What does the ‘status quo’ mean at Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque?

The authorized standing of Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, recognized to Jews because the Temple Mount, is a recurring flashpoint within the Israel-Palestine battle.

Final week, Israeli police raided the Al-Aqsa Mosque, attacking and arresting Palestinian worshippers who had been contained in the prayer corridor. Rockets had been shot into Israel from Gaza and Lebanon in retaliation, resulting in a quick flare-up in violence.

In 2021, an identical raid led to an 11-day Israeli assault on the Gaza Strip.

To know how a single police raid can precipitate a conflict, one should perceive the established order governing the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound.

What’s the establishment?

For Palestinians – and underneath worldwide legislation – the matter is kind of easy.

“Israel doesn’t have sovereignty over [East] Jerusalem and due to this fact doesn’t have sovereignty over Al-Aqsa,” which is in Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem, says Khaled Zabarqa, a Palestinian authorized skilled on the town and the compound. Consequently, Zabarqa says, worldwide legislation dictates that Israel will not be authorised to implement any establishment.

For the Palestinians and the Waqf, the Jordanian-appointed physique that manages the Al-Aqsa compound, it’s a establishment rooted within the website’s administration underneath the Ottoman Empire, which dictated that Muslims have unique management of Al-Aqsa, in line with Nir Hasson, a journalist for Haaretz overlaying Jerusalem.

The Israelis, nonetheless, see issues otherwise, regardless of worldwide legislation not recognising any try by an occupying energy to annex territory it has occupied.

“The established order that Israelis talk about is totally completely different from the established order that the Waqf and Palestinians talk about,” explains Hasson.

For Israel, the established order refers to a 1967 settlement formulated by Moshe Dayan, a former Israeli defence minister. After Israel occupied East Jerusalem, Dayan proposed a brand new association primarily based on the Ottoman settlement.

In keeping with Israel’s 1967 establishment, the Israeli authorities permits the Waqf to take care of day-to-day management of the realm, and solely Muslims are permitted to hope there. Nonetheless, Israeli police management the positioning’s entry and are accountable for safety, and non-Muslims are allowed to go to the positioning as vacationers.

Shmuel Berkovits, a lawyer and skilled on holy locations in Israel, says the established order established in 1967 will not be protected by any Israeli legislation. In reality, in 1967, Dayan established the established order with out the federal government’s authority, he says.

Since 1967, laws, courtroom actions and statements by the Israeli authorities created a framework for this establishment. Whereas no Israeli legislation prohibits Jews from praying at Al-Aqsa, the Israeli Supreme Courtroom determined that the prohibition is justified to take care of the peace, explains Berkovits.

For a lot of Israelis, even that is thought of “beneficiant”, in gentle of their victory within the 1967 conflict.

Latest adjustments to the established order

Between 1967 and 2000, non-Muslims might purchase tickets from the Waqf to go to the positioning as vacationers. Nonetheless, after the Palestinians’ second Intifada, or rebellion, broke out in 2000 following former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s contentious go to to Al-Aqsa, the Waqf closed the positioning to guests.

The positioning stayed closed to guests till 2003, when Israel compelled the Waqf to acquiesce to the entry of non-Muslims. Since then, non-Muslim guests have been restricted by the Israeli police to restricted hours and particular days.

In keeping with Hasson, the Waqf doesn’t acknowledge these guests, and considers them “intruders”.

In 2015, a four-way settlement between Israel, Palestine, Jordan and america reaffirmed the 1967 establishment. As a part of the settlement, Israeli chief Benjamin Netanyahu reaffirmed his nation’s dedication to the established order.

Whereas the 1967 model of the established order remains to be given lip service right this moment, Zabarqa says: “That is an try and mislead worldwide public opinion.”

Since 2017, Jews have tacitly been allowed to hope within the compound, in line with Eran Zedekiah, from the Hebrew College of Jerusalem and the Regional Considering Discussion board.

Not all Jews are responsible of those breaches. In reality, earlier than coming into the Al-Aqsa compound, guests cross an indication warning Jews that the Chief Rabbinate forbids them from coming into due to the holiness of the positioning.

It’s primarily non secular Zionists, at present represented in Israel’s authorities by hardliners just like the far-right Safety Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who pray on the website and apply strain to vary the established order, says Hasson.

For them, this strain has paid off. Hasson says the police have given the Jews who pray on the Al-Aqsa compound extra freedom since 2017.

Zabarqa laments that the Israeli police power “has reworked itself from an expert physique that preserves the rule of legislation to a physique that gives safety for individuals breaking the legislation”.

Palestinians, in the meantime, see these adjustments as an try and “make the compound Jewish and to dismiss the Muslims and Islam from Al-Aqsa”, says Zabarqa.

For them, Al-Aqsa is the final small nook of Palestine not underneath full Israeli occupation.

Hasson says Palestinians due to this fact take satisfaction in resisting Israel’s occupation of the positioning, but when Palestinians lose Al-Aqsa, it will likely be as if “it’s all misplaced. Nothing is left.”