Sacred flashpoint

Last week’s invasion by hundreds of Israeli extremists of the mosque compound on Mount Moriah in occupied East Jerusalem has been largely ignored by the region and the international community.

This challenge to Muslim sovereignty over the compound, the location of al-Aqsa mosque, the Islamic world’s third holiest site, coincided with global efforts to halt the war mounted by the US and Israel on Iran, launched on Feb. 28 with the aim of ousting the regime and installing in Tehran a US-friendly government. This power grab has not succeeded.

The extremists were accompanied by right-wing Israeli Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir who, under armed police escort, prayed, brandished the Israeli flag and sang the national anthem in an overt display of political power. Under a fragile, decades-old agreement protecting the status quo, non-Muslim prayer is prohibited at the site, known to Muslims as al-Haram al-Sharif (the Noble Sanctuary) and regarded by Jews as the site of the first and second ancient Jewish temples.

They were destroyed by Roman occupiers in 132 BC and 70 AD following Jewish revolts. Ben-Gvir has eroded the agreement in recent years by conducting a series of provocative visits to the compound, and changing the rules for Jewish visitors by allowing them to bring prayers and printed religious material to the site. On social media, Ben-Gvir wrote, “We see enormous progress here,” and Jews praying there “feel like the owners.” He has previously said he wanted to stake Israel’s claim by raising the Israeli flag and building a synagogue there.

He has the full support of the Temple Mount Faithful, an Orthodox Jewish movement based in Jerusalem with the aim of raising the Third Jewish Temple and reverting to the practice of ritual animal sacrifice.

The mosque compound and Christian churches in East Jerusalem have been protected by historic agreements governing the actions of serial occupiers of Jerusalem. These agreements adhere to a specific set of legal obligations created over centuries of practice and now are considered binding international law. The status quo supersedes any and all aspects of domestic law.

The foundations of the status quo were laid down in an Ottoman decree in 1757, reconfirmed in 1852 and codified by the 1856 international Treaty of Paris and the 1878 Treaty of Berlin. Status quo obligations were also confirmed in the 1947 United Nations’ partition plan’s statute on Jerusalem, and its maintenance became a chief concern of the international community subsequent to Israel’s 1948 war of conquest and 1967 capture of East Jerusalem and the West Bank which host Muslim and Christian holy sites. Israel seized East Jerusalem from Jordan on June 7, 1967, during the Six-Day War, placing the Old City and its holy sites under Israeli control before unilaterally expanding its municipal boundaries and annexing the area later that month. This illegal action has not been widely recognised internationally as the city’s status is meant to be decided in negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. Most foreign embassies remain in Tel Aviv, although the first Trump administration moved its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in May 2018 without officially recognising Israel’s annexation of East Jerusalem. While the US recognised Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, the US and the international community continue to view the status of East Jerusalem as contested or occupied.

Challenges to the centuries-old status quo have driven conflict in Jerusalem and Palestine, with reverberations around the world. A September 2000 incursion into the mosque compound by the Israeli opposition leader, Ariel Sharon, accompanied by hundreds of Israeli police, launched the second five-year Palestinian intifada. Hamas called its October 2023 attack on Israel “al-Aqsa flood” after accusing Israel of violating the status quo. In this raid Hamas killed 1,200 Israelis and triggered the latest Gaza war.

The mosque compound, al-Haram al-Sharif, was established in the 7th century by the Muslim Caliph Omar when his forces swept out of Arabia and founded the Arab Muslim empire which stretched from Samarkand in Uzbekistan across the Middle East, North Africa, and most of Spain. After besieging Jerusalem, the Muslim armies waited patiently for Byzantine defenders to capitulate in order to achieve the Holy City’s surrender without bloodshed. The governing Greek Orthodox Patriarch Sophronius insisted that Caliph Omar come to Jerusalem to accept the surrender. Humbled by this historic task, Omar travelled from Medina to Jerusalem with a single servant and one camel. He and the patriarch agreed on protection for Christians, their lives, properties and religious institutions provided they paid a head tax imposed on non-Muslims. At the insistence of Sophronius, Jews were excluded from the city, preserving five centuries of practice adopted by Byzantine rulers although this policy was not adopted by the Muslims. The exclusion of Jews was a consequence of Emperor Hadrian’s brutal suppression of the Jewish Bar Kokhba revolt in 132-135 CE.

Fearing that his followers would appropriate the chief Christian site, Omar also refused to enter the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and chose as the site for the mosque compound the Moriah platform, then a refuse heap, which centuries earlier hosted Rome’s Jupiter Temple. Omar constructed a simple wooden prayer hall on the site. This was expanded by the Omayyad caliphs Abd al-Malik and his son al-Walid I between 695 and 705 CE. Repeated earthquakes inflicted serious damage that required total reconstruction by Abbasid and Fatimid caliphs. The current mosque plan largely dates to Fatimid reconstruction in the 11th century. 

Repairs and maintenance of the mosque compound in Jerusalem are managed by the Jerusalem Islamic Waqf which is under the custodianship of Jordan. To function properly, Amman must overcome major political and physical restrictions enforced by the Israeli authorities.

Photo: Reuters