Messages Behind the Escalation at Al-Aqsa in the Holiday Period
We have grown accustomed to seeing
aggression against the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosqueintensify in both scale and nature with every Hebrew holiday season. Over the
past decade, the upward trend of assaults and incursions has become a clear
pattern, to the point that it can now be said: the status quo at Al-Aqsa has,
in fact, changed on the ground and is no longer as it once was in any way.
The most recent holiday season that
passed over Al-Aqsa encompassing the Jewish New Year, Yom Kippur, the Feast of Tabernacles, and concluding with the anniversary of the “Al-Aqsa Flood”
operation on the Hebrew calendar (which coincides with the day after the
so-called “Simchat Torah” holiday marking the end of the Feast of Tabernacles)
— served as a vivid example of the dramatic escalation in both the frequency
and intensity of these assaults.
Record-Breaking Al-Aqsa Incursions
In terms of numbers, this season
witnessed the highest count of intruders since the beginning of the occupation.
This pattern has become common in recent years with every holiday season, as
extremist Temple groups
exert their full efforts each time to set new records in the number of
intruders — seeking to prove, first to themselves and then to Muslims, that the
settlers’ presence inside Al-Aqsa Mosque and the steady increase in incursions
have become a defining feature of every such season year after year.
Therefore, recording and counting the
number of intruders — and highlighting their increase compared to previous
years has now become a method used by extremist right-wing
groups in the occupying state to showcase their growing power within Israeli
society and their ability to attract more followers, persuading them to
disregard the Chief Rabbinate’s ruling that forbids entering the Al-Aqsa Mosque
area due to what it considers a lack of ritual purity.
Thus, daily counts of intruders in
Al-Aqsa Mosque have become a tool for these groups in their psychological
warfare against Muslims in Jerusalem and beyond, through which they seek to
demonstrate the growth of their power in contrast to the declining presence of
Muslims inside the mosque.
Protecting Al‑Aqsa requires escalating
the situation.
In this context, we observed during
this year’s intrusion season that the occupation effectively implemented the
literal concept of “time slots” in Al-Aqsa in full detail. They ensured that
the number of Muslims inside the mosque during intrusion periods did not exceed
around 50 including guards, staff, and worshippers while
up to 1,200 settlers gathered at the same time inside the mosque, facilitated
by the occupation police’s measures that encouraged such large numbers.
The huge, unprecedented gap in numbers
in the history of Al‑Aqsa shows we are facing a new reality that is practically
a “near‑surrender” on the Muslim side — and I feel compelled to use that harsh
term! There is no real meaning in having anywhere from about 40 to 5,000
worshippers attend Al‑Aqsa for Friday prayers while there are no more than some
50 people during intrusion periods, except as surrender to the reality the
occupation is trying to impose on Jerusalemites, Palestinians, and Muslims
alike. Thus, the settlers get their days, and the Muslims get theirs; Muslims
do not try to reach Al‑Aqsa at times when the occupation prevents them. And if,
hypothetically, on one of the major settler intrusion days 40,000 Muslims
gathered and insisted on entering Al‑Aqsa, the occupation would then face a
real crisis.
Now that the occupation sees what it
considers our acceptance of the status quo and our lack of attempts to
challenge it, it will continue to escalate its measures and seek to expand
them. In its view, this will become the “new normal,” granting the occupation a
perceived right to dominate Al‑Aqsa Mosque at specific times and on designated
days.
This is, in truth, primarily the
responsibility of political and community leaders. They must instill this
awareness among the people and make clear the necessity of escalating the
situation at Al-Aqsa against the occupation, rather than trying to avoid the
confrontation. Such confrontation is unavoidable if Al-Aqsa is to be genuinely
protected on the ground, not just with slogans and words.
Systematic Judaization
As for the nature of the intrusions,
the insistence of the terrorist Itamar Ben-Gvir
on entering Al-Aqsa Mosque twice during this religious season, and his
eagerness to lead public prayers himself inside the mosque, confirms what we
have always warned: the occupation will not be satisfied with mere entry and
visitation, as former U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry claimed in 2015 during
his infamous agreements that, unfortunately, deceived the Arab world at the
time.
The occupation’s goal is, in fact, to
establish a synagogue within Al-Aqsa, which it sees as merely a prelude to
complete control over the mosque and its full takeover, just as it did with the
Ibrahimi Mosque
in Hebron. The Arab and Islamic world remained silent as it was gradually
seized under the pretext of not giving the occupation an excuse to repeat its
brutal massacres against our people in Hebron, such as the Ibrahimi Mosque
massacre in 1994. This year, the occupation went further by transferring the
mosque’s administration from the Palestinian Ministry of Awqaf to the religious
council of the Kiryat Arba settlement. This is exactly what it aims for in
Al-Aqsa but unfortunately at a faster pace, with
greater recklessness and intensity.
For the record, the last step we
mentioned above at the Ibrahimi Mosque is now nearly a reality at Al-Aqsa. The
occupation has established what is called the “Temple Mount Administration”
inside Al-Aqsa in an unofficial capacity, initiated solely by some settlers.
Yet, officials in the occupation government treat this administration as
official, as if it were a fully recognized authority on the ground. Meanwhile,
the real administration — the Islamic Waqf in Jerusalem is
treated as having a role limited solely to managing the Islamic presence in
Al-Aqsa. It is prohibited from intervening in the affairs of the settlers who
intrude into Al-Aqsa daily, especially during religious holiday seasons and
major intrusion events.
If this indicates anything, it shows
that the occupation now treats Al-Aqsa as a shared holy site rather than an
exclusively Islamic one and this is just the beginning.
The criminal Ben-Gvir made an
extremely dangerous statement during his first intrusion into Al-Aqsa this
year, during the Feast of Tabernacles. From inside the mosque, he declared that
his state had “triumphed” in its war, based on its advances in Al-Aqsa over
recent years, which have made settlers’ prayers in the mosque publicly accepted
and normalized. This statement is highly perilous and should not have gone
unnoticed by Arab and Muslim politicians or by the Arab and Muslim peoples. The
occupation views its struggle in Al-Aqsa as paramount, above all else, and it
is our duty as a nation to respond accordingly.
The solution is clear and singular:
escalation — even if the people are forced toward a third intifada. Escalating
the situation at Al‑Aqsa and in Jerusalem is the only way to make the
occupation feel that approaching the holy sites carries an unbearably high
price it cannot pay. Otherwise, this deadly silence will amount to tacit
consent to the loss of Al‑Aqsa and its complete handover to them, in that case,
farewell to our nation.
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