“Muslims pray on the Temple Mount, non-Muslims can only visit it. There is no change and there will be no change,” the official said. head of diplomacy, after tensions.
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Muslims can pray at this holy place, but not followers of other religions. Israel “will not change” the status quo on the esplanade of the Mosques of Jerusalem, assured Sunday April 24 its head of diplomacy Yaïr Lapid at a time when the international community fears a new conflagration of violence. “Muslims pray on the Temple Mount, non-Muslims can only visit. There is no change and there will be no change”he said after tensions on this esplanade, the third holiest site in Islam, considered the holiest place in Judaism under its name of “Temple Mount”.
After deadly attacks in Israel, two of which were perpetrated by Palestinians, then operations by the Israeli army in the occupied West Bank which left around twenty dead, violence broke out in mid-April on the esplanade of the Mosques. These raise fears of a new escalation between Israel and Palestinian armed movements. The tensions “are driven by concerns about Jewish access to the site and their ability to pray there”, explains to AFP Ofer Zalzberg, specialist in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In recent years, the number of Jews visiting the esplanade has increased and despite the ban on non-Muslims praying there, many Jewish worshipers are regularly spotted praying there. Palestinians have expressed to AFP their fear that the esplanade will become like the Ibrahimi mosque, called “Cave of the Patriarchs” by the Jews, in Hebron, in the occupied West Bank: under Muslim control for centuries, this site has been divided in part accessible to Jews and another to Muslims after the attack perpetrated on the spot in 1994 by a Jewish extremist, which killed 29 Muslims.