10 October 2021
Ebrahim Moosa | Palestine Information Network
In a decision issued on Wednesday, October 6, an Israeli judge ruled that silent prayer by Jews at Masjid al-Aqsa was not a “criminal act”.
Justice Bilha Yahalom of the Jerusalem Magistrates’ Court said Jewish prayer at the holy site could not be considered a “criminal act” if it remained silent, as it would not violate Israeli police instructions.
The ruling came after a case was brought forward by Rabbi Aryeh Lippo contesting some restrictions imposed by the Occupation police on his visits and prayers at the Masjid.
In its purport, the latest edict corresponds to the stance of Israel’s Supreme Court that, “every Jew has the right to pray on the ‘Temple Mount’ [Masjid al-Aqsa], as part of the freedom of religion and expression.”
“At the same time, these rights are not absolute,” it has previously said, “and can be limited to take into account the public interest.”
In practice, Israeli Occupation police have often restricted the most overt displays of Jewish prayer inside al-Aqsa, citing “security concerns.” At the same time, as has been reported by Palestinians at al-Aqsa for a while, and as confirmed prominently by the New York Times this August, Israel has quietly allowed Jewish prayer at the Masjid for at least “five years.”
“In reality,” the Times said, “dozens of Jews now openly pray every day in a secluded part of the eastern flank of the site, and their Israeli police escorts no longer attempt to stop them.”
The latest Occupation verdict permitting silent prayer emboldens Jewish settlers in their long term aspirations towards establishing a temple at Masjid al-Aqsa, and leaves the legally accepted status quo of prayer at the mosque being a right exclusive to Muslims on ever more shaky ground.
With memories and wounds of the events of May in al-Quds, Gaza and across historical Palestine still fresh, it is somewhat surreal to witness how settlers, whose planned incursion into al-Aqsa on the holiest days of Ramadan spectacularly backfired, have hastily adapted tact and continued to make steady inroads towards their colonialist objectives in the time since, all with the tacit backing of the Israeli regime.
In addition to the latest court precedent, the numbers of Temple movement members making provocative incursions into al-Aqsa have spiked in recent months, and settlers, of late, have brazenly unfurled large Israeli flags inside the Masjid.
The failure to hold Israel to account for these escalating crimes is arguably a product of the reactive nature of responses from the Muslim World, which has failed to maintain a momentum in awareness and solidarity for al-Aqsa beyond immediate periods of outburst.
“We learn one very important thing,” says researcher Dr. Abdallah Marouf.
“Whenever there is an ease in the reaction, or there is no reaction from the Muslim World to Israeli crimes, the Israelis take major steps. They take the silence of the Muslim World to their advantage.
“But whenever the Muslims exercise pressure and direct a microscope towards Masjid al-Aqsa, the Israelis stop and cannot go further.”
Silence can be deadly.
