Image Source: Al Jazeera
Occupied Palestine – Israel has continued to restrict Palestinian access to the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied East Jerusalem, this Ramadan, limiting entry to approximately 10,000 worshippers from the occupied West Bank.
The restrictions applied only to permit holders, women over 50, men over 55, and children under 12, a fraction of the compound’s capacity of nearly half a million worshippers.
The move has drawn renewed attention to Israel’s long-standing oppressive policies toward the holy site. Scholars argue that the restrictions form part of a broader strategy to alter the demographic and religious character of Jerusalem, a pattern that has intensified since the 1993 Oslo Accords.
Postgraduate Teaching Associate at the University of Exeter and University College London, Abdullah Al Anjari, said Palestinian access to Jerusalem has been deliberately eroded over time.
He said the current Ramadan restrictions are not an isolated security measure, but the latest in a policy dating back more than five decades.
“Since 1967, Israel has worked systematically to change the status quo in Al-Aqsa. First of all, we have to establish the facts. Al-Aqsa Mosque is 100% religious endowment, meaning that it is 100% Islamic waqf.”
Beyond the Mosque: A Broader Exclusion
The restrictions extend well beyond Muslim worshippers and affect Palestinians across all territories. Palestinian Christians seeking access to holy sites in Jerusalem face the same barriers, with Israel’s separation of East Jerusalem from the West Bank cutting across religious lines.
Al Anjari pointed to the systematic use of residency revocation as a tool of demographic engineering, noting that Palestinian Jerusalemites hold a particularly precarious legal status that can be stripped away at any time and for a range of reasons.
“More than 15,000 Palestinians had their residency status revoked by the Israeli authorities from 1967 to this day,” Al Anjari said, adding that “this revocation of the permanent residency status of Palestinians in East Jerusalem has been described as a policy of quiet ethnic cleansing.”
