The legal status of the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, known to Jews as the Temple Mount, is a recurring focal point in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Last week, Israeli police raided Al-Aqsa Mosque, attacking and arresting Palestinian worshipers who had been in the prayer hall. In retaliation, rockets were fired at Israel from Gaza and Lebanon, leading to a brief flare-up of violence.
In 2021, a similar incursion led to an 11-day Israeli assault on the Gaza Strip.
To understand how a single police raid can provoke a war, one must understand the status quo of the Al-Aqsa Mosque.
What is the status quo?
For Palestinians – and under international law – the matter is quite simple.
“Israel has no sovereignty left [East] Jerusalem and therefore has no sovereignty over Al-Aqsa,” which is in Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem, said Khaled Zabarqa, a Palestinian legal expert on the city and the compound. Consequently, says Zabarqa, international law dictates that Israel has no authority to implement a status quo.
For the Palestinians and the Waqf, the Jordan-appointed body that administers the Al-Aqsa compound, it is a status quo rooted in the administration of the site under the Ottoman Empire, which dictated that Muslims take exclusive control of Al -Aqsa, said Nir. Hasson, a journalist for Haaretz covering Jerusalem.
However, the Israelis see things differently, despite the fact that international law does not recognize any attempt by an occupying power to annex occupied territory.
“The status quo that the Israelis talk about is completely different from the status quo that the Waqf and the Palestinians talk about,” explains Hasson.
For Israel, the status quo refers to a 1967 agreement drafted by Moshe Dayan, a former Israeli defense minister. After Israel occupied East Jerusalem, Dayan proposed a new settlement based on the Ottoman agreement.
Under Israel’s 1967 status quo, the Israeli government allows the Waqf to maintain day-to-day control of the area, and only Muslims are allowed to pray there. However, the Israeli police control access to the site and are responsible for security, and non-Muslims are allowed to visit the site as tourists.
Shmuel Berkovits, a lawyer and expert on Israel’s holy sites, says the status quo established in 1967 is not protected by any Israeli law. In fact, Dayan established the status quo without government authority in 1967, he says.
Since 1967, legislation, court cases and statements by the Israeli government have created a framework for this status quo. While there is no Israeli law prohibiting Jews from praying at Al-Aqsa, Israel’s Supreme Court has ruled that the ban is justified in order to keep the peace, Berkovits explained.
For many Israelis, even this is considered “generous” in light of their victory in the 1967 war.
Recent changes to the status quo
Between 1967 and 2000, non-Muslims could buy tickets at the Waqf to visit the site as a tourist. After the second Intifada or uprising of the Palestinians broke out in 2000 following former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s controversial visit to Al-Aqsa, the Waqf closed the site to visitors.
The site remained closed to visitors until 2003, when Israel forced the Waqf to allow non-Muslims to enter. Since then, non-Muslim visitors have been restricted by Israeli police to limited hours and specific days.
According to Hasson, the Waqf does not recognize these visitors and considers them “intruders”.
In 2015, a quadruple agreement between Israel, Palestine, Jordan and the United States reaffirmed the status quo of 1967. As part of the agreement, Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu reaffirmed his country’s commitment to the status quo.
While the 1967 version of the status quo is still spoken of, Zabarqa says, “This is an attempt to mislead international public opinion.”
According to Eran Zedekiah of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Regional Thinking Forum, Jews have been allowed to pray silently in the compound since 2017.
Not all Jews are guilty of these offenses. Before entering the Al-Aqsa compound, visitors even pass a sign warning Jews that the Chief Rabbinate forbids them to enter because of the sanctity of the site.
It is mainly religious Zionists, currently represented in Israel’s government by hardliners such as far-right Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who pray on the ground and push to change the status quo, Hasson says.
For them, this pressure has paid off. Hasson says police have given more freedom to Jews praying at the Al-Aqsa compound since 2017.
Zabarqa regrets that the Israeli police have “transformed from a professional body that enforces the rule of law to one that offers protection to people who break the law.”
Palestinians, meanwhile, see these changes as an attempt to “make the compound Jewish and drive the Muslims and Islam out of Al-Aqsa,” says Zabarqa.
For them, Al-Aqsa is the last little corner of Palestine that is not under full Israeli occupation.
Hasson says that is why the Palestinians are proud to oppose the Israeli occupation of the site, but if the Palestinians lose Al-Aqsa, it will be as if “it is all lost. Nothing remains.”