Huge surge of Jewish worshippers at AlAqsa Mosque as Muslims locked out

As hundreds of Jewish Israelis flocked in and out of Al-Aqsa Mosque on Wednesday, the Temple Mount Administration, the body responsible for the entry of Jewish worshippers to the holy site, took to X to celebrate what it called “an amazing surge”.

According to the Temple Mount Administration, named after the Jewish term for the raised plateau Al-Aqsa Mosque stands on, 6,315 Jews entered the courtyards to pray since the Passover holiday began on Saturday. That’s more than all the Jewish worshippers that visited during holidays last year.

The Temple Mount Administration said on X that the 37 percent surge in pilgrims at Al Aqsa Mosque was an "all-time record".

Aouni Bazbaz, director of international affairs at the Islamic Waqf, the organisation that administers Al-Aqsa Mosque, confirmed to Middle East Eye that there has indeed been a surge in controversial Jewish religious visits.

The Chief Rabbinate of Jerusalem has long declared Jewish worship on Temple Mount forbidden unless worshippers are "ritually pure", which is believed impossible under modern conditions.

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For decades Israel prohibited Jewish prayer at Al-Aqsa Mosque, which is one of the holiest sites in Islam.

However, some ultranationalist settlers oppose this stance, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hard-right government has increasingly allowed and even encouraged Jewish prayer there.

"These are frightening scenes," Bazbaz said. 

According to Bazbaz, such numbers have never been recorded before. In 2003, a total of 258 settlers entered the mosque’s courtyards and were not allowed to openly pray.

Today, "the numbers have risen exponentially", he said, with thousands making their way to the site.

Bazbaz said 600 Jews entered Al-Aqsa on the first day of Passover and 1,150 and 1,745 in the following days.

He estimated more than 2,000 came on Wednesday.

Changing the Status Quo

Some Israeli officials, such as National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, have openly called for Jewish prayer to be permitted at Al-Aqsa Mosque and changing the Status Quo that has regulated Jerusalem’s holy sites for decades.

The far-right minister has even been filmed entering the mosque on several occasions.

His wife, Ayala Ben Gvir, celebrated the huge numbers of Jewish worshippers seen at Al-Aqsa by posting on X: “Wow, what a day on the Temple Mount.”

"Itamar’s policy of authority and quiet from Muslim rioters, together with the struggle against religious discrimination against Jews, increases the number of pilgrims to the Temple Mount out of holiness and light," she added.

On Thursday morning, Tzvi Succot, an MP with the far-right Religious Zionism party, also paid a visit. 

Succot, who was previously indicted for bowing down on the ground of Al-Aqsa, was filmed again prostrating - this time alongside a police escort.

"Fourteen years ago, I was here, I bowed for one second - and in an instant I was captured by the police. They took me to the station and arrested me," Succot recalled.

"Today, Jews bow down, pray, hold minyanim [quorum] here, they don't let the Arabs get close to us, the Waqf doesn't come near us. I see this thing with tears in my eyes."

Some Israeli settler groups, including the Temple Mount Administration, have called for the construction of a Jewish temple in place of Al-Aqsa Mosque.

"With the help of God, we will merit the final redemption and the building of the temple,” Succot said.

Bazbaz said the Waqf is “dealing with something we have never ever dealt with before”. 

While Jewish prayer is increasingly permitted, heavy restrictions have been placed on Muslim worshippers.

"Let's use the media phrase for what is happening: apartheid/segregation has become a historical and current reality on ground," Bazbaz told MEE.

Bazbaz added that since Israel’s war on Gaza began, the situation has worsened, with the Jewish religious practices being encouraged and even backed by the law.

Mustafa Abu Sway, an Islamic scholar at Al-Aqsa, told MEE that Israel put "restrictions on Palestinian Muslims on a daily basis" in the mosque.

"During the last month of Ramadan, the Israeli government decided that only 10,000 Palestinians could join Muslim worshippers at Al-Aqsa," he said. The Israelis restrict the entrance of "youngsters, women and even elderly depending on the timing".

Losing control

On Wednesday, Israel allowed groups of up to 180 Jewish worshippers to enter the mosque - far higher than the 30 previously permitted.

"Until 2000, the Waqf was in complete control of who enters the Mosque and who doesn't," Abu Sway said.

But since 2003 the Israelis are violating the Status Quo, he added, and "slowly the settlers increased their activity in the complex, to the degree that today they pray, dance and sing national songs".

Itamar Ben Gvir thanked Succot and the thousands of Jews who have entered Al-Aqsa so far. 

"What they haven't done for 30 years was done on my watch and I'm happy that I was privileged by the grace of God to lead the huge change," Ben Gvir said.

According to Abu Sway, Ben Gvir "keeps violating the sanctity of Al-Aqsa Mosque" and hopes to provoke Muslim riots there.

"The violations keep worsening and things are escalating and changing by the day," said Abu Sway.

"Al-Aqsa Mosque is a peaceful place of worship that is exclusively for Muslims." 

Interior Minister Moshe Arbel of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, which is a member of the coalition government, said "going up to the Temple Mount is contrary to Jewish law and the instructions of the Chief Rabbinate of Israel".

He urged Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who heads Succot’s Religious Zionism party, "to clarify to his party members the directives of the Chief Rabbinate of Israel, which strictly prohibit going up to the Temple Mount".

middleeasteye.net