On July 14th the Israeli government made the decision to shut down Al Aqsa Mosque, the 3rd holiest site in Islam, after a clash that left three Palestinians and two Israeli officers dead. For the first time in nearly 50 years, the Friday prayers were canceled. The Israeli government then proceeded to install security cameras and metal detectors at the mosque before reopening it. Palestinians rejected these measures as violations of their rights and of the status quo, and refused to pray in the mosque, opting to pray in the streets instead.
Amid continued protests, the Israeli government continued to add restrictions – preventing men under the age of 50 from entering the compound. Palestinians organized demonstrations in “a day of anger” and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas froze contact with his Israeli counterparts. The Israelis were worried about an escalating security situation and elected to install new security cameras to replace the metal detectors – a measure also rejected by the Palestinians as a move that expanded Israeli control over the holy site.
As of July 27th, Israel removed all the security measures and Palestinians planned to resume prayer in the mosque. The conflict seemed to have temporarily subsided – until minutes after worshippers returned to the mosque Israeli police wounded dozens with stun grenades and rubber bullets. The official Israeli reports states that they were attacked with stones but Amnesty International reports that Israeli actions were unprovoked. Palestinian Muslims have now returned to the mosque and services have resumed as usual but tensions are still simmering.
To Palestinians, this is about much more than just metal detectors and security cameras. This is a system that devalues Palestinians and enforces a systemic repression of a people who have been denied even the fundamental right to have a state. They are fighting to retain a status quo that disadvantages them to begin with because they fear what would happen to them if the status quo was done away with entirely. The Palestinians already face a lack of sovereignty and they see this as a further undermining of their identities. In case you think all this status quos talk is ridiculous, consider this fact: there is a ladder in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem that has not been moved in centuries because to move it would be to undermine the status quo, and that would cause a conflict between the different churches that reside there.
It’s not as if the response was strange or unexpected by the Israelis. It’s a known fact that any interference with Al Aqsa inflames tensions and escalates the conflict. The second intifada (the second Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation) was in part spurred by Ariel Sharon’s visit to the compound after the failure of peace negotiations and is called the Al-Aqsa intifada for that very reason. Jerusalem has always been and continues to be the line in the sand that cannot be crossed without inciting a violent reaction on both sides.
One important takeaway: Palestinian leadership had very little to do with the mass mobilization of the last two weeks. In fact, Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian Authority struggled to make themselves relevant regarding this tense situation. This is in part because the Palestinian citizens of East Jerusalem are relatively isolated from the Palestinian Authority, separated by an Israeli checkpoint from the West Bank. This may, however, also be a sign of Mahmoud Abbas’s shrinking support, and the resulting weakness of the Palestinian Authority, with two-thirds of Palestinians calling for the octogenarian leader to resign. Abbas’s decision to cut off ties with Israeli government pending resolution of the conflict seemed reactionary and an attempt to satisfy his quickly shrinking base.
Long term, this further underscores the importance and the tensions surrounding Jerusalem and final status negotiations. Both sides claim the city as their capital, although the majority of the international community officially recognizes neither. The Palestinian capital, East Jerusalem, is under Israeli occupation and effectively cut off from the Palestinian Authority, and the Israeli government will not allow them to fund projects within the city. If there is to be any hope of a final settlement to the conflict, Jerusalem must be addressed and the status of its religious institutions, holy to the worlds three Abrahamic faiths, must be taken into account.