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Jerusalem: a new spring of tension on the Esplanade of the Mosques

At a glance

Date

April 14, 2023

Theme

Middle East

Jean Marcou, Professor of Law at Sciences Po Grenoble, researcher at CERDAP2 and associate researcher at the French Institute of Anatolian Studies in Istanbul.

On the night of April 4 to 5, 2023, in the middle of the month of Ramadan Israeli police intervened on the Esplanade of the Mosques in Jerusalem, to forcibly remove worshippers who had barricaded themselves inside the al-Aqsamosque. They were protesting against the arrival of a Jewish messianic activist activist, Rafaël Morris, who had announced his intention of coming to the to sacrifice a lamb on the first day of Pesach, the Jewish Passover. Passover. In a context where the far right and ultra-Orthodox Judaism have in the new Netanyahu government, the arrest of the activist in question of the activist in question was not enough to ease the tension. to "defend the al-Aqsa mosque".

Requested to by the Israeli authorities, the Jordanian pious foundation(Waqf) which administers the holy sites on the esplanade, refused, believing that it was being responsibility for the escalation. For its part, the Israeli Foreign Ministry justified the police intervention intervention, accusing the entrenched worshippers of being extremists who were who were disrupting Ramadan, and were preparing to disrupt the next day's Pesach ceremonies on the (nearby) Wailing Wall. The 7 people were injured, and nearly 400 arrested.

This serious incident is taking place against a backdrop of Jerusalem's annual springtime conflagrations since 2021. and the Esplanade of the Mosques finds itself at the heart of confrontations it. But this recurrence also refers to the historical rivalries that fuel the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and which are not about to go away. extinguished.

Since 2021, springs of tensions...

In spring 2021, after the restrictions imposed by the covid-19 epidemic, coinciding calendars exacerbate latent tensions on the ground. While Jews observe observe religious or national holidays, Arabs celebrate Ramadan or Christian Easter. But in Jerusalem, the Israeli turn off the loudspeakers at the al-Aqsa mosque, fearing that the call to prayer might disrupt the Yom the Yom Hazikaron ceremonies (celebrating the memory of Israeli soldiers on the nearby Western Wall. The problem is that that this decision comes on the first evening of Ramadan, and appears to be a violation of the status of the holy sites, at a time when the Arab actors of the site(Waqf, Palestinian Authority, Jordanian embassy) are worried are concerned about an increase in the number of Jewish visitors to the esplanade visitors during Pesach.

These events inaugurated a cycle of violence that would last more than a month and leave more than 300 deaths. In fact, the following May 9 was once again at the crossroads of the of calendars, in particular the concomitant occurrence of the Night of Destiny (the Ramadan celebration of the Prophet's reception of the Koran) and Jerusalem Day (commemorating the capture of East Jerusalem and control of the holy of East Jerusalem and control of the holy sites in 1967, during the Six-Day War also known as the "dance of the flags", because demonstrators dance dancing with Israeli flags). Clashes break out on the Esplanade of the Mosques, with police using stun grenades as far into the al-Aqsa mosque.

Shortly afterwards Hamas, which claims full responsibility for these events from the outset from the outset, fired nearly 150 rockets into Jerusalem and its environs, triggering the start of an eleven-day campaign of Israeli strikes on Gaza (Operation "Guardians of the Walls"). What is sometimes referred to as the "Israeli-Palestinian Israeli-Palestinian war of 2021" marks the reawakening of an Israeli-Palestinian conflict that has been somewhat forgotten since the forgotten since the 2014 Gaza war (Operation Protective Borders), or at least blurred by other spectacular regional wars in the aftermath of the Arab Arab Springs (in Syria, Libya and Yemen, in particular).

The following the following year in 2022, in a similar coincidence of calendars, clashes broke out clashes broke out on the Esplanade of the Mosques, injuring more than 150 people. on the Esplanade of the Mosques, and the al-Aqsa Mosque was again once again taken over by Israeli police. At the root of these among other things, the increase in the number of Jewish visitors (often (often religious or nationalist) visitors to what is for them the Temple Mount, and the determination and the determination of young Arab demonstrators to defend a site which, after Mecca and Medina third holiest site in Islam, and which is not a place of prayer for non-Muslims, in accordance with the established by the Israeli authorities in 1967.

Esplanade of the Mosques, Temple Mount the Temple Mount... disputed holy places

Jerusalem is home to some of the most important holy sites for the three monotheistic religions: the Western Wall (called the "Wailing Wall" by the tradition the "Wailing Wall", and a vestige of Herod's Second Temple destroyed by the Romans in the first century AD, to which, according to Islamic which, according to Islamic tradition, Mohammed tied his horse Buraq night journey), the Church of the Holy Sepulchre (the Christian site of Christ's crucifixion Christ's crucifixion site and tomb), and finally the Esplanade of the Mosques esplanade (located above the Western Wall, as it was largely established on the the perimeter of the Second Temple, where two main mosques, the al-Aqsa the al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock, the latter built on the site the place from which the prophet, for Muslims, left for heaven).

In November 1947, prior to the end of the British Mandate over Palestine a few months later, the United Nations General Assembly adopted resolution resolution 181, which created an Arab state and a Jewish state, but which placed Jerusalem (and its surroundings, notably Bethlehem) under international status. international status. However, the plan was not implemented, and following the first Arab-Israeli war in Arab-Israeli war in 1948, the city was effectively divided in two, with the Israelis held the western part of Jerusalem and made it their capital. capital, while the Jordanians succeeded in conquering the eastern part, notably the Old City, where the holy sites are located.

The Esplanade of the Mosques in Jerusalem seen from the Mount of Olives. On the left, with its grey dome, the al-Aqsa mosque, in the center, the Dome of the Rock" (photo Jean Marcou, February 2023)

Everything changed in 1967, with the Six-Day War, when the Israeli army pushed the Jordanians back beyond the Jordan River and the Dead Sea. The Jews regained the Western Wall, from which they had been cut off since 1948. The quarter built close to the wall (known as the Maghrebin quarter and dating from the 12th century) was demolished to make way for another esplanade where Jewish worshippers could come to pray. Some of them are even planning to hold regular prayers above, on the Temple Mount/Mosque Esplanade. But in a gesture of appeasement, Israeli leaders at the time (including Defense Minister Moshe Dayan) decided to return the site to the Muslims and the Jordanian religious foundation(Waqf) that administers it. This status quo still prevails today, having been confirmed in 1994 by the Wadi Araba peace accords between Israel and Jordan.

Free access to the site is reserved for Muslims. Non-Muslims are only admitted at specific times specific days and times (early morning and mid-day, every day except Friday and Saturday). except Fridays and Saturdays), through a reserved gateway accessed by a footbridge a footbridge over the Wailing Wall. Visitors (especially Jews) are not permitted to pray on the site. The Chief Rabbinate of Jerusalem has forbidden anyone claiming to be Jewish from visiting the Temple Mount on the Temple Mount, to avoid any inadvertent desecration of its sanctuary (the Holy of Holies). The exact location of this sanctuary since the destruction of the edifice. However, a prayer room at the end of the footbridge before entering the esplanade.

Behind a religious dispute the political stakes of an endless conflict

This did not discourage many people from visiting the site with varying with varying intentions, from simple prayer to the project of rebuilding rebuilding the famous Temple destroyed in antiquity. In 1969, an mentally handicapped Australian Christian who had come to Israel to work on a kibbutz and claimed to have heard heard voices urging him to rebuild the Temple, attempted to set fire al-Aqsa Mosque .

The reconstruction of the Third Temple appears in Jewish tradition, but it is a prophetic is a prophetic prediction that will take place at the end of time, with the redemption and the arrival of the Messiah. To speed up the course of history, certain organizations and activists are working towards the the project, even thinking about the type of cows to be sacrificed for the be sacrificed for the event, and what religious people should wear during ceremonies.

While these movements appeared for some time to be marginal phenomena, over the past two decades, even finding unexpected support among some American evangelicals, who believe that that the building of the Third Temple could hasten the return of Christ. But it is above all within the Israeli political class and the formations with a vocation to govern that these kinds of ideas have gained credence. These excesses the Arabs' fear of being progressively dispossessed of the holy places holy places, as they have often been dispossessed of their property, and lead many of them to support to support those who call on them to defend themselves.

But, more the recurrent occurrence of tensions in the heart of the holy city, over the past three years is merely a reflection of a particularly deteriorated situation in which the idea of a two-state solution is no longer on the table. and the outcome of which looks increasingly worrying. For, behind the religious dimension of these confrontations lies the political impasse of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Let's not forget, in July 2000, it was over the issue of sovereignty of the holy places control of the Esplanade of the Mosques that the final negotiations between Yasser Arafat and negotiations between Yasser Arafat and Ehud Barak broke down at Camp David. Camp David. A few weeks later, Ariel Sharon's visit to this emblematic site coincided with the start of the second intifada, sometimes referred to as the Intifada al-Aqsa. Today, at a time when the last three springs have been marked have been marked by a resurgence of violence of an intensity unseen for almost a decade, and decade, and 2022 was the deadliest year deadliest year for Palestinians (144 deaths) since the end of the second second intifada, some observers fear that a third intifada third intifada has already begun.