Al Aqsa Mosque compound braced for more Israeli incursions during Jewish holiday

Israeli rights group warns that Sukkot, which begins on Wednesday evening, could spark new violence

Palm branches are stacked up ready to be used during the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, in Jerusalem's Mea Shearim neighbourhood. AFP

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Palestinian shopping streets in the Old City were almost empty on Wednesday afternoon as Jerusalem prepared for the week-long Jewish holiday of Sukkot, one of the holiest in Judaism.

Worshippers across the city erected sukkot, temporary decorated structures that pop up across balconies every year during the celebration. Inside the walls of the Old City, where conditions are cramped, one Israeli settler household in the Muslim Quarter built a sturdier-than-usual construction on the street below with tall wooden walls.

With the festivities come significant concerns that the symbolic holiday could lead to tensions with Palestinian residents. Hardline nationalist Jews are expected to, as in previous years, increase incursions on the Al Aqsa Mosque compound and carry out controversial rituals that break a longtime status quo agreement governing the site, home to the third holiest mosque in Islam.

Israel’s police said it was making extensive preparations to secure Jerusalem this year, deploying “thousands of police officers, Border Police personnel, and volunteers … throughout Jerusalem, particularly focusing on the Old City and surrounding traffic routes”. There will also be increased deployment of troops throughout the occupied West Bank.

Rights groups have nonetheless sounded the alarm that this holiday in particular, one year into the Gaza War, risks inflaming tensions in the city, which has stayed relatively calm since October 7 despite being arguably the most symbolic dispute of the Israel-Palestine conflict.

The arrangement has been in place since 1967 and gives the Jordanian Waqf control over the area. Jews and other non-Muslims can visit the site during set times but are not allowed to pray. The mosque compound is also revered in Judaism as the site of the first and second temples, although most Jews do not visit the area today. Many even believe it is religiously forbidden to do so.

In recent years the status quo agreement has come under increasing strain as ultra-nationalist Israeli leaders and organisations pile pressure on authorities to allow more Jewish visits and prayer. The incursions have reached new heights during the current far-right government, which contains many senior ministers who advocate massive breaches and permanent changes to the status quo in favour of Jews.

Zakariya Abu Hallawah, a resident of East Jerusalem and field worker for rights group Ir Amim, told The National that the situation since October 7 last year has been “one of the most difficult periods ever at Al Aqsa”.

Mr Abu Hallawah described being arbitrarily prevented from entering the compound, a story he says is shared by many Palestinians, particularly young men. He accused the police of “trying all the time to harass youth” attempting to access the area in a bid to “change the status quo and make us give up on trying to enter”.

“It will not work. Al Aqsa is a red line for us Jerusalemites. We view ourselves as the protectors of Al Aqsa,” he said.

Mr Abu Hallawah’s work contributed to a recent report by Ir Amim that said there have been “a series of events and moves by the Israeli government that systematically violate the long-standing status quo arrangements”.

It said there have been unprecedented restrictions on Muslim access to the site that see people under 40 consistently being denied entry. “The most stringent restrictions are imposed during Jewish visits, which ultimately translate into a ban on Muslim entry while Jews conduct prayer unencumbered on the Mount,” the report said, which “contributes to heightened tensions in an already volatile climate”.

The report added that the rate and nature of Jewish prayer at the site changed dangerously. “Since the Jewish fast day of Tisha B'Av [in August] this year, audible and visible Jewish prayer takes place in central areas on the Mount nearly daily under the protection and escort of the police,” it said.

The report singles out National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who is in charge of the police, for undermining the status quo. He has declared prayer at the site legal on a number of occasions during 2024, despite senior officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, issuing counter statements that Israel will stick to the status quo. In August, Mr Ben-Gvir said he would build a synagogue on the site.

Ir Amim warned that the situation after October 7 and an Israeli government openly calling for a change to the status quo could “escalate [Jerusalem] into another front of violence at a time when Israel is already dealing with an unprecedented security crisis”.

Despite the risks over the holiday period, Tahani Mustafa, senior Palestine analyst at Crisis Group, said she did not “anticipate much pushback from the Palestinian community” over Sukkot, although “it depends on how far the provocations go”.

“People are a lot more cautious now. What’s happened in Gaza has left people kind of stunted, knowing that Israel can get away with practically anything at this point,” she said.

The Israeli police did not respond to a request to comment on accusations made in the Ir Amim report.