Jerusalem’s Shared Status Quo Is Being Shattered by Jewish Nationalist Conquest

“Believe me, brother—and remember what I say—years from now, you will pass from Damascus Gate to al-Aqsa Mosque via al-Wad Street, and you will not find a single Arab shop or person. Instead, it will all be Jewish. Remember that. Al-Aqsa will not remain as it is now.”1

Jamal Musa, the owner of a small shop on al-Wad Street in Jerusalem’s Old City, issued this warning while watching Jewish extremists singing and dancing in the center of the road that accesses the holy sites of al-Aqsa Mosque and the Western Wall. Heavy police protection prevented even local shopkeepers from passing next to them.

“Yesterday, there was a loud concert in the middle of the street before a Jewish guide, using a megaphone, explained to the attendees that a Palestinian had killed a Jew in this place and that all Arabs must therefore be removed from this street,” Musa lamented.

The Old City, once the heart of the Palestinian economy, was nearly empty of Arabs on this Saturday afternoon, the eve of Passover and the day before Palm Sunday. Even Palestinian citizens of Israel, who have made an effort to visit the city on holidays and weekends, filling the void left by Palestinians with Palestinian Authority (PA) IDs who were heavily restricted from entering the city this Ramadan, were barely present. Instead, it was teeming with rowdy right-wing Jewish youth and provocateurs.

Professor Yitzhak Reiter, president of the Israeli Association for Middle East and Islamic Studies and lecturer at Reichman University and Al-Qasemi Academic College of Education, told Jerusalem Story that the Israeli police are complying with official policies that cater to radical Jewish groups that advocate for restoring the Jewish temple on the site of al-Aqsa Mosque by continuously expanding their rights and allowing increasingly larger groups to enter the compound. These visits were prohibited prior to the Second Intifada, in compliance with the delicate Status Quo that governs the holy sites within the Old City walls. Until 2000, the Islamic Waqf Department authorities completely controlled who entered the al-Aqsa Mosque grounds.

“The post-1967 Status Quo is dead,” declares Reiter. “We are in a new situation of gradually expanding Jewish rights at the expense of Muslim ones.” Reiter’s most recent book on al-Aqsa Mosque is dedicated to this gradual demise: The Eroding Status Quo: Power Struggles on the Temple Mount.2

Back on al-Wad Street, one of the Jewish youths shouted at a group of Palestinians, “Land of the Jews, land of the Jews!” to which a young Palestinian retorted, “It’s Arab in spite of you!”

A group of Israeli soldiers approached, surrounding the Jewish youths to protect them and striking the Palestinian young men, forcing them to retreat into their shops.

At al-Aqsa Mosque, just meters away, the situation was even more tense. Hundreds of Jewish activists, among them Israelis in secular garb, were entering the mosque grounds under unprecedented police protection. The Israeli police had changed their regulations establishing guidelines for the number of Jews allowed to enter the al-Aqsa grounds simultaneously. Previously, the waiting period between each group’s entry was half an hour, but now it is only 10 minutes, resulting in hundreds of Jews being present at the same time on the grounds of al-Aqsa. Moreover, the number of Jews allowed in at one time increased from 30 to 180.3

These unprecedented decisions by the police have prompted many Palestinian Muslim Jerusalemites to say that al-Aqsa Mosque has been lost. Their fear is that increasing Jewish presence and control of the Muslim holy site, the third holiest site in Islam, will lead to a lack of Muslim and Palestinian sovereignty.

During the five days of Passover this year, 6,315 Jews entered the mosque courtyard and were allowed to pray there—more than any season on the books.4 (It remains the Chief Rabbinate’s position that Jews should not enter the mosque grounds, for fear of standing on the former temple’s holy of holies; the visits are driven by once-fringe groups that seek to destroy al-Aqsa Mosque and rebuild a temple in its place.)

The Islamic Waqf Department, the highest Islamic religious authority in Jerusalem, has denounced the radical changes taking place. In a statement, the Waqf Council underscored that al-Aqsa Mosque, its entire area of 144 dunams, is the exclusive right of Muslims alone and that non-Muslims have absolutely no rights there. They rejected any attempts to share the space.5

The council went on to ask Islamic and Arab countries “to shoulder their responsibilities regarding these violations against their first qibla, the place of Isra’ [the miraculous Night Journey from Mecca to Jerusalem] of their Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him), and one of the three holiest mosques in Islam.” They called for “serious and effective measures to halt these violations and support the custodianship of His Majesty King Abdullah II ibn al-Hussein.” The kingdom of Jordan maintained control over Jerusalem’s holy sites even after Israel’s 1967 occupation of East Jerusalem, as part of an internationally sanctioned compromise. Israel increasingly encroaches upon this sovereignty, restricting access to worshippers and creating new facts on the ground.

On the other side of the Old City were numerous Christian delegations, particularly from Ethiopia, who had come to Jerusalem to celebrate Easter week, which began on Palm Sunday amidst tight Israeli security measures. Palestinians outside the Old City walls and beyond the Separation Wall are ever more restricted in numerous ways from attending religious celebrations and connecting with family and friends. Christians with Palestinian Authority (PA) ID cards had to apply online for permission to visit the city, for a maximum of seven days only, in a break with tradition. This meant that if a Palestinian Christian from Bethlehem or Nablus wanted to observe Palm Sunday in Jerusalem and also spend time with family and friends there on the following Easter Monday, they would not be able to, as that would require an eight-day travel pass. Many were unable to obtain permits at all.

Dimitri Diliani, head of the National Christian Coalition in the Holy Land, told Jerusalem Story that the holy city had suffered another blow on Palm Sunday, as Israeli police blocked worshippers from reaching their churches. “This is a crime against the very right of faith, a flagrant violation of the authentic Christian presence in the Holy City, and an attempt, in vain, to reduce the sanctity of our city to a fleeting occupation.”6

“We, in the National Christian Coalition in the Holy Land, affirm that Jerusalem will remain an inextinguishable beacon of divine light, Gaza will remain a beacon of truth in the face of darkness, and our Palestinian people, imbued with faith and noble perseverance, will stand firm in the face of genocide, steadfast until the land is liberated and justice is restored, no matter how long the injustice and world’s complicity last.”

On the Via Dolorosa, a group of Christian pilgrims chanted religious hymns in Arabic, adding a spiritual touch and restoring Jerusalem’s flagging uniqueness. Just meters away, Jewish extremists were rampaging, attacking both Muslims and Christians alike. One of them shouted, “This land is ours, and you must leave.”

Palestinian shopkeepers in the Old City have come to fear the Passover season every year because of the vandalism and attacks perpetrated by Jewish groups disrupting their businesses. It used to be that sales boomed during Easter, boosted by pilgrims from Cyprus, Greece, Ethiopia, and Egypt. But since the regional escalation that followed October 2023, sadness, oppression, and fear hover over every alleyway and street, even during the holiest holidays.

“We fear what’s to come,” said the owner of a shop selling tourist supplies on Khan Bab al-Zeit Street. The occupier is fashioning a new reality for the city.