Collective Restrictions on the Entry of Muslim Worshippers to the Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif

31/10/2015
Collective Restrictions on the Entry of Muslim Worshippers to the Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif: A Violation of the Spirit of the Status Quo and a Key Factor in the Outbreak of Violence in Jerusalem
November 2015
Written by Aviv Tatarsky, Researcher
English translation: Shaul Vardi; English editing: Betty Herschman
On October 24, 2015, in an attempt to calm the wave of violence in Israel and the Occupied Territories, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu published a statement concerning the status quo on the Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif. The statement summarized the agreements reached between Israel, Jordan, and the Palestinian Authority, with US mediation, on the status quo. Netanyahu’s statement is an important one, and one that will hopefully serve to reduce the current elevation of tensions surrounding the Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif. That being said, the prime minister’s statement fails to address the most problematic aspect – and a direct cause – of the eruption of violence during the Jewish high holidays over the last two years: collective restrictions imposed on Muslim access to the Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif. This paper analyzes the collective restrictions imposed on the entry of Muslim worshippers and demonstrates how the changes introduced in the summer of 2014 blurre...read more