Are we witnessing a confrontation in Al-Aqsa Mosque in Ramadan?

Pictures of Friday prayers from the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque (Al-Jazeera)

With the approaching of the holy month of Ramadan, the Israeli security services began preparing for the most difficult month for them all year, especially since this year comes in light of the war on the Gaza Strip, whether or not the fighting stopped before or during the month, and in light of unprecedented agitation by settler groups and the extreme right. In Israel after the defeat of October 7, which Israel has not yet been able to absorb or deal with its effects, despite all the destruction it has spread in the Gaza Strip, and the war declared against the Palestinian people in the West Bank and Jerusalem.

Therefore, the preparations made by the Israeli security services this year to deal with this holy month are considered the most sensitive since the Israeli occupation of the mosque in 1967, based on the unprecedented circumstances it is going through.

The upcoming season of the blessed month of Ramadan will intersect with a number of seasons of raids on Al-Aqsa Mosque, the first of which is the Feast of Purim, which will fall in the middle of the month of Ramadan. Although it is not usually one of the seasons of major raids, this year it coincides with the challenge of the month of Ramadan and the battle of the “Flood.” Al-Aqsa” gives it special importance to extremist temple groups

We should know here that when it comes to the holy month of Ramadan in Al-Aqsa Mosque, the occupation authorities usually deal with two levels of challenges:

• The first level: represented by young Jerusalemites, usually with them Palestinians from the Green Line areas, who are supposed to be able to reach the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque at other times because they hold Israeli identity cards.

These people - especially Jerusalemite youth - often constituted the greatest security burden for the Israeli security services at the mosque in recent years. Especially the youth of the city of Jerusalem, who consider themselves in constant confrontation with the Israeli occupation state, and have previously been the first line in many previous confrontations with the occupation forces inside the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque.

• As for the second level: it relates to Palestinian residents of the West Bank, whom Israel usually prevents from free access to Al-Aqsa Mosque, with the exception of the season of the holy month of Ramadan, during which it allows limited numbers each year - of West Bank Palestinians of specific ages, whether men or women. Holders of security permits or women - to arrive to perform prayers at the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque on Fridays in particular.

This level usually does not constitute the most prominent security challenge for the occupation authorities every year except at the level of condensing the numbers in the mosque, which encourages mass movements of Jerusalemite youth inside the mosque. Taking advantage of the presence of large numbers of people there, which is what the occupation authorities fear and reckon with every year.

When the numbers in Al-Aqsa Mosque are limited, this facilitates Israeli security control over the mosque in general, and ensures that it is able to control movement, stop any friction or clashes, and disperse them easily.

But increasing the numbers inside the mosque is considered a major security challenge. Due to the inability of the occupation police to control the movement of the public, especially in cases of security unrest such as the one witnessed by the mosque during Ramadan in 2021, for example.

The bottom line is that Israel fears the holy month of Ramadan, and considers it the heaviest month of the year for it. So what if it will deal with it this year in light of everything that is happening in the region since its outbreak on the seventh of last October? Therefore, Israel appears to have begun working on practical preparation for this stage early by leaking news indicating that there are disagreements between the army and the police regarding the issue of allowing West Bank Palestinians to reach Al-Aqsa in the upcoming month of Ramadan.

This is what was reported by Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper a few days ago, where Israeli journalist Itamar Eknar claims that while the occupation police - working under the authority of Minister Itamar Ben Gvir - want to implement the “zero Palestinians” policy; Specifically, preventing all residents of the West Bank from reaching Al-Aqsa Mosque during Ramadan. The Israeli army leadership sees the necessity of allowing limited numbers of West Bank residents to reach Al-Aqsa in order to relieve the intense pressure in the West Bank.

I say; They are intentional preparatory leaks; Because the intention is clearly to restrict the access of West Bank residents to Jerusalem this year almost completely, despite what Yedioth Ahronoth claims about the existence of disagreements, because these disagreements that the newspaper refers to are not related to principle but to quantity, meaning that the disagreement revolves around what Should Israel allow a very limited number of West Bank residents to reach Al-Aqsa, or prevent them all?

This is expected, as it is unreasonable for Israel to put pressure on the cities of the West Bank with its various daily attacks, and then open the gates of the city of Jerusalem wide to the residents of the West Bank, while Jerusalem is closed to its Palestinian residents themselves.

As for the goal of these leaks, in my opinion: It is preparing Palestinian public opinion to anticipate what the occupation forces are preparing in the holy month of Ramadan against all Palestinians in terms of measures to prevent and exclude them from the mosque. In fact, there are other goals behind this that the occupation authorities do not announce, and they may be the real intended goals.

The upcoming season of the blessed month of Ramadan will intersect with a number of seasons of raids on Al-Aqsa Mosque, the first of which is the Feast of Purim, which will fall in the middle of the month of Ramadan. Although it is not usually one of the seasons of major raids, this year it coincides with the challenge of the month of Ramadan and the battle of the “Flood.” Al-Aqsa" gives it special importance to the extremist Temple groups, the right-wing religious Zionism movement, and the Kahanist movement, of which the extremist National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir is one of its most important pillars.

Therefore, this season will be an opportunity to showcase Itamar Ben Gvir’s power in Al-Aqsa Mosque, and to prove his ability to impose Israeli sovereignty over Al-Aqsa Mosque in a way that even Benjamin Netanyahu himself was not able to do. Perhaps this will be a golden opportunity for Ben Gvir to present himself as the leader of the right in Israel, and he is This is what the man has been doing since he assumed the position of ministry, especially when the ongoing war events began.

This station will be a very important station, as the right-wing Israeli government will evaluate it in an integrated manner. In preparation for the next stop immediately after the end of the holy month of Ramadan, which is the occasion of the Jewish Passover, which will fall from the 23rd to the 30th of next April, that is, only two weeks after the end of the holy month of Ramadan, during which extremist temple groups will attempt this year to carry out animal sacrifices inside... Al-Aqsa Mosque more seriously than before, taking advantage of the end of the Ramadan season, and the return of the number of Muslims to decrease after the end of the month in general, as is the custom, in conjunction with the atmosphere of war that the region is experiencing.

So it can be said here; The occupation government faces a major challenge in the holy month of Ramadan to significantly reduce the number of Muslims during the month while carrying out the Purim raids to the extent that it considers a success.

Her success in this endeavor necessarily means opening her appetite to implement an old dream that she has been unable to implement over the past many years once the month of Ramadan ends, which is implementing the ritual slaughter of animal sacrifices inside the mosque and completing the last biblical religious ritual that remains for her to stabilize the change in the status quo in Al-Aqsa Mosque by turning it into a temple. Morally Jewish, so that you move from that moment on to work on transforming it into a temple physically, either by allocating part of the land of Al-Aqsa Mosque as a prelude for this purpose, or by completely controlling at least half of the area of ​​the mosque, as Israel has dreamed of for more than fifty-five years.

This is what Israel will consider a central victory for itself, even in the current war, given that the Palestinian resistance placed the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque at the top of the strategic targets it designated for Operation “Al-Aqsa Flood” on the seventh of last October.

This matter moves the ball into the court of the Jerusalemites and the Palestinian people in the West Bank, as Israel’s ability to implement all these steps depends on how the Palestinians in the West Bank, Jerusalem, and the Palestinian interior deal with the expected Israeli ban measures in Al-Aqsa Mosque during the upcoming holy month of Ramadan.

It should be recalled here that the rise in religious spirit among Muslims during the days of the month of Ramadan in general is considered the major issue that Israel fears. Because it is this spirit that pushes the Palestinians in those very days to intensify their psychological preparations and popular numbers alike to challenge Israeli measures to the highest degree, and this is what Israel does not want, because any major spark in Jerusalem could ignite a new intifada or lead to an expansion of the scope of the war. To the extent that neither Israel nor its allies can stand against it.

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of Al Jazeera.