Tayseer Muheisen

Since it consolidated its presence over the historic land of Palestine by establishing its alleged entity in 1948, Israel has never deviated its eyes from the City of Jerusalem. The holy City of Jerusalem has been the core of all the Israeli occupation's consequent governments' attention. This interest, along with its different phases, has been conveyed in diverse forms: killings, Judaization, confiscation of lands and homes, expulsion of Palestinians under fake claims, and displacement of settlers instead of them.  As a result, Jerusalem fell under Israeli occupation in 1967, which is still adopting policies and laws that would contribute to creating a new reality in the Holy City with the Al-Aqsa Mosque as its beating heart, in order to divide it temporally and spatially.

The current Israeli occupation government, led by Benjamin Netanyahu, manifests the growing level of Talmudic extremism inside the entity. Therefore, it is deemed as the most extreme government in the history of occupation, either in terms of the members affiliated with extreme Talmudic streams or in terms of the policies adopted as a consensus program among the factions within this government. These policies include the principle of asserting sovereignty over the West Bank with Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa Mosque as its heart, and creating new realities in the relationship between settlers and Al-Aqsa Mosque by intensifying raids and practicing Talmudic rituals and slogans inside Al-Aqsa.

The principle of asserting sovereignty over the Al-Aqsa Mosque is the most essential pillar for the current Israeli occupation government, led by Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich. They, along with others, managed to manipulate the government's policy and its leaders for the sake of this extremist Talmudic goal.

Ben Gvir runs the Ministry of National Security and has control over everything related to the West Bank and Jerusalem. Therefore, repeated incursions of Al-Aqsa, practicing religious rites like epic prostration, offering sacrifices, blowing the trumpet and others, under the guardianship of the Israeli police, come within the context of creating new realities that might lead, in the future, to the temporal and spatial division of Al-Aqsa. This constitutes a fundamental step towards the practical imposture of sovereignty over Jerusalem, and then the establishment of what they call "Alleged Temple" over the debris of Al-Aqsa Mosque.

The "Alleged Temple" groups are now active in practicing and intensifying field activities in the Holy City, and its heart, the Al-Aqsa Mosque, in light of the current Jewish holidays. This refers to the deep religious dimension of Israelis' national doctrine. Within the Islamic and Arab conflict with the Israeli occupation, the most dangerous thing that the occupation can achieve is to convince Muslims and Arabs and to compel Palestinians to surrender to its Talmudic rituals, which claims sovereignty over the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Israel seeks to have authority over all aspects of the mosque and make decisions regarding it, controlling who enters and who does not. Currently, this is being implemented by determining the ages of Palestinians allowed to be present in the mosque and for how long. Conversely, settlers are given unrestricted access to enter.

Within the practical context of confronting the occupation's plans and efforts to assert sovereignty over the Al-Aqsa Mosque and achieve the goal of temporal and spatial division, the most important thing that can be built upon is:

- Intensively activating the resistance activity to encounter the Israeli occupation and its settlers in all arenas. This includes pushing anyone who can reach the Al-Aqsa Mosque to make ribat in its courtyards.

- Encouraging all Arab and Islamic nations to move and express their rejection of what the Israeli occupation does against the Al-Aqsa Mosque particularly, and the City of Jerusalem generally.

- Urging Arab countries, regional institutions, and international entities to take serious actions and practical steps beyond mere condemnation and denunciation. They also should fulfill their religious, Arab, and political responsibilities, especially those countries that bear the custodianship of the Al-Aqsa Mosque. These actions should aim to restrain the aggression and halt the ongoing series of violations by the occupying state against the sanctity of the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque and its Islamic status.