Why an Israeli raid on al-Aqsa Mosque is stoking tensions

Identified to Jews because the Temple Mount and to Muslims because the Noble Sanctuary — which encompasses al-Aqsa — the location is revered in each faiths. Even the slightest perceived change to the established order has the capability to impress violence.

Police raided the location in the course of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, simply earlier than the beginning of the Jewish Passover vacation — an overlap Israeli safety officers have lengthy warned might result in additional escalation.

However the brand new nationwide safety minister, Itamar Ben Gvir, chief of Israel’s far-right non secular nationalist motion, has pushed for a larger Jewish presence at Temple Mount. Ben Gvir is thought for making provocative strikes to claim Jewish claims to Palestinian land or non secular areas.

In January, he made a tone-setting tour of the ancient religious compound, within the first such go to in years by a high Israeli official.

Israeli police raid al-Aqsa Mosque; 37 people injured, Palestinians say

An official from Hamas, the militant group that controls Gaza, criticized Wednesday’s raid as a “severe crime to which the Palestinian folks and resistance will reply.”

Right here’s what to know in regards to the website.

What’s the non secular significance of the location?

The compound holds non secular significance for Muslims, Jews and Christians.

It’s the holiest website in Judaism. The historic origins of the location are disputed among archaeologists, however within the Jewish custom, a non secular construction generally known as the First Temple was constructed on the hill through the reign of King Solomon within the tenth century B.C. The temple, round which the traditional Jewish religion was centered, and the one which adopted it have been destroyed when invading empires sacked Jerusalem.

“For Jews, it’s the most sacred place in Jewish historical past and truly symbolizes the clearest contact between fashionable Israel and historical Israel,” stated Amichai Cohen, senior fellow on the Israel Democracy Institute.

In each Jewish and Muslim traditions, it’s generally known as the place the place Abraham supplied to sacrifice his son. Jews, by customized, pray going through Jerusalem, and specifically the Temple Mount. The Western Wall, a retaining wall exterior the al-Aqsa compound, has lengthy been commemorated as a focus for Jewish prayer.

For Muslims, the Noble Sanctuary is the third-holiest website, after mosques in Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia. Al-Aqsa is seen because the place from which the prophet Muhammad ascended to heaven after making a miraculous one-night journey from Mecca to Jerusalem. The mosque was constructed on the southern a part of the plaza within the early eighth century A.D. Throughout the courtyard is the Dome of the Rock, an ornate Islamic shrine, with a golden dome seen throughout a lot of town.

Who’s accountable for the compound?

Israel captured East Jerusalem from Jordan through the Arab-Israeli warfare in 1967 and later declared all of Jerusalem to be Israel’s capital — a transfer not acknowledged by many of the worldwide group. Since 1967, a non secular belief funded and supervised by Jordan has managed the al-Aqsa compound, an association formalized in a 1994 peace treaty between Israel and Jordan.

Israel has safety authority on the website and maintains a police presence. Non-Muslims are allowed to go to however are barred from praying there.

Why is it thought of a flash level for battle?

The positioning lies on the coronary heart of the battle between Israelis and Palestinians for management of Jerusalem. The standing of town has proved a sticking level in efforts to succeed in a two-state resolution to the battle, and al-Aqsa has turn into a logo of the Palestinian quest for self-determination.

The mosque is “a very powerful non secular website for Muslims in Palestine and it’s completely central to Palestinian id,” stated Khaled Elgindy, a Palestinian affairs knowledgeable on the Center East Institute.

Violations of the established order have been interpreted by many Palestinians as acts of aggression. A go to by Ariel Sharon, then Israel’s opposition chief, to the location in 2000 helped spark the second intifada, also called the al-Aqsa Intifada — a 4½-year Palestinian rebellion throughout which greater than 3,000 Palestinians and 1,000 Israelis have been killed.

In recent times, Israel’s set up of steel detectors on the compound provoked a violent backlash in 2017. And members of an emboldened Israeli non secular nationalist motion have more and more ventured onto the plaza, typically joined and inspired by Ben Gvir.

Jordan issued a formal complaint to Israel in April 2021 about massive teams of Jewish guests violating the established order. The next month, Ben Gvir’s assist for settlers in an East Jerusalem neighborhood helped catalyze an 11-day warfare between Israel and Hamas, the Islamist militant group that guidelines Gaza.

“Each time a minister or a Knesset member or a member of an extremist settler group goes as much as the al-Aqsa compound, they’re eroding the established order,” Elgindy stated.

Rights teams additionally say Israeli safety forces are fast to storm the location and to fireplace tear fuel and rubber bullets at protesters.

Are Jews divided over whether or not to wish there?

A “very massive majority” of non secular and extra secular Jewish Israelis chorus from going to the Temple Mount, Cohen stated. Given how simply infected tensions there can turn into, many really feel that Jews ought to keep away from the world in order to not provoke Palestinians and stoke one other spherical of violence.

However there are additionally non secular the explanation why some Jews imagine it’s essential to remain off the Temple Mount. Many orthodox leaders say Jews mustn’t stroll on the “Holy of Holies,” a part of the location of the historic Jewish temples there. Jews from all around the world go to and pray on the adjoining Western Wall.

Why is far-right minister Ben Gvir targeted on the location?

A provocateur with a penchant for igniting media firestorms, Ben Gvir is a key participant in essentially the most right-wing authorities in Israel’s historical past. Palestinian teams and Arab nations known as his go to to the location in January an intentional provocation, elevating the potential for additional unrest.

Itamar Ben Gvir: How an extremist settler became a powerful Israeli minister

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s workplace has reiterated that he’s dedicated to upholding the established order. However Ben Gvir, his ally in authorities, has lengthy advocated for altering the association. Identified for his Jewish supremacist views, he has been convicted of inciting racism in opposition to Arabs and supporting a terrorist group.

“Ben Gvir is the politician that has gained most from difficult the prevailing coverage on Temple Mount,” Cohen stated.

Ben Gvir has beforehand supported activists who threatened to slaughter a lamb within the al-Aqsa Mosque compound through the Jewish Passover vacation — a transfer that may upend the established order on the website and which police have warned might spark a regional warfare.

The messianic “Returning to the Mount” motion has offered tens of thousands of Israeli shekels to anybody who makes an attempt to sacrifice a lamb on the website for Passover, which begins Wednesday night.

Police have stopped activists from doing so previously — however Ben Gvir now controls the power. To this point this week, police have detained folks suspected of meaning to slaughter lamb or goats on the website.

After the raid on al-Aqsa, the federal government was working to cut back tensions and stays “dedicated to sustaining freedom of worship, free entry for all faiths and the established order on the Temple Mount,” Netanyahu stated Wednesday, in remarks shared by his office on Twitter.

Shira Rubin in Tel Aviv, Louisa Loveluck in Jerusalem, Niha Masih in Seoul and Miriam Berger in Washington contributed to this report.