The temporal and spatial division of the Al-Aqsa Mosque is an idea put forward by the Israeli right, led by the Likud Party, in preparation for the Judaization of the mosque, by perpetuating the policy of storming it and attacking those stationed inside it.

The Jewish plan includes imposing a temporal division of the Al-Aqsa courtyards between the Palestinians and the Israeli occupiers outside of prayer times within the framework of an initial stage followed by a spatial division, then full control of it later, and changing its identity by building what the Israeli occupation calls the “Third Temple” in place of the Dome of the Rock.

temporal division

- The project that aims to divide the Al-Aqsa Mosque between Muslims and Israel has two parts: the temporal division and the spatial division, and Israel had already begun them practically.

Temporal division means allocating certain times for Muslims to enter the Al-Aqsa Mosque and others for Jews to enter, and it aims to divide the hours of the day, days of the week and the year between Jews and Muslims.

- The Israeli side considers that Muslims should leave Al-Aqsa from 07:30 until 11:00 in the morning, and in the afternoon from 1:30 until 2:30, and a third period in the afternoon, to allocate these times to the Jews under the pretext that there is no prayer for Muslims during these times. Times for Jews to be allowed to perform 3 prayers a day inside it.

Al-Aqsa Mosque is also allocated to the Jews during their holidays, whose total number of days is approximately 100 days per year, in addition to the Shabbat days that are allotted to the Jews, i.e. about 50 days, which makes the total number of days allotted to the Jews is 150 days per year, and it is also prohibited to raise the call to prayer during Jewish holidays.

Temporal division means allocating certain times for Muslims to enter Al-Aqsa Mosque and others for Jews to enter (communication sites)

spatial division

Spatial division means allocating specific places in the Al-Aqsa Mosque in its entirety of 144 dunums, to each of the two parties, as it aims to allocate parts and areas of Al-Aqsa Mosque that the Israeli entity carves out to turn them into Jewish churches to perform their prayers there.

- During the previous periods, the occupation determined roads and paths specific to the Jews in order to pave the way for the spatial division, which also includes the extension of control by force over all the outer courtyards of Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Roofed places such as the Dome of the Rock and the Marwani Mosque are designated for Muslims. This division includes plans for the construction of the Jewish Synagogue and the Temple.

Senior Rabbis at Al-Aqsa (networking sites)

document and map

- October 22, 2013: The Al-Aqsa Foundation for Endowment and Heritage revealed through a document and map to “colonize” the division of Al-Aqsa Mosque temporally and spatially, in all its details, prepared by activists from the Likud party calling themselves “Menhijot Yehudit” (or Jewish leadership), led by Moshe Feiglin, deputy Speaker of the Knesset at that time.

- The proposal attached to the map bears the name “A draft law and regulations to preserve the Temple Mount as a holy place,” and specifies that the roofed Qibli Mosque is only Al-Aqsa Mosque (and in it only Islamic prayers are performed), and the part located in the far south behind the southern mihrab “the Al-Zawiya al-Khanthaniah area” is cut off from it. ".

The proposal specifies that the entire area of ​​the Dome of the Rock, and the eastern side of it, is a purely Jewish sanctuary, and one-fifth of the mosque’s area is made an area for Jewish prayers with sacred tools sometimes individual and collective.

It specifies the times of silent Jewish prayers there, with the possibility of increasing the times and spaces that enable Jews to perform their prayers, especially on Fridays, Saturdays, and Jewish holidays and seasons, and the possibility of Jews storming and entering the Al-Aqsa Mosque from all doors and at all times.

The proposal makes it possible for the commissioner to specify times and spaces in Al-Aqsa Mosque for the entry of Jews only. It also includes a number of prohibitions and prohibitions on repair and maintenance work for Al-Aqsa Mosque without the permission of the commissioner, and it is forbidden to perform I’tikaf in Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Jewish groups lit the menorah near Al-Aqsa (Al-Jazeera)

jewish prayers

- According to the Al-Aqsa Foundation, the Zionist proposal details the distribution of times and how they will be allocated to Jewish prayers as follows:

Individual prayers: They are performed by only one person in a low voice, who can hear himself with his lips without carrying the holy books and tools.

It takes place every morning after the mosque’s doors are opened for Jews to perform the morning opening prayer (Sharit), and for a full hour daily in the afternoon hours before closing the mountain to perform the closing prayer (grant).

Group prayers: prayers for ten or more people.

During which it is allowed to use the Torah, books and sacred tools on Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays of every week, the first day of every Hebrew month, and on Jewish holidays and seasons.

Collective prayers are held daily for an hour after the opening (Sharit), and half an hour before closing (granted) on Saturdays and seasons, and two and a half hours are allocated for morning collective prayer, while in the Hebrew New Year and Yom Kippur, 4 hours are allocated for collective morning prayer, and two and a half hours are allotted The hour on the Day of Atonement is to pray (grant him) in the allotted space.

Temporary installation of plates, tents, chairs, tables for reading the Torah, and the wrapped sacred treasury is allowed.

- During or near prayer times, no opposition activity that threatens the safety of those on the site is allowed.

The Israeli seasons: the days in which the Jews celebrate holidays and seasons of fasting.

The Minister of Religions assigns an official responsible for implementing the aforementioned items, with the possibility of adding employees as needed, in coordination with the competent authorities.


historical context

June 1967: The actual occupation measures to divide Al-Aqsa Mosque began with the fall of the eastern part of the city of Jerusalem in the grip of the occupation. Soldiers and settlers to the courtyards of the mosque.

1969: An Australian Christian extremist set fire to Al-Aqsa Mosque, and the Israelis arrested him, claiming that he suffers from mental illness, and he was deported years later.

Since that time, the occupation began excavations under the Al-Aqsa Mosque, claiming to search for traces of the Second Temple. These excavations developed through 10 different stages until the year 2000.

At that time, the Israeli General Mordechai Gore stormed the mosque with his soldiers, raised the Israeli flag on the Dome of the Rock, burned the Qur’an and prevented prayer in it.

- The keys were returned to the Jordanian Endowment, which handled the affairs of the mosque, with the exception of the Mughrabi Gate key, which is currently designated for settlers' incursions.

Since Jordan assumed the administration of endowments and the affairs of Al-Aqsa Mosque, the Kingdom has set two periods: morning, between 7:30 and 10, and another evening, between 1 and 2 in the afternoon, for foreign tourists to enter the mosque.

1976: A judge in the Israeli District Court decided that Jews have the right to pray inside the Temple Mount.

1981: Members of the "Temple Mount Trustees" movement stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque accompanied by rabbis, and wanted to pray while raising the Israeli flag and carrying Torah books.

1986: A number of rabbis held a special meeting in which they finally decided to allow the Jews to perform rituals in Al-Aqsa Mosque.

1989: The Israeli police officially allowed - for the first time - to hold prayers for religious Jews at its doors.

1990: Rabbi Lubavicher Menachem Schneerson ordered his followers to hold ceremonies in the Temple Mount, meanwhile, the Temple Mount Faithful group, founded by Gershon Salomon in 1967, was planning to lay the foundation stone for the construction of the "Third Temple" on the grounds of the Haram al-Sharif.

The Palestinians demonstrated against the plans of the "Believers in the Temple Mount." Israeli forces killed more than 20 Palestinian protesters and wounded more than 150.

Al-Aqsa Intifada was sparked by the storming of the Likud Party leader at the time, Ariel Sharon, the mosque (Al-Jazeera)

Al Aqsa Intifada

September 2000: After the outbreak of the Al-Aqsa Intifada, which was sparked by the storming of the mosque by then-Likud party leader Ariel Sharon, Israel became unilaterally controlling the movement of entry and exit within the two mentioned times, and proceeded to enter groups of settlers into the mosque under a security guard.

While Israel insisted on continuing the settlers' incursions, Jordan wanted to return to what it was before the year 2000, but the settlers' incursions did not stop when walking down specific paths and leaving the courtyards of Al-Aqsa.

- The matter developed into incursions and assaults by the army on the tribal prayer hall, as well as legislation and fatwas against the Palestinians who are trying to prevent the settlers' incursions.

- The Israeli government began allowing no more than 3 religious Jews to visit the Temple Mount at one time.

2003: Israel has steadily increased this number to more than 50, and it does so without the approval of the Islamic Waqf authorities.

2009: The Israeli Minister of Internal Security, Yitzhak Aharonvich, of the right-wing Yisrael Beiteinu party, made another visit to the campus.

special committee

June 2013: The Ir Amim Association or (City of Peoples), in cooperation with the Center for the Protection of Democracy in Israel, held a Jewish conference in Jerusalem in which the speakers unanimously agreed on their “right” to pray at Al-Aqsa Mosque.

- One of the prominent rabbis suggested establishing a special committee to look into the ways, ways and means of temporal and spatial division of the Temple Mount between Muslims and Jews, similar to the situation in the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron. The Temple is very dangerous and needs a Jewish revival in order to establish the Israeli presence in it."

2014: Extremist deputies presented two bills to the Knesset: the first to withdraw Jordanian guardianship over Islamic holy sites, and the second related to the temporal and spatial division of the mosque.

A Jerusalem uprising against the electronic gates at the gates of Al-Aqsa (Al-Jazeera)

new direction

October 30, 2014: The division took a new turn, as the occupation forces - for the first time since 1967 - completely closed the gates of Al-Aqsa Mosque in front of worshipers, including those working in it.

September 17, 2015: Israel issued a law declaring those stationed in the Sharif Mosque "terrorists" and being tried in its courts on this charge.

2015: Israel imposed restrictions that prevented women from entering the mosque during the periods designated for settler incursions, as well as deporting worshipers under police orders, and preventing them from entering it for periods.

The measures against the worshipers coincided with efforts to accuse the Al-Mourabitat and the Al-Aqsa Mosque women of breaking the law, and classifying them as a “terrorist organization.” There was fear among the Palestinians that Israel would exploit the flabby Arab situation to proceed with the implementation of the partition plan by allocating places for Jews.

"Eye on Al-Aqsa"

September 18, 2018: Al-Quds International Foundation issued a report entitled "An Eye on Al-Aqsa", in which it monitored the reality of Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Israeli attacks on it during a whole year.

According to the report, Israel "seeks to replace the Islamic human component, including the stationed, worshipers, and retreaters, with the Jewish settlement component, in order to achieve the spatial division of parts of the mosque's courtyards."

- The report indicated an increase in the percentage of settlers, Israeli security forces, and Jewish students storming Al-Aqsa Mosque by 40.3% compared to 2017.

2018: Benjamin Netanyahu lifted the ban previously imposed by the Israeli government on Knesset members to visit the Temple Mount.

The Israeli army tightens its restrictions on worshipers entering the Ibrahimi Mosque (communication sites)

Ibrahimi Mosque

The temporal and spatial division of Al-Aqsa Mosque recreates the experience of the Ibrahimi Mosque in the city of Hebron for the facade, where the Israeli flag is raised and divided between Muslims and Jews.

This was done after the massacre committed by the Israeli settler Baruch Goldstein against the worshipers at dawn prayers on February 25, 1994. An Israeli military committee decided to cut off more than half of the mosque and allocate it to settlers, while closing it completely to Muslims during the Jewish holidays.