Why Al-Aqsa is key to understanding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict | Start Here

let's talk about one of the holiest sites in the world [Music] that's always in the news we have another session of violence here right in front of such a sensitive religious site isn't it one of the flash points that led to the 11-day conflict Israel's far-right national security minister itamar bengvir has visited the AXA mosque compound and it's a place that you need to get your head around if you want to understand what's going on between the Israelis and Palestinians foreign here's the old city and occupied East Jerusalem the place where Islam Judaism and Christianity

all intersect there are several sites here that are holy to all three including this big compound that rises above everything else Jews call it the Temple mount Muslims call it al-haram al-sharif which means the noble Sanctuary or the Al-Aqsa mosque compound or sometimes just Al-Aqsa now right in the middle of everything is the Dome of the Rock it's an Islamic Shrine where Muslims believe the prophet Muhammad ascended to heaven here is the Al-Aqsa mosque itself it's got a huge prayer Hall with space for 5 000 worshipers the Alexa mosque got its name from a reference

uh in the Quran that refers to a mystical night Journey that the prophet Muhammad made Rebecca to El Mezza which means the furthest mosque and that was generally understood to be in Jerusalem Jerusalem was the location of the first direction of prayer for Muslims and was later changed to Mecca because of that the Al-Aqsa mosque compound is the third holiest site in Islam after Mecca and Medina in Christianity the site matters because of its significance in the Old Testament and because Jesus would have spent time there and it's also the most holy site in Judaism

it's where two ancient Jewish temples once stood the first was destroyed by the Babylonians the second stood for almost 600 years until it was destroyed by the Romans in the first century and according to Jewish teachings the mount is where a third Temple should be built when the Messiah a savior figure is sent by God now for most of the last 800 years the compound was controlled by Muslim rulers and wasn't accessible to non-muslims traditionally Jewish law actually forbids Jews from entering or praying inside the Temple Mount because it's considered so holy a place of

divine presence so Jews pray outside the compound at the Western Wall which is thought to have been part of the second temple even to this day the overwhelming majority of Orthodox rabbis will say you are not allowed to visit what this means is that throughout the Millennia the Temple mount for Jews was a focus of devotion but there were no particular demands pending the coming of the Messiah all of that changed in 1967. [Music] that's when Israel seized control of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank including East Jerusalem in the Six-Day War Between the

Arabs and Israelis but when it came to Al-Aqsa the Israelis stuck with an arrangement that kept something called the walk-off in charge it's an Islamic trust that's run by Jordan Jordan would retain control over the actual compound itself the Alexa mosque its custodian ship of its Administration its upkeep who could access the site who couldn't access the site uh you know pram worship and that whole Arrangement is wrapped up in this idea known as the status quo it's a Latin phrase which means the situation as it is now but in this context the status quo

refers to how things are done at Al-Aqsa very simple Muslims pray non-muslims to visit or stop if I were to try and translate this into the description of a dynamic um the holy Esplanade Haram Temple mount is exclusively a place of worship for Muslims that is open to the dignified and respectful visits of non-muslims and in coordination with the autonomous authorities of the work that's the theory anyway what actually happens in practice is another thing because remember Israel occupies East Jerusalem and has a heavy security presence in the old city including at the gates of

the Al-Aqsa compound so effectively it's the Israeli police not the walk-off officials who ultimately control who goes in and out although it wasn't always so explicit there was a shift in the early 2000s after the Palestinian Uprising against the Israeli occupation known as the second intifada we saw Israel then controlling not only the vicinity around the Alaska but also the unlocks the most compound itself taking control over security access and allowing increasing numbers of Jews to access the site the change in the Israeli perspective is we're not your guests we're here a landlord and we're

going to show you that we're your landlord and what we're seeing is Israel increasingly exercising that control and more and more accusations that they're breaking the agreed conventions of the status quo so there are lots of ways that the status quo has been violated restrictions uh on Muslim warship which is something that the Israeli occupation imposes quite frequently sometimes age restrictions usually limiting men of a certain age from entering the site if they feel that there may be protests or or something happening we're all set seeing more Jewish prayer whether it's silent but slowly it's

becoming much more of that now [Music] there is Jewish prayer I've seen it daily uh but beyond that there is a triumphalism an ultra-national triangleism which is perceived as a violation of the sanctity of the site by Muslim worshipers and people in the Muslim world the backdrop to all of this is the growing power of far-right groups and religious hardliners in Israel for example there is the Temple Mount movement that's been around for decades it brings together a range of groups who want to overturn the status quo throughout the years that Fringe uh became less

of a fringe and during the 1980s and the 1990s began to go mainstream and today it is not only not a fringe it is in power so you've got people like the new national security minister it's Amar bengaver who entered the Al-Aqsa compound after only a few days on the job he says the arrangements that limit Jewish access are racist it's one thing to have a non-governmental entity or groups of individuals go but when you have ministers going up to the site it's it's very different he was effectively asserting what he had promised during his

campaign uh during the Electoral run-up which was Jewish Supremacy and sovereignty over all of Israel that's why what Ben Geer did was so provocative lots of countries condemned it the U.N security Council called a special session about it because there's always the fear of how quickly things can escalate when it comes to Alexa [Music] like in the early 2000s when a visit by the then opposition leader Ariel Sharon triggered the second into fada [Applause] [Music] [Applause] anyone when Israeli forces stormed Al-Aqsa Moss during Ramadan it all spiraled and led to an 11-day Israeli War on

Gaza thank you our mission is both an explosive but it is even more a Detonator and with the climatic conditions are correct what happens on the mount can make the region uh erupt in Flames I'll access such a powerful symbol so what happens there takes on an even bigger Dimension and for Palestinians it's become emblematic of their wider struggle the constant chipping away of their rights their land and their identity didn't get to 700 000 Israeli settlers in the occupied territories overnight it happened house by house Brick by Brick Road by Road settlement by settlement

and so that's what's happening with the status quo it's being eroded bit by bit it is a slow piecemeal process that the International Community generally tolerates the Israeli governments haven't faced any real costs or repercussions for those actions and so it's that impune D that allows them to kind of keep pushing the envelope further each time check out our recent episode on what's happening in Iran and make sure to subscribe to this YouTube channel to get notified the next time there's a new episode of start here [Music]