Extremists at Al Aqsa Mosque will lead Israel to ruin, head of Awqaf says

Religious ultra-nationalists have been encouraging more incursions into the site

Jewish ultra-nationalists, emboldened by the Israel-Gaza war, have been encouraging more incursions into Al Aqsa. Reuters

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Days after Israel's forces captured East Jerusalem in early June 1967, Moshe Dayan, the defence minister who led the attack, met prominent Palestinian figures at Al Aqsa Mosque compound. He told them that site management would remain with Jordan, the kingdom whose troops he had just been fighting in the Arab-Israeli War.

The soldier-politician possessed political acumen, unlike the extremists in Israel's current government, says Sheikh Azzam Al Tamimi, head of the Jordanian-run Jerusalem Religious Affairs Department.

Religious ultra-nationalists, emboldened by the Israel-Gaza war, have been encouraging more incursions into Al Aqsa. They have also been restricting the entry of Muslims – especially younger people – while encouraging Jews to pray there, which many Muslims view as provocative.

Sheikh Azzam has worked at Al Aqsa as an employee of the Jordanian government division, known as the Awqaf, since 1973 and became its head in 2007.

From his office, in an Ottoman-era building at the entrance of the complex, he says Mr Dayan realised that Israel could not afford to antagonise Muslims worldwide by trespassing on Al Aqsa's grounds.

A computer screen on his desk displays feeds from cameras monitoring parts of the 150,000 square metre compound. They show Israeli soldiers posted inside, contrary to what Mr Dayan wanted. He had ordered the withdrawal of Israeli soldiers from the site, stationing them only at its main doors, and that the Israeli flag be taken down from the nearby Dome of the Rock.

“He knew that Al Aqsa was so important to the Muslim world, and that it was not theirs [Israel's] to occupy,” Sheikh Azzam says.

Israel is “the one with the weapons”, and as the occupying power it is obliged to protect the mosque, but it does not have the right to station troops there, he says.

Even before 1967, the Awqaf allowed Christians and Jews into Al Aqsa compound on the condition that they respect that it is a wholly Muslim place of worship by not praying there. The arrangement is part of what Jordan says is the status quo ante – the situation that existed before the war in which occupying forces are not allowed to change.

Sheikh Azzam says the postwar actions by Mr Dayan, and the 1994 peace treaty between Jordan and Israel, mean that the Awqaf should retain control over entry to the site and that Jews should be banned from praying or performing rituals there.

However, they are being increasingly encouraged to do so by the ultra-nationalists who form a core component of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government.

Last month, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said he “would put an Israeli flag” in the complex and build a synagogue there if he could. The Ministry of Heritage also announced plans to finance tours for Jews and tourists to the compound.

Mr Ben-Gvir and other extremists “will lead Israel to ruin”, Sheikh Azzam says. “They will make everyone hate the Jewish people. They want to bring Al Aqsa down. But it will be always a Muslim place of worship,” he says. “No one would remain silent if their holy places are violated.”

Built sometime between the late 8th and early 9th century under the Damascus-based Umayyad Caliphate, Al Aqsa became a symbol of Islam’s golden era, and a connection between the religion, which was born in inner Arabia, and Jerusalem, the crown jewel of many conquests.

Jordan's claim to the right to administer Al Aqsa is based on the custodianship awarded in the 1920s by Palestinian religious leaders to Sharif Hussein bin Ali, a great grandfather of Jordan's King Abdullah II, who led efforts to raise money in the Middle East and beyond to renovate the mosque. He died in 1931 and is buried in the grounds of Al Aqsa.

But since the Gaza war began last October, Israel has increased restrictions on the entry of worshippers into Al Aqsa, especially of young males. Worshippers from the occupied West Bank have been unable to pray there because Israel barred entry to Palestinians from the occupied territory after the war began.

The restrictions are more severe at dawn prayers on Friday, which are highly popular with the faithful, says Sheikh Azzam.

“Israel cannot intercept any Muslim who wants to pray at Al Aqsa,” he says, pointing out that only the Awqaf should authorise who is let in and who to keep out.

Israel must also stop incursions by Jewish worshippers to restore the pre-1967 war status quo, he says, and remove troops who have turned Al Aqsa “into a camp, inside and out”.

“They are trying to change the religious and legal and historical status in Jerusalem. It is very dangerous,” says Sheikh Azzam.