By Maayan Lubell, Ali Sawafta and Nidal al-Mughrabi
JERUSALEM Reuters) – After weeks of relative calm in Jerusalem, friction between Israel and Palestinians over unauthorized prayers by Jewish guests within the Al-Aqsa mosque compound is elevating the stakes at one of many Center East’s most risky holy websites.
On the compound, Islam’s third holiest web site after Mecca and Medina and Judaism’s most sacred, solely Muslim worship is allowed. Jews might not pray there. However some do. And more and more so, stoking anger amongst Palestinians.
Tensions between Palestinians and teams of Jewish guests are by no means distant however the dangers of confrontation have risen forward of Sunday when Jews mark Tisha B’Av, a holy day of mourning for historical temples which as soon as stood on the location.
On Friday, Islamist militant group Hamas urged Palestinians to defend the mosque on Sunday “with all attainable means”. The mosque’s preacher, Sheikh Ekrima Sabri, referred to as on trustworthy to attend prayers and foil “radical Jews’ plan to storm the location”.
Though solely a small minority of Jews are energetic in attempting to wish on the elevated stone plaza the place the mosque is located, visits by Jews have elevated this week, some whispering prayers on the fringe of the compound.
The shutdown of border crossings with the Gaza Strip, following the arrest of a senior Palestinian militant chief this week, has additional raised the temperature.
Clashes at Al-Aqsa, most not too long ago throughout the holy Muslim month of Ramadan, have upset the Islamic world and precipitated fear amongst international powers about faith fanning the flames of a nationwide battle they need settled by territorial compromise.
There's an unwritten “established order” settlement on Al-Aqsa that's meant to stave off any “holy warfare”.
More and more challenged by nationalist Jews, the pact preserves a rule successfully in place since Saladin’s 1187 defeat of the Crusaders: Non-Muslims can go to the compound however solely Muslims can worship there.
However whereas administration of the compound is in Muslim fingers, Israel oversees safety.
Prime Minister Yair Lapid says Israel is totally dedicated to the accord, designating those that defy it as fringe extremists who “slip via the cracks”.
However confrontations between Jewish guests, who defy the ban typically bearing flags and praying overtly, and Palestinians who attempt to drive them off with verbal and typically bodily assaults have raised criticism that the established order is just not being correctly enforced.
Whereas Israeli police say they have to intervene when violence happens, Palestinians say the police tacitly enable Jewish prayers to proceed, use extreme power towards Muslims and disrupt their worship contained in the mosque.
“We don’t need non secular warfare and we don’t desire a non secular battle. We wish Jerusalem to be calm and peaceable,” stated Sheikh Azzam Al-Khatib, director of the Waqf, the Islamic belief which oversees the location, “however hurt to Muslims’ religion is not going to be allowed.”
Palestinian fears of Israeli encroachment are mirrored within the language of normal calls to defend towards “storming” of the location which they are saying is completely Muslim.
WORSHIP/OWNERSHIP
Muslims consider the Prophet Mohammad prayed within the compound that homes the greater than 1,000-year-old Al-Aqsa mosque and Dome of the Rock shrine – earlier than ascending to heaven, and so they name it the Noble Sanctuary.
For Jews, who realize it because the Temple Mount, it's their holiest web site as a result of it housed the 2 Jewish temples of antiquity. In response to Jewish custom, it's also the place Abraham constructed Isaac’s altar.
However following Israel’s victory within the 1967 Center East warfare, when Jerusalem’s walled Outdated Metropolis was captured from Jordan, the state’s secular socialist leaders opted to maintain the established order guaranteeing Muslim stewardship of the location.
Mainstream Orthodox Judaism has additionally dominated the plaza off limits for Jews for non secular causes lest they tread the sacred grounds of the temples’ Holiest of Holies. As an alternative, Jews overwhelmingly pray on the Western Wall, just under the compound, the place worship is permitted.
However over current many years, some nationalist rabbis have steadily eased the ban and Waqf officers say that greater than 100 Jews now ascend a passageway to the compound almost day by day. Although typically the identical folks, they're excess of the handful of day by day visits 20 years in the past.
Whereas Jordan, which retained its duty for the Waqf, says Israel has been chipping away at the established order, nationalist Jews who demand the fitting to wish there need it scrapped altogether.
“The state is breaching freedom of worship on the holiest place to Jews,” stated Arnon Segal, an advocate for prayer on the web site who's vying for a seat on the Israeli parliament in November’s election.
Police sometimes permitting some to get away with a whispered verse merely isn’t sufficient, stated Segal.
Tomer Persico, an knowledgeable on modern Judaism on the Shalom Hartman Institute, stated that whereas some Jewish guests merely search a religious expertise, many “need to reveal possession and sovereignty of Israel on the Temple Mount”.
Though that view is championed by a tiny group that's largely considered by the Israeli institution as troublemakers, it's echoed by far-right Israeli lawmakers and heard by Palestinians far past Jerusalem.
For a lot of Palestinians, who search east Jerusalem – taken by Israel within the 1967 warfare – because the capital of a future state, the visits quantity to an assault on one of many central components of their very own id.
Palestinian youths who wave flags and throw stones in confrontations with police “are pushed by enthusiasm and the sensation of duty towards Al-Aqsa once they see Israelis getting into”, Palestinian political analyst Talal Okal stated.
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