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ABC News
7 hours ago
- Politics
- ABC News
Tensions high at Jerusalem's Temple Mount
Sabra Lane: Another front in a conflict between Israelis and Palestinians which has been simmering away in Jerusalem for many years is threatening to boil over. With nationalists further taking hold in Israel and the debate about Palestinian statehood ricocheting around the world, the Israeli government has dramatically relaxed the restrictions on Jews praying at the Temple Mount al-Aqsa compound in East Jerusalem, but it's angering the site's Muslim guardians. Here's Middle East correspondent Matthew Doran. 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.
ABC News
10 hours ago
- Politics
- ABC News
Jewish activists accused of eroding centuries of tradition at Jerusalem's holiest sites
It was just after 7:30am, before the hot summer sun started beating down on Jerusalem, when Yehuda Glick arrived in the Old City. The right-wing rabbi and former politician brimmed with excitement and enthusiasm. He walked through security checkpoints and climbed the wooden and metal ramp leading to one of Jerusalem's holiest sites, shaking hands with Israeli police as he went on his way. "Watch this," he told the ABC, before leaning over the edge of the bridge and yelling at Jews praying at the Western Wall below. "Stop worshipping the Golden Calf," he bellowed, invoking the biblical story of the Israelites idolising a false god, suggesting they should not pray there. "Come and pray on Zion." Yehuda Glick wanted them to join him as he walked into the Temple Mount, which is referred to by Muslims as the Al-Aqsa Mosque. Jews over the centuries have avoided visiting the area on the south-eastern corner of Jerusalem's Old City, because of the ruling of rabbis that has forbidden approaching what is considered the site of the Holy of Holies. Not Mr Glick. He has spent decades pushing to overturn rules about entering the site. "You see how big this place is — it's the size of 20 football stadiums," Mr Glick said. "It's extremely big and there's enough room for everybody." And he is getting his way. "I feel like 2,000 years of Jews on my shoulders who were longing for the privilege, for the honour of standing here," Mr Glick said. With nationalist fervour in Israel growing in the wake of the war in Gaza, and right-wing politicians within the Netanyahu government aggressively pushing a Messianic agenda, people like Yehuda Glick are gaining freedoms on the Temple Mount/Al-Aqsa compound in ways never seen before. It is an extremely provocative move for the Muslim population, and has fuelled accusations that decades-old agreements have been undermined. Palestinian authorities say more than 33,000 Jewish extremists have "invaded" the site since the beginning of 2025. Called the Temple Mount by Jews and Christians and referred to by Muslims as the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, it is an important holy site for the world's three Abrahamic religions. Jews believe it is the location of two temples — the second of which was destroyed almost 2,000 years ago by the Romans. The temple's Western Wall is considered to be all that remains, and is one of the most significant places of prayer for Jewish people. Christians believe it is the site where Jesus Christ regularly visited and taught. For Muslims, this is where the Prophet Mohammed ascended to heaven, after his night journey from Mecca. At the centre of the Al-Aqsa compound, on the spot where Muslims believe the Prophet Mohammed ascended to heaven, sits the Dome of the Rock. The restrictions on worship at the Temple Mount/Al-Aqsa compound were enshrined in the 1994 peace treaty between Israel and Jordan. In the bilateral agreement that ended the war between the two countries, it said that even though non-Muslims were entitled to visit the site, the right to pray was reserved for Muslims only. The precinct is administered by the Jerusalem Waqf — an organisation appointed and funded by the Jordanian government and King, which managed the site before and after Israel captured the Old City and East Jerusalem in the 1967 war. Since the occupation of East Jerusalem, security of the site has been controlled by Israeli authorities, with police posted at each entrance to the precinct and restricting access to the venue. But the Muslim authorities are concerned about an encroachment that will lead to the division of the site ahead of a full Jewish takeover. "It's a mosque for Muslim prayers only … and not for sharing," a spokesman for the Jerusalem Waqf, Muhammad Al-Ashab, told the ABC. He said the situation had been deteriorating over the past two decades, but there had been a marked change in recent months. Much of that has been driven by Israel's controversial far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben Gvir, who has oversight of the police. Under his watch, restrictions on Jewish worship at the Temple Mount/Al-Aqsa Mosque compound have been relaxed. "This is, of course, against the normal situation or the status quo since 1967, that the Israeli government itself accepted when Jerusalem city and the Al-Aqsa Mosque was occupied," Mr Al-Ashab said. Until 2000, non-Muslims, including Jews, could only visit the holy site by purchasing a ticket from the Waqf. All that changed following the provocative visit of then-Israeli opposition leader Ariel Sharon, surrounded by hundreds of Israeli security personnel — a move that sparked an outburst of violence known as the Al-Aqsa Intifada. Since then, the Muslim authorities have lost, to their dismay, control over the entrance of non-Muslims. They describe the unwanted and uncoordinated visits of Jewish activists as "break-ins" and "raids" accompanied by Israeli police. "We consider incursion into the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque to be a change to the historical and legal situation, the status quo that has existed for a long time," Mr Al-Ashab said. Israeli authorities have also banned some Waqf staff from entering the compound for months at a time, taking issue with their actions within the site. Just last week, the grand mufti of Jerusalem and Palestine, Muhammad Hussein, was detained by Israeli forces and banned from accessing the compound. "[The order] says that my presence in the Al-Aqsa Mosque poses a security threat to the public in the Al-Aqsa Mosque," he said. "This, of course, I reject categorically. "It is illegal for the occupying force to expel the local population … from where they pray or live. This is contrary to humanitarian and international law." The Temple Mount/Al-Aqsa Mosque compound has long been a flashpoint in the relationship between Palestinians and Israelis. Just one example is the fortnight of fighting in 2021 after Israeli police stormed the compound. Tear gas, stun grenades and rubber-coated bullets were fired after Israeli authorities accused Palestinians of throwing rocks. In response, Hamas in Gaza fired rockets into Israel, prompting retaliatory strikes in the occupied territory. In the end, 13 Israelis and 260 Palestinians were killed. Mr Glick survived an assassination attempt in 2014, which he said was prompted by his campaigning. "A gentleman came over to me, said to me: 'You're an enemy of Al-Aqsa'," Mr Glick said. "And he point-blank shot four bullets to the centre of my heart." Israeli police accused Mutaz Hijazi, a Palestinian man who had been a former prisoner and an alleged member of Islamic Jihad, of the attack. Hijazi was shot dead by police, who claimed he opened fire on them when they tried to arrest him at his Jerusalem home — something his family reportedly denied. In the past, hard-line Jews have been arrested for harassing and attacking Muslim worshippers near the compound, while Palestinians have also been arrested in clashes with Jews in the area. When the "status quo" was being enforced, Jews could be detained for mouthing the words of prayers inside the precinct, and prayer cloaks and texts were banned. Religious items remain prohibited, although the ABC saw one man draped in a shawl in the precinct. When the ABC followed Mr Glick to the site, it was clear to see that the situation had changed dramatically — all under the watchful gaze of police officers. "I would say, in the presence of the present minister of National Security, Mr Itamar Ben-Gvir, it's become already official that people pray here, that people dance here, people sing here," Mr Glick said. "There's an effort, a major effort by the Israeli police and by the Israeli authorities to, on the one hand, allow freedom of worship for everybody and at the same time make sure there's no friction." It was clear, however, that "friction" was in the eye of the beholder. The ABC saw police moving on a group of young Palestinians as the Jewish worshippers approached the steps of the Dome of the Rock — not only telling them to get out of the way, but kicking them out of the complex altogether. And for all Mr Glick's rhetoric about peaceful coexistence, Al-Aqsa's Muslim custodians are furious about the changes and argue prayer is being used as a proxy for a takeover of the compound. It is no coincidence that the shift in policy has happened as Itamar Ben-Gvir has gained power and influence within the Netanyahu government. He regularly visits the Temple Mount/Al-Aqsa compound and has publicised his trips on his social media channels. It has inspired others to follow in his footsteps. While police have allowed them to enter the precinct, they have stopped some from taking animals such as goats, used for ritual sacrifice, into the area. Extremists have boasted about their plans for the restoration of a Jewish temple on the site, even going so far as to post AI-generated videos showing the destruction of Al-Aqsa. The Netanyahu government insists the "status quo" remains, but onlookers say the behaviour of police and the conduct of Jewish worshippers has raised questions about that claim. Traditional Jewish leaders believe the Temple Mount is intrinsic to their faith, but they insist people should not pray there. "In each community, in each people, in each group, there are the margins of the society that make very extreme statements," rabbi of the Western Wall Shmuel Rabinovich told the ABC. "I tell them the vast majority of the rabbis of Israel have forbidden the ascension on the Temple Mount; I convey to them this message. "Some of them have other rabbis that have another opinion — it causes me pain." Rabbi Rabinovich said it was against Jewish law, or Halacha, to enter the site — in particular, to approach the Dome of the Rock. But he argued Muslim anger at Jews entering the precinct was not appropriate. "When we came back here [Jerusalem's Old City] in 1967, we opened this place to everyone," he said. "The Western Wall is ours — Muslims can come here, Christians can come here, anyone can come here, if you feel that this place is yours, you don't prevent others from visiting. The fact that the Muslims don't let the Jews pray there does not give them a badge of honour. "Therefore, I believe that it is not the Muslims that should prevent Jews from ascending the Temple Mount. The fact that Jews should not enter the Temple Mount, I think they are forbidden from entering because of religion and because of the Halacha." Despite that assertion, it is rare to see Muslims in the Western Wall plaza. The Palestinian Authority was furious that Mr Glick entered the site, particularly how close he got to the Dome of the Rock, issuing a fiery statement in response. "Glick is considered to be one of the most prominent symbols of religious extremism," the authority's Jerusalem governorate said in a statement. "This raid coincides with a clear escalation witnessed at the Al-Aqsa Mosque," it added, alleging that Jewish weddings had taken place inside the mosque with Israeli police protection. It blamed Mr Ben-Gvir for the situation, saying he had given the "green light" to the escalation. "The number of settlers who have broken into the Al-Aqsa Mosque since the beginning of 2025 has reached about 33,634, in a serious increase in terms of numbers and patterns," the governorate said. It issued a warning that the situation could deteriorate even further in early August, around the Jewish holiday of Tish'a B'Av, which marks the destruction of the Jewish temples.
The Guardian
14 hours ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
Israeli police release settler accused of killing Palestinian activist
Israeli police have refused to release the body of Awdah Hathaleen, a Palestinian activist and journalist who helped make the Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land, while the settler accused of killing him, Yinon Levi, has been released from custody. Hathaleen was shot to death on Monday night during a confrontation between settlers driving a bulldozer in the village of Umm al-Kheir in the occupied West Bank and residents of the town. A video appears to show Levi firing his gun wildly and then people screaming as Hathaleen, standing a distance away in the town centre, collapsed. Levi was released from custody by a court on Tuesday and placed under three days of house arrest, which ends tomorrow and allows him to roam free. According to Levi's lawyer, Avihai Hajabi, the court found that there was evidence supporting his claims that he acted in self-defence, and ordered his release. Levi, who was put under sanctions by then US president Joe Biden and later removed from the sanctions list by Donald Trump, could still face charges. Despite the release of Levi, Hathaleen's family is still struggling to recover his body from Israeli police so that they can hold his funeral. 'It's devastating. His body is still being held and the killer is free. His mother and his wife – they keep asking where he is, when his body will come back. I have no answers anymore. I tell them an hour, two hours, but I don't know,' said Salem Hathaleen, the elder brother of Awdah. Israeli police said that they will not release Hathaleen's body until his family agrees to ten conditions, including limiting the funeral to 15 people and burying his body outside his birth village, according to a lawyer representing the family. 'The idea is that the police want the funeral to be really small and quiet, so that it is like it never happened and nobody will come,' said Karin Wind, who has reviewed the conditions and is communicating with the police on behalf of the family. According to a police document seen by the Guardian, police requested that no 'signs calling for incitement' be displayed or 'amplification' system used at the funeral, with the police requesting a deposit from the family to ensure they comply with conditions. The family refused to sign the document and its conditions. 'Fifteen people – this would mean basically half his siblings and children couldn't even attend,' said Salem. The Guardian reached out to the Israeli police and the military for a comment but did not receive one by the time of publication. The Israeli military has claimed the conditions are necessary to preserve public order. Israeli soldiers raided the tent erected for mourners on Tuesday, declaring it a closed military zone as they pushed mourners out and threw stun grenades at activists and journalists in attendance. 'Coming to the place that he was killed, where they killed him, and kicking people out? This is not a life, this is against any law in the world,' said Alaa Hathaleen, Awdeh's brother, who witnessed him die. The Guardian attempted to reach Alaa Hathaleen for a comment on Thursday but discovered he had been arrested, along with 13 other residents, by the Israeli military. More than seventy women from the village declared on Thursday that they were going on hunger strike until the police return the body of Awdeh Hathaleen. Activists and relatives of Hathaleen said the case underscored what they called a system of impunity for Israeli settlers as they commit a wave of violence against Palestinians. At least 1,010 Palestinians have been killed and more than 7,000 have been injured in the West Bank by Israeli settlers and soldiers since October 2023. On Thursday morning, another settler attack was carried out in the village of Silwad in the West Bank. The Palestinian Authority said Israeli settlers descended upon the village and set fire to homes and cars in the village, killing a Palestinian man. 'Forty-year-old Khamis Abdel-Latif Ayad was martyred due to smoke inhalation caused by fires set by settlers in citizens' homes and vehicles in the village of Silwad at dawn,' the Palestinian health ministry said in a statement. The Israeli military said in a statement to Agence France-Presse that several suspects set fire to property and vehicles in Silwad, but that they were unable to identify the suspects. The Israeli police said it had launched an investigation into the incident. Accountability for settlers who commit acts of violence against Palestinians is rare. Israeli settlements are considered illegal under international law, but their development has been accelerated under the current right-wing government. The Israeli government distributed 29 all-terrain vehicles, in addition to security and logistical equipment including drones and night vision goggles, to settlements on Wednesday. At the ceremony to hand over the equipment, finance minister Bezalel Smotrich said: 'The agricultural farms and young settlements are the spearhead of Zionist settlement in Judea and Samaria.' The killing of Hathaleen prompted a wave of international condemnation. The French ministry of foreign affairs released a statement urging the Israeli government to hold Hathaleen's killer accountable and calling settler violence 'a matter of terrorism'. Umm al-Khair is within Area C of the West Bank, which is under full Israeli control and sits just below the Israeli settlement of Carmel. All settlements in the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967, are illegal under international law. 'There's a saying here: 'The dignity of the dead is in burial.' When someone is killed, there should be immediate burial. It brings some small relief to the heart. But until now, we've received neither the body nor the right to do anything,' said Salem.
Hindustan Times
3 days ago
- Politics
- Hindustan Times
Palestinian activist Odeh Hathalin, who worked on Oscar-winning film, shot dead in West Bank
Prominent Palestinian activist Odeh Hathalin, who worked on an Oscar-winning documentary, died after he was shot by a Jewish settler in a village near Hebron in Israeli-occupied West Bank. An Israeli settler (left) shot dead prominent Palestinian activist Odeh Hathalin.(X) Odeh Hathalin, who was a consultant on 'No Other Land,' a film that documented Israeli settler and military attacks on the Palestinian community of Masafer Yatta, was shot in the village of Umm al-Khair. Hathalin was "shot in the upper body" and later succumbed to his injuries. A second Palestinian was also injured in the attack after being beaten by the settler. He is currently admitted to a hospital, Palestinian news agency Wafa reported. Also Read: Sonia Gandhi slams PM Modi for 'silence' on Gaza: 'Height of moral cowardice' The Israeli Police has detained the Israeli civilian and he was later arrested for questioning, CNN reported. The Palestinian Authority's Ministry of Education said he was "shot dead by settlers during their attacks on the village of Umm al-Khair'. However, the Israeli military said that 'terrorists hurled rocks toward Israeli civilians near Carmel.' Yuval Abraham, the Israeli journalist who co-directed 'No Other Land', posted a video of the incident and said, "An Israeli settler just shot Odeh Hadalin in the lungs." "Residents identified Yinon Levi, sanctioned by the EU and US, as the shooter. This is him in the video firing like crazy," Abraham added in the X post. The violence in the West Bank by Israeli settlers have surged since the October 7 attacks and at least 964 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces and settlers in such attacks. Jewish settlements in the Israeli-occupied West Bank are illegal under international law, according to CNN. France calls Israeli settlers' violence 'acts of terrorism' The French government issued a statement saying "it was deeply saddened to learn of the murder of Odeh Hathalin, who represented the village of Umm al-Khair in the Masafer Yatta Valley". Also Read: Israel's big warning to Ali Khamenei: 'Will reach Iran and you personally' "France condemns this murder in the strongest possible terms, along with all the violence that extremist settlers are deliberately inflicting on the Palestinian population and which is spreading throughout the West Bank," the statement said. The French government also called the violent actions as "acts of terrorism" and said that settlers have killed more than 30 people since 2022. The Israeli authorities must uphold their responsibilities and immediately punish the perpetrators of such violence, which is continuing with impunity, and protect Palestinian civilians, the statement added.
France 24
4 days ago
- Politics
- France 24
Israeli settlers attack West Bank Christian village
Jeries Azar, a Taybeh resident and journalist for Palestine TV, told AFP his house and car were targeted in the pre-dawn assault. "I looked outside and saw my car on fire, and they were throwing something at the vehicle and in the direction of the house," Azar said. The Palestinian Authority issued a statement blaming "Israeli colonial settlers" for the attack on Taybeh. Azar said he was terrified and put himself in the shoes of the Dawabsheh family, a couple who burned to death with their baby after settlers attacked their West Bank village of Duma in 2015. "My greatest fear was for my two-year-old son. After we escaped, he cried nonstop for an hour", Azar said, adding that the Israeli army had surveyed the area after the attack. Israeli police and the military said in a joint statement that a unit was dispatched to Taybeh and reported "two burned Palestinian vehicles and graffiti". The statement said that no suspects were apprehended but that Israeli police have launched an investigation. A photo shared by a Palestinian government agency on social media showed graffiti on a Taybeh wall that read: "Al-Mughayyir, you will regret", referring to a nearby village that was also attacked by settlers earlier this year. The Palestinian Authority's foreign ministry condemned the attack, calling it "settler terrorism". Germany's ambassador to Israel, Steffen Seibert, also condemned the action, writing on X: "These extremist settlers may claim that God gave them the land. But they are nothing but criminals abhorrent to any faith". Taybeh and its surroundings have experienced several bouts of settler violence in recent months, including an arson attack at an ancient Byzantine church. The village -- home to about 1,300 mostly Christian Palestinians, many holding US dual citizenship -- is known for its brewery, the oldest in the Palestinian territories. Settlers have attacked neighbouring communities in recent months, resulting in three deaths, damage to Palestinian water wells and the displacement of at least one rural herding community. Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967. The territory is home to about three million Palestinians and around 700,000 Israeli settlers, including about 200,000 in east Jerusalem. Last week, 71 members of Israel's 120-seat parliament, or Knesset, passed a motion calling on the government to annex the West Bank.
