned the raid, calling it “an unacceptable provocation and an indecent escalation”.
“The repeated entries of extremist settlers into Al-Aqsa Mosque constitute a serious violation of the existing historical and legal situation, an attempt to impose a division in time and space, and a desecration of the sanctity of the place,” the Jordanian foreign ministry spokesman, Ambassador Sufyan al-Qudah, said.
Source: MEE
