The esplanade of the Mosques, where the new Israeli minister of national security and figure of the Jewish supremacist movement, Itamar Ben Gvir, went on Tuesday, January 3, is a place where the slightest incident can degenerate. Over the past decade, this is where all major Palestinian uprisings have started. Beyond its religious and symbolic stakes, it served as an outlet and revealer of the frustrations and anger accumulated over the years. The formation of the new Israeli government could further heighten tensions.
- What is the Esplanade des Mosques or Temple Mount?
Called Temple Mount by Jews, it is the holiest site in Judaism and the third holiest in Islam, after Mecca and Medina. The esplanade covers 14 hectares on the heights of the eastern part of the city, occupied by Israel since the Six-Day War in June 1967, then annexed in 1980, which the Palestinians want to make the capital of the state to which they aspire.
Named Al-Haram al-Sharif (“noble sanctuary”) or simply Al-Aqsa by Muslims, the site houses the Dome of the Rock, the most imposing building built on the site where, according to tradition, Abraham offered a son in sacrifice and from where the Prophet Muhammad ascended to heaven. To the south of the esplanade is the Al-Aqsa Mosque (or “distant mosque”), built in the 7the century, after the capture of Jerusalem by Caliph Omar.
It is built on the site where Solomon’s temple stood, built in the 10th century.e century BC and destroyed by the Romans in the year 70, which would have housed the Ark of the Covenant. The Wailing Wall (or Western Wall), its most important known vestige which supported the esplanade where the building was located, is considered by the Jews as the most sacred place of prayer, because of its proximity to the “holy saints”, the central part of the destroyed temple.
- Who manages the site and what are the rules?
Despite the capture of East Jerusalem by the Israeli army in 1967, the esplanade remains managed by the Waqf, an Islamic foundation financed and directed by Jordan. Guards employed by the foundation are responsible for ensuring compliance with religious rules, but security is provided by the Israeli police.
Under a historic status quo that the State of Israel pledged to respect in 1967, Muslims can go there at any time of the day and night, and Jews, like all non- Muslims, can access it at certain times, under strict surveillance and only via the Maghrebian gate (or Refuse gate), but are not authorized to pray there, nor to enter it in possession of religious symbols. In recent years, extremists have been claiming this right and are going there in increasing numbers to pray more or less ostensibly. According to the group beyadenuwhich coordinates their actions, 50,000 Jewish visitors – often the same ones – were counted between September 2021 and September 2022 (which corresponds to the Jewish year), twice as many as the previous year.
The increasing presence of these visitors and the rites that some perform there frequently arouse tensions with Muslims, who fear that the Jewish state will modify the conditions of access and the rules, as Itamar Ben claims. Gvir. His arrival in the government, which is moreover at the head of the police forces responsible for the security of the premises, strongly fuels these fears. The Waqf regularly protests, but has no power to oppose it, and the Israeli police seem increasingly lenient towards supporters of “equal rights” for Jews and Muslims.
- What is the position of the ruling coalition?
The agreements that allowed Binyamin Netanyahu to form his sixth government with several ultra-Orthodox and far-right religious parties such as that of Itamar Ben Gvir, the driving force behind the Religious Zionism list, which won 14 of the 120 seats in the Knesset, claim that “The Jewish people have an exclusive and inalienable right to all parts of the land of Israel” and “the government will encourage and develop settlement in all parts of the land of Israel,” including in the occupied West Bank. In the guidelines of its program, which are not binding, the coalition nevertheless promises to respect the “status quo on matters of religion and state (…), including with regard to holy places”.
The ultra-Orthodox Shass and United Torah Judaism parties, members of the coalition, are hostile to any questioning of the status quo, as is the chief rabbinate of Israel, for which the current situation does not allow the faithful to observe the rites of purification necessary to tread on the Holy of Holies. Itamar Ben Gvir, who had already been there several times when he was an MP, is on the other hand very openly campaigning in this direction and has extended powers. A law passed recently in the Knesset, which he had made a condition of his entry into government, grants him the authority necessary to define general police policy and establish “general principles of action”. However, it is the police who, in fact, determine the policy regarding Jewish prayers and visiting hours at the Temple Mount.
On the eve of his last visit to the esplanade, he had been received by Benyamin Netanyahu. The Likud, from which the head of government comes, confirmed that it did not oppose it.
- What is the weight of the partisans of “equal rights” and what do they demand?
Before the legislative elections, Beyadenu presented the candidates of several parties, including the Likud, with a list of demands including the granting of freedom of worship to Jews, equal visiting hours between Jews and Muslims or the opening of the site for Jews on Shabbat. According to the organization, which also campaigns for the eventual construction of a synagogue on the site, several members of the Religious Zionist Party and Likud have approved some.
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Equal rights may seem like a legitimate demand, but if the Palestinians oppose it so strongly, it is because they know that it is intended to gradually oust them from the old city, on the model of what is happening in Hebron.
In 2021, after the arrest of an overzealous faithful, a Jerusalem court concluded that discreet prayers were not prohibited on the esplanade of the Mosques, but the judgment was overturned on appeal.
- What consequences might a change in the status quo have?
Any attempt to change the status quo in force on the esplanade of the Mosques will be considered a declaration of war, the Palestinian Authority warned on the eve of Itamar Ben Gvir’s visit. In fact, most of the Israeli initiatives on the site have given rise to violent reactions.
In 1996, the opening of a new access to a tunnel which passes near the esplanade of the Mosques, a gesture perceived on the Palestinian side as a desecration of this holy place, caused clashes which left more than 80 dead in three days. .
On September 28, 2000, the visit to the esplanade of Ariel Sharon, then leader of the opposition and leader of the Israeli right, was the triggering event of the second Intifada, the Palestinian uprising.
In July 2017, the installation of metal detectors at several entrances to the site gave rise to new clashes. Ten days after their installation, the government of Benyamin Netanyahu had to resolve to dismantle them to defuse the crisis.
In May 2021, after several days of great tension, it was the attempted incursion of Jewish worshipers, including Itamar Ben Gvir, on the occasion of a show of nationalist force, and the ensuing Israeli repression against the Palestinians , inside the Al-Aqsa Mosque itself, which sparked Hamas rocket fire and an eleven-day war in Gaza.
In the spring of 2022, the intervention of Israeli forces on the esplanade of the Mosques and their entry into the Al-Aqsa mosque to dislodge young Palestinians determined to ” defend “ after a call by Jewish extremists to perform the ritual sacrifice of a lamb at the site, which had no chance of succeeding, left several dozen injured and resulted in the closure of the West Bank.