On social networks, a photo showing young people on the ground and their hands tied in the Al-Aqsa mosque, in Jerusalem, is massively relayed.
The viral image is not dated and is not given in the current context of clashes between Israeli police and Palestinian demonstrators.
On April 15, security forces entered Islam's third holiest site.
For more than a week, many publications on social networks have relayed, day after day, the same photo showing young people, hands tied, on the ground on carpets, in the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem.
In the background on the left, there are two people in uniform, standing.
The various texts accompanying this image deplore the treatment inflicted by the Israeli police in the third holiest site of Islam.
“Dozens of Palestinian worshipers arrested, tied up and humiliated within their own mosque, in full practice of their faith and in the last ten days of the month of Ramadan”, explains one of the publications on Facebook.
Most publications do not indicate the date the photograph was taken or its author.
They may suggest that the facts take place on the date of publication.
One of these posts mentions “Source: the mosque”.
So what happened – and when – in the Al-Aqsa Mosque?
FAKE OFF
On April 15, at 4 a.m., "dozens of young masked rioters", some displaying themselves with flags of the armed Islamist movement Hamas, marched on the esplanade of the Mosques, said the Israeli police.
They threw stones at the adjacent Wailing Wall, the most important place of prayer in Jewish tradition, security forces said, saying they intervened to "dislodge" demonstrators and "restore order".
For his part, Omar Al-Kiswani, director of the Al-Aqsa mosque, located on the esplanade, told AFP that the Israeli police had intervened inside this place of worship, early on April 15.
The Al-Aqsa Mosque is a "red line that should not be crossed", he said then.
The next day, Morocco, a country that has normalized its relations with Israel, denounced the "flagrant aggression" of the "Israeli occupation forces" on the esplanade of the Mosques.
Clamps
According to a report by the Palestinian Red Crescent, at least 57 Palestinians were injured, two of them seriously, that day during clashes with Israeli policemen on the esplanade of the Mosques, the first then on this place since the beginning of the Ramadan, April 1.
The viral photo, whose author has not been identified, was most likely taken on April 15 during these rare events in a holy place.
Moreover, the patterns of the carpets correspond well to those found on other available photos of the interior of the mosque.
On the other hand, April 15 corresponds to the second Friday of Ramadan, i.e. halfway through the holy month.
The assertion that the facts took place during the last ten days of the month of Ramadan is therefore incorrect.
A video posted on April 15 on Twitter and relayed by the Israeli daily
Haaretz
confirms that the Israeli security forces did indeed put protesters on the ground and used white clamps.
Moreover, the shape of the crest, visible on the uniform of one of the two people standing, on the viral photo, leaves no doubt as to the fact that they are indeed members of the Israeli security forces. .
Violence since March 22
“This is what life looks like for Palestinians who pray peacefully during the holy month of Ramadan,” protested one of the many Internet users relaying the viral photo on Twitter.
The hypothesis that the young people on the ground prayed "previously peacefully" is unlikely.
First of all, the clashes have recently multiplied between Israeli police and Palestinians in East Jerusalem, the Palestinian part occupied and annexed by Israel, and the esplanade of the Mosques is located in the old city in East Jerusalem.
Since March 22, 14 people have been killed in anti-Israeli attacks.
A total of 26 Palestinians, including attackers, were killed in different incidents or operations, according to an AFP count.
Moreover, in the viral photo, we can see that the young people on the ground are wearing shoes, which contradicts the idea that they were praying in the mosque, since it is a holy place in which it is customary to take off your shoes before entering.
Our dossier on Jerusalem
Following this violence, "the Israeli charge d'affaires in Jordan was summoned to the headquarters of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs", where he received "a message of protest against all illegal and provocative Israeli violations at the holy mosque of 'Al-Aqsa,' the Jordanian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
The Jordanian government has also stressed "the need to respect the right of the faithful to practice their religion freely and without restrictions", it added.
Jordan, bound to Israel by a peace treaty since 1994, administers the esplanade of the Mosques, where the Al-Aqsa mosque is located, but access to this place is controlled by Israel.
Again on Friday, more than fifty Palestinians were injured in clashes with the Israeli police, who said they intervened after young "rioters" threw stones from the esplanade towards the Wailing Wall.
"The police intervened because there were hundreds of rioters dispatched by Hamas and Islamic Jihad," Yair Lapid, the head of Israeli diplomacy, said on Sunday.
I believe [this deployment] was justified, because it averted a disaster.
In 2021, during Ramadan, nocturnal demonstrations in Jerusalem and clashes even on the esplanade turned into eleven days of war between the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, in power in the Gaza Strip, and Israel.
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