Holy lockout

The thrice holy season has been disrupted by unholy rows as Israel has denied Muslims and Christians access to their holy sites in occupied East Jerusalem and Hebron. At the end of February, Israel closed Al-Aqsa Mosque entirely, citing security concerns due to the war waged by Israel and the US on Iran. The shutdown, which extended through Ramadan to Eid al-Fitr, was the first since 1967 when Israel conquered East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza.

While Israel also prevented Israelis from entering the mosque compound during this period, there were concerns that extremist settlers would be allowed to storm Al-Aqsa and perform animal sacrifice to mark Passover, April 1-9, as they did in 2025.

The compound is located on Mount Moriah which Jews believe to be the site of the First Temple, that existed between the 10th and 6th centuries BCE; and the Second Temple, destroyed by the Romans in 70 BCE. For religious Jews, the compound is their holiest site, but they observe a religious prohibition against entering the compound. Instead, they recite their prayers at the Western Wall of the compound. Many Orthodox Jews believe that rebuilding a Third Temple will herald the coming of the Messiah and redemption.

Israel has also closed the massive 4th-century Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem’s Old City and banned Palestinian Christians from attending services during the Lent fasting season and Easter celebrated on the 5th by Western churches and the 12th by Orthodox churches. This is the first time in centuries there has been such a ban. According to Christian belief, Jesus was crucified and resurrected at this site.

On March 29, the traditional Palm Sunday procession from the Mount of Olives into the Old City was cancelled for security reasons. The Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Cardinal Pizzaballa, and the Franciscan custodian of the Holy Land, Father Francesco Ielpo, were also halted en route to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre by Israeli police and barred from entering the church for the first time in centuries. After high-level Catholic intervention with the Israeli authorities, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu agreed to allow restricted access. However, public services remain banned at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and other churches as well as Al-Aqsa. The church issued a statement calling the ban “a grave precedent”, and one that disregarded “the sensibilities of billions of people around the world who [during this period] look to Jerusalem.”

A press release said: “Since the outset of the war, the heads of churches have complied with all imposed restrictions: public gatherings were cancelled, attendance was prohibited, and arrangements were made to broadcast the celebrations to hundreds of millions of faithful worldwide, who turn their eyes to Jerusalem and to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.”

While the Western world has largely remained mum over Israel’s actions, the foreign ministers of the Emirates, Turkey, Egypt, Jordan, Indonesia, Pakistan, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia have rejected restrictions imposed by Israel on Muslims and Christians in occupied East Jerusalem. They stated, “These continued Israeli measures constitute a flagrant violation of international law, including international humanitarian law, as well as of the existing legal and historical status quo.” They argued the restrictions infringe on the unrestricted right of access to places of worship.

In 1980, Israel formally and unilaterally annexed East Jerusalem as its capital. While the majority of countries do not recognise this move, in December 2017, the US, under the first Trump administration, became the first country to officially recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and in 2018 shifted its embassy to the contested Holy City. While most states keep their embassies in Tel Aviv, a few others – including Guatemala, Honduras, and Kosovo – have also opened diplomatic offices in Jerusalem.

Since 1924, Jordan has been the internationally recognized, historic custodian of Muslim and Christian holy sites in Jerusalem and under the 1994 peace treaty with Jordan, Israel recognised Amman’s role which was reaffirmed in a 2013 agreement with the Palestinian Authority. Nevertheless, Israel has striven to undermine the status quo and has stepped up these efforts since the Second Intifada (2000–2005). Israel has limited the Waqf’s authority over access to the mosque compound and allowed incursions by Israeli settlers under police protection without Waqf approval. The Israelis have also permitted Jewish prayer and rituals within the compound despite long-standing prohibition.

While these closures are the first in Jerusalem, Israel maintains barriers to the holy sites, for West Bank Palestinians who must obtain hard-to-get permits to enter occupied Jerusalem while only a couple of hundred Gazans have been allowed to visit their holy sites. Last year, Israel said it issued 6,000 permits to enter the city of Jerusalem from the West Bank for Easter. “The Guardian” reported that only 4,000 were delivered to the estimated 50,000 Christians who live in the West Bank.

While tightening its grip on Jerusalem’s holy sites, Israel has also increased restrictions at the Ibrahimi Mosque known to Jews as the Cave of the Patriarchs at al-Khalil/Hebron. The mosque is the world’s oldest sacred building used for worship in a continuous manner until today. It is believed to host the remains of the prophet Abraham, his wife Sarah, their son Isaac and grandson Jacob, and their wives Rebecca and Leah. After 1994, Israel began to assert its control by closing off large areas in Hebron’s Old City and the area surrounding the mosque which was divided between 200,000 Muslims and a 700–800 Jewish settlers. In 1997, Israel and the Palestinian Authority signed the Hebron Agreement which divided the city into two sectors: H1, 80 per cent under Palestinian control, and 20 per cent under Israeli control, including 40,000 Palestinians, the mosque and the Old City. Palestinians face displacement by means of intensified military lockdowns, daily settler attacks on homes, schools, and livestock. Following the October 2023 Gazan attacks on southern Israel, settlers protected by the Israeli army established illegal outposts in the Old City and invaded and seized Palestinian homes while Palestinians suffered closures, harassment, restrictions and repression.

Photo: TNS