Tensions high at Jerusalem's Temple Mount
Matthew Doran: It's just after half past seven in the morning and these Jews have come to the Old City to pray. The exact spot they've chosen to sing and chant is provocative. Standing on the steps leading up to one of Islam's holiest shrines, the Dome of the Rock, this group is being given freedom to worship like never before under the watchful gaze of Israeli police.
Yehuda Glick: When we come here, we recharge our batteries. We tune in and we're connected.
Matthew Doran: Yehuda Glick is a rabbi and former member of the Israeli parliament. For decades, he's been agitating for the rules restricting non-Muslim worship in this compound to be relaxed.
Yehuda Glick: Since you see how big this place is, it's the size of 20 football stadiums. It's extremely big and there's enough room for everybody.
Matthew Doran: Known as the Temple Mount to Jews and Christians and al-Aqsa to Muslims, the precinct on the southeastern side of the old city is one of the most sacred places in Jerusalem. It's where two Jewish temples are believed to have stood, the second destroyed by the Romans around 2,000 years ago. The western wall, where Jews go to pray, is the remnant of those buildings. The area above is now home to the al-Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock, where the Muslim prophet Muhammad is believed to have ascended to heaven.
Muhammad Al-Ashab : We emphasise that this is an Islamic mosque for only the Muslims. It cannot be divided or shared and there is no link to any other religion with the al-Aqsa mosque.
Matthew Doran: Muhammad al-Ashab is the spokesman for the Jerusalem Waqf, the Muslim custodians of the precinct appointed by the Jordanian government.
Muhammad Al-Ashab : We consider incursion into the blessed al-Aqsa mosque to be a change to the historical and legal situation.
Matthew Doran: Muhammad al-Ashab is referring to a set of rules and policies known as the status quo. For decades, the compound has been reserved solely for Muslim worship under a peace treaty between Israel and Jordan. In previous years, Jews who've tried to enter to pray have been arrested, but the tables have turned. Even though the site is administered by Jordanian authorities, all access in and out is controlled by Israeli police. This group is being escorted around the precinct by Israeli police officers, some even moving Palestinians out of the way as they walked through the area. It's the influence of Israel's far-right National Security Minister, Itmar Ben Gvir, who has responsibility for the police and has given them the green light to allow Jewish worshippers in. It's deeply confronting and upsetting to the Muslim population, but Yehuda Glick insists it's simply progress.
Yehuda Glick: The word status quo is really a word that, it's sort of a joke
Matthew Doran: The Temple Mount al-Aqsa compound has been a flashpoint for many years. In 2021, Israeli police stormed the area. Hamas in Gaza responded, firing rockets into Israel, which in turn retaliated with airstrikes in the strip. Two weeks of fighting ensued, with 260 Palestinians and 13 Israelis killed. While people like Yehuda Glick want to pray at the Temple Mount, traditional Jews argue it's against Jewish law. Shcmuel Rabinovich is the rabbi of the Western Wall and says his message is clear.
Schmuel Rabinovich : I tell them that the vast majority of rabbis of Israel have forbidden the ascension on the Temple Mount. That's the message I give them. Some of them have other rabbis that have another opinion. It causes me great pain.
Matthew Doran: While the Netanyahu government insists the status quo remains, the actions of police show otherwise, further inflaming long-held tensions in the heart of the Old City. This is Matthew Doran in Jerusalem, reporting for AM.
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ABC News
4 hours ago
- ABC News
In Iran, heat, drought and a lack of water emerge as yet another crisis
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"The public don't necessarily react in a positive way because they remind those in charge about those warnings, about all the things that the scientists said years ago. "And they ask, why did you dismiss them?" While the five-year drought has played a large part in Iran's water woes, the crisis has been amplified by decades of overuse and mismanagement. The mass construction of dams by the Iranian government in recent years has caused many areas downstream to dry out, including Isfahan, where farmers have been protesting a lack of water supply for years. Around 90 per cent of Iran's water is used in agriculture, with current irrigation practices highly inefficient. Professor Peter Scales from the University of Melbourne travelled to Lake Urmia in the country's north a decade ago, on a failed project to restore the region's largest lake, which dried out in 2023. "In an environment where water use is uncapped, it allows modern farming practices to exploit the system pretty heavily," he said. "They want to exploit water resources that normally are not exploitable, so they're not doing what we would call a mass balance of their water." It is something US President Donald Trump highlighted in a speech in Saudi Arabia in May this year. "Iran's leaders have managed to turn green farmland into dry deserts, as their corrupt water mafia — it's called the water mafia — causes droughts and empty riverbeds," Trump said. "They get rich, but they don't let the people have any of it." While terms like "water mafia" might catch the public's attention, Madani said it took away from the complexity of the problems facing Iran. "What we see in Iran is the collective outcome of many bad decisions, by many good and bad people." Countries in the Middle East are among the top water-stressed in the world, according to data from the World Resources Institute. 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But this region has naturally, for centuries and centuries, been in a state of heat and water stress," he said. "The region is capable of adapting and has for centuries. A lot of that obviously has to do with being more efficient with our water use." Madani agreed that the history of the region could hold some answers. "Persians survived for thousands of years in the dry part of the world by using different technologies of groundwater extraction. And they had laws and institutions and settings that were working. "Through the process of modernisation, if you will, they disrupted that old system." But he was pessimistic about Iran finding a way out of the crisis any time soon. "You have decided to fight the world … those who lose are the people of Iran, the ecosystem of Iran, the nature of Iran. "That means more deforestation, mining pollution, sand and dust storms, desertification, rivers drying up, declining aquifers, and that's what we see. It's very sad."
West Australian
5 hours ago
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Australians want action on Gaza as rally verdict looms
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Perth Now
5 hours ago
- Perth Now
Australians want action on Gaza as rally verdict looms
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