Ben-Gvir is playing a dangerous game with Al-Aqsa's status quo

Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir’s recent call to change the fragile status quo of the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound to allow Jewish prayer at the holy site deliberately deepens tensions.

“I am the political leadership, and the leadership allows Jews to pray on the Temple Mount (Al-Aqsa Mosque), and I performed prayers there last week. There is no reason to prevent Jews from entering parts of the Temple Mount,” the far-right minister said during a Knesset session on 24 July.

A week earlier, the Jewish Power leader had toured the courtyard of the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in a provocative move, releasing a video saying that he had gone there to pray.

Under the status quo that has prevailed since Israel’s 1967 occupation of East Jerusalem, Jordan’s Islamic Endowments Department is responsible for managing the Al-Aqsa compound, while Israel controls its entrances.

Non-Muslims are allowed to visit the site but not to pray there. The Chief Rabbinate of Jerusalem has banned Jews from entering the Al-Aqsa compound since 1921.

Jordan’s custodianship of the holy site, known to Jews as the Temple Mount, dates back to 1924 and is recognised by the United Nations, UNESCO, the Arab League, the European Union (EU) as well as the 1994 treaty between Israel and Jordan.

Since the establishment of Israel, and most notably since the 1967 occupation of Palestinian territories, Israeli extremists have advocated for the return of Jewish prayer at the site, with some calling for the destruction of the mosque and the rebuilding of the Jewish temple.

Since the Gaza war began, these calls have grown louder.

“The extremists, including ministers in the Israeli government, want to impose a bitter reality on the mosque that will affect the faith of all Muslims because Al-Aqsa is not only for the Palestinians but rather for all Muslims in the world,” an Islamic Endowment official told The New Arab.

Such extremists are taking advantage of the current situation to carry out “crazy and reckless” acts that could enflame the entire region, he added.

“This calm and silence regarding what is happening at Al-Aqsa may be followed by an explosion of which we don’t know the consequences if the feelings of Muslims continue to be provoked.”

Gradual Israeli control of Al-Aqsa

Israeli extremists have been storming Al-Aqsa Mosque regularly since 2003, entering through the Mughariba Gate in the western wall of the mosque, and exiting through the Silsila Gate in the same wall.

Israeli officials had at that time banned Palestinians from using the Mughariba Gate, reserving it for Israelis.

Before 2000, Israeli officials usually justified such visits as individual actions, but the leader of the Israeli opposition Ariel Sharon’s highly controversial tour of the holy site in 2000 surrounded by thousands of security personnel, which sparked the Second Intifada, confirmed a political alignment with the actions of these groups.

As Israel’s politics have shifted to the right, the agenda of religious settlers has become more prominent, with Israeli officials increasingly promoting the right for Jewish prayer and for Al-Aqsa’s courtyards to be divided into Jewish and Muslim areas.

In October 2021, an Israeli court ruling allowed Jewish settlers to hold silent prayers on the Al-Aqsa compound for the first time, raising fears of Israeli encroachment on the holy site.

Visits by extremists, accompanied by Israeli police escorts, have also increased, with a 2023 report documenting a 16% rise from the previous year. The Palestinian Islamic-Christian Commission for the Safeguarding of Jerusalem reported that 4,700 Israelis had visited Al-Aqsa in April 2023.

The Temple Mount movement, a collection of organisations calling for the removal of the Jordanian Waqf’s authority and full Jewish control over the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, has also grown more powerful.

Ben-Gvir, who is himself a Temple Mount activist, is now part of Israel’s government, the most far-right coalition in Israeli history.

This means there is growing pressure on Israel’s political establishment to increase the number of extremist visits and impose more restrictions on Palestinian access.

For Abdullah Marouf, a researcher on the Al-Aqsa Mosque, Ben-Gvir’s latest statements constitute a concrete change in the status quo, something the far-right minister has never hidden his desire for.

He told The New Arab that Ben-Gvir considers Jerusalem his political playground, where he can display his strength to his political base.

While Ben-Gvir and other extremists such as Bezalel Smotrich don’t represent the entire political spectrum in Israel, they exert considerable control over Netanyahu and his decisions as members of the coalition government.

While custodianship of the Al-Aqsa Mosque belongs to Jordan, actual day-to-day control is in the hands of Israeli authorities, who storm the compound at will and restrict access to it for Palestinians when they want.

Israel’s arrest last week of Sheikh Ekrema Sabri, the Imam of Al-Aqsa Mosque, and the decision to banish him from entering the holy site speaks to this power, and its abuse, which if not restrained could lead to an unprecedented escalation in Jerusalem and beyond.

Fayha Shalash is a Ramallah-based Palestinian journalist