25 july 2017

Palestinians have vowed to continue protests and confrontations with Israeli forces in occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank, in rejection of the new surveillance cameras installed at the gates to al-Aqsa Mosque compound, according to Al-Jazeera news agency.
“Above all else, this is an issue of control and power. It is as if they are saying that they don’t want to deal with the Awqaf, so they’re going to take matters into their own hands and monitor Palestinians through the cameras,” Mohammad Abu al-Hommos, a Palestinian activist in Jerusalem’s Old City, told Al Jazeera.
“I want to go in and out of al-Aqsa as I please – who are they to survive me?” he added. “I am entering a house of worship. It violates the individual’s personal space. Palestinians will continue to resist because we reject these measures. It is our right to reject.”
PNN further reports that, after a security cabinet meeting late on Monday, a statement from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed that the cabinet “accepted the recommendation of all of the security bodies to incorporate security measures based on advanced technologies … and other measures instead of metal detectors“.
Israel said the “plan” would be implemented within the next six months, with a budget of 100 million shekels ($28m). Some of the proposed alternatives to the metal detectors include cameras with thermal systems that can detect weapons and a facial recognition feature.
Despite the removal of the metal detectors, experts and lawyers say the cameras are an even bigger threat to Palestinians, presenting yet another violation of international law.
“These cameras will be able to detect faces and identities. This means that Israel is imposing complete control over the al-Haram al-Sharif area. The Jordanian role is being sidelined and the presence of Palestinian guards becomes null, because the real players are going to be those behind the screens watching the cameras,” Khalil Shaheen, a Ramallah-based political analyst, told Al Jazeera.
“There are large numbers of Palestinians who refuse to pay Israeli taxes in Jerusalem, and many from the West Bank who enter Jerusalem on Fridays without permits [illegal under Israeli law], as well as activists and others. For Israel to know who these people are is very dangerous and could harm these Palestinians,” he added. “This is a new form of surveillance and control … Palestinians must reject such measures, because these cameras are more dangerous than the metal detectors“.
For more than a week, Palestinians have refused to enter al-Aqsa Mosque compound and resorted to pray outside, after metal detectors were installed following an attack on July 14 that killed two Israeli police officers.The attack, carried out by three Palestinian citizens of Israel who were shot dead, came in the context of what has been termed the “Jerusalem Intifada (uprising)”, which began in October 2015. Since the uprising began, 277 Palestinians have died in alleged attacks, protests and raids. Simultaneously, 42 Israelis have been killed by Palestinians in car-ramming and knife attacks.
The installation of metal detectors caused civil disobedience and spurred protests by Palestinians, who viewed the new measures as Israel’s attempt to impose further control on the holy site.
While Jordan retains control over al-Aqsa compound through the Islamic Waqf that administers the holy site, Israel imposes control on areas outside the compound through its occupation of East Jerusalem, where the Old City lies.
Israel, which illegally annexed East Jerusalem in 1967, imposes control throughout the Old City through the presence of its forces and more than 400 cameras lining the alleyways of the World Heritage site. Plans to install similar cameras on the gates to al-Aqsa have been floated by the Israeli government over the years, but were rejected by Palestinian leaders and locals.
“The Israeli government has announced the presence of a large number of security forces, along with the cameras, for the coming six months to secure the site … These measures are neither necessary nor proportional to their purpose,” Yara Jalajel, a Palestine researcher at the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies, told Al Jazeera. “They exceed what Israel, the occupying power, is allowed to do to ensure safety and public order. These measures seem to aim to ensure control and impose a de facto sovereignty over the site, which Israel does not have under the law.”
Usama Halabi, a lawyer and writer on Israeli surveillance practices, said that surveillance of Palestinians is already the status quo in the Old City.
“I don’t understand the issue surrounding the cameras. It is definitely an intensification of the surveillance through more technically advanced cameras, but they can already see who goes in and out of al-Aqsa and the Old City,” Halabi told Al Jazeera.“The camera feeds into their computer systems and they can find out everything about me already. They can extract my whole family tree in minutes,” he added. “On a daily basis, I see tens of young men in court who they bring in after a week or two of seeing them on the surveillance cameras, and accuse them of throwing stones and they present the video proof. Some of the soldiers and guards in the Old City have built-in cameras in their headgear, and every group of soldiers that is stationed in the Old City has a handheld camera with them to film confrontations.”
Still, for Palestinians, the issue of installing cameras at the entrances to the mosque compound is yet another manifestation of Israeli control over the holy site.
“Agreeing to the new measures means agreeing to Israeli control over al-Haram al-Sharif and over Palestinians even more,” Shaheen said. “What matters to us is that Israel is sticking its fingers into the eyes and throats of Palestinians, and we must reject it.”
“Above all else, this is an issue of control and power. It is as if they are saying that they don’t want to deal with the Awqaf, so they’re going to take matters into their own hands and monitor Palestinians through the cameras,” Mohammad Abu al-Hommos, a Palestinian activist in Jerusalem’s Old City, told Al Jazeera.
“I want to go in and out of al-Aqsa as I please – who are they to survive me?” he added. “I am entering a house of worship. It violates the individual’s personal space. Palestinians will continue to resist because we reject these measures. It is our right to reject.”
PNN further reports that, after a security cabinet meeting late on Monday, a statement from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed that the cabinet “accepted the recommendation of all of the security bodies to incorporate security measures based on advanced technologies … and other measures instead of metal detectors“.
Israel said the “plan” would be implemented within the next six months, with a budget of 100 million shekels ($28m). Some of the proposed alternatives to the metal detectors include cameras with thermal systems that can detect weapons and a facial recognition feature.
Despite the removal of the metal detectors, experts and lawyers say the cameras are an even bigger threat to Palestinians, presenting yet another violation of international law.
“These cameras will be able to detect faces and identities. This means that Israel is imposing complete control over the al-Haram al-Sharif area. The Jordanian role is being sidelined and the presence of Palestinian guards becomes null, because the real players are going to be those behind the screens watching the cameras,” Khalil Shaheen, a Ramallah-based political analyst, told Al Jazeera.
“There are large numbers of Palestinians who refuse to pay Israeli taxes in Jerusalem, and many from the West Bank who enter Jerusalem on Fridays without permits [illegal under Israeli law], as well as activists and others. For Israel to know who these people are is very dangerous and could harm these Palestinians,” he added. “This is a new form of surveillance and control … Palestinians must reject such measures, because these cameras are more dangerous than the metal detectors“.
For more than a week, Palestinians have refused to enter al-Aqsa Mosque compound and resorted to pray outside, after metal detectors were installed following an attack on July 14 that killed two Israeli police officers.The attack, carried out by three Palestinian citizens of Israel who were shot dead, came in the context of what has been termed the “Jerusalem Intifada (uprising)”, which began in October 2015. Since the uprising began, 277 Palestinians have died in alleged attacks, protests and raids. Simultaneously, 42 Israelis have been killed by Palestinians in car-ramming and knife attacks.
The installation of metal detectors caused civil disobedience and spurred protests by Palestinians, who viewed the new measures as Israel’s attempt to impose further control on the holy site.
While Jordan retains control over al-Aqsa compound through the Islamic Waqf that administers the holy site, Israel imposes control on areas outside the compound through its occupation of East Jerusalem, where the Old City lies.
Israel, which illegally annexed East Jerusalem in 1967, imposes control throughout the Old City through the presence of its forces and more than 400 cameras lining the alleyways of the World Heritage site. Plans to install similar cameras on the gates to al-Aqsa have been floated by the Israeli government over the years, but were rejected by Palestinian leaders and locals.
“The Israeli government has announced the presence of a large number of security forces, along with the cameras, for the coming six months to secure the site … These measures are neither necessary nor proportional to their purpose,” Yara Jalajel, a Palestine researcher at the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies, told Al Jazeera. “They exceed what Israel, the occupying power, is allowed to do to ensure safety and public order. These measures seem to aim to ensure control and impose a de facto sovereignty over the site, which Israel does not have under the law.”
Usama Halabi, a lawyer and writer on Israeli surveillance practices, said that surveillance of Palestinians is already the status quo in the Old City.
“I don’t understand the issue surrounding the cameras. It is definitely an intensification of the surveillance through more technically advanced cameras, but they can already see who goes in and out of al-Aqsa and the Old City,” Halabi told Al Jazeera.“The camera feeds into their computer systems and they can find out everything about me already. They can extract my whole family tree in minutes,” he added. “On a daily basis, I see tens of young men in court who they bring in after a week or two of seeing them on the surveillance cameras, and accuse them of throwing stones and they present the video proof. Some of the soldiers and guards in the Old City have built-in cameras in their headgear, and every group of soldiers that is stationed in the Old City has a handheld camera with them to film confrontations.”
Still, for Palestinians, the issue of installing cameras at the entrances to the mosque compound is yet another manifestation of Israeli control over the holy site.
“Agreeing to the new measures means agreeing to Israeli control over al-Haram al-Sharif and over Palestinians even more,” Shaheen said. “What matters to us is that Israel is sticking its fingers into the eyes and throats of Palestinians, and we must reject it.”
Palestinian shooting attack earlier this month. Worshipers are boycotting Israel’s control of Al Aqsa, praying in the streets outside. The recent spate of violence is the worst to hit the occupied West Bank in years, and there are fears it could worsen. Mariam Barghouti is a Palestinian-American writer who covers Palestine and the Israeli occupation. She joins me now from Ramallah. Mariam, welcome.
MARIAM BARGHOUTI: Thank you.
AARON MATE: Talk about what’s been happening since Friday, when the violence erupted, leading to initially the killing of three Palestinians, but these clashes have continued through the weekend.
MARIAM BARGHOUTI: Right. Well you have Palestinians in Jerusalem instigating these waves of protests across Palestine, in protest of basically, what it is essentially is a checkpoint near Lion’s Gate, near the old city of Jerusalem. And Palestinians have been confronting and protesting these measures that are being enforced by Israel as part of its larger systematic policy of encroaching on Palestinian life and controlling Palestinian daily life.
AARON MATE: When you say checkpoints in the old city, what do you mean?
MARIAM BARGHOUTI: I mean, you have Israeli soldiers that would check people’s IDs, you have what they’re saying are these metal detectors, but they mean so much more. And it’s basically this process to just move from one place to another in the same city, on the same street, where you are humiliated and you must endure this kind of degradation by Israeli forces, just to be able to move from one point to another.
AARON MATE: Okay, so Mariam, when we talk about what’s happening right now in Jerusalem, many people here are just hearing news that Israel wants to impose some metal detectors after there was a shooting attack in which some Palestinian gunmen killed two Israeli soldiers at the compound. But the standoff, or this protest, is about much more than that. Can you talk about what context might be missing from that picture?
MARIAM BARGHOUTI: Right. This is not an event that’s happening in a vacuum. It’s an accumulation of Israeli strategy and policies to control and dominate Palestinian life. It’s kind of this reinforcing the narrative that we are here, we are present, and we are going to continue controlling your life until you flee. Just recently, an Israeli minister told, warned Palestinian, basically, of a third Nakba, warning them of another ethnic cleansing. They’re well aware of what their strategies are under these justifications of “well there was an attack.” You had an incident in Hebron happen in ’94, when an Israeli settle went into the Ibrahimi mosque and shot Palestinians, killing tens of Palestinians. And at the end, what happened now is Israel was able to take over a large portion of Hebron. You have an entire street, Shuhada Street, which was once a vibrant market, that is now closed. So it’s not just metal detectors. It has nothing to do with security, more than it does with trying to asphyxiate Palestinians very, very slowly.
AARON MATE: You mentioned that Israeli minister warning of another Nakba, so just to explain to people what that means, a Nakba is the term Palestinians use to describe 1948, when some 700,000 Palestinians were forced to flee from their homes during the war that led to Israel’s independence. And this minister, [inaudible 00:04:19] whose cabinet the regional cooperation minister, Tzachi Hanegbi, he wrote, “Remember 1948, remember 1967, this is how a Nakba begins.” So Mariam, can you talk more about what Palestinians have been saying in terms of the incitement that they’ve gotten from Israelis like this minister? There also has been some opposition to, but not very much attention paid, to the fact that you’ve had right wing Israelis touring the holy Al Aqsa site under armed protection.
MARIAM BARGHOUTI: Right, I mean, look. This is nothing new. If you ask the Palestinians, they will tell you, well it might seem unusual or as if it’s breaking news to the international community, but for us, this is daily life. This is what it’s been like for decades, with complete silence. And Israel continues with impunity. So what’s happening right now is we’ve reached a breaking point, and if you follow up on Palestinian politics, you realize that every moment Palestinians rise, it’s usually more intense than the other. Because you can strangle people for so long before they start trying to fight back. They’re reiterating the right to exist. That’s what’s happening here. And I think that’s the very, very important message, is that there has been this ethnic cleansing, this fight over a narrative. The Zionist movement started with the myth of a land for people without a land, and you have Palestinians saying that’s not true at all, and we are enduring this heavy oppression. We have Gaza that just entered 10 years of siege. That’s 10 years. It’s unfathomable. You have the West Bank that’s been divided by 530 more checkpoints. You have Palestinians with Israeli citizenship that are treated as second and third class citizens. And you have 50%, half of the Palestinian population, in the diaspora.
AARON MATE: Mariam, it’s just amazing, after so many years watching this conflict and seeing on the Israeli side of the narrative, or at least the pro-Israeli side of the narrative, denying things like the Nakba. And now you have a minister openly threatening to impose another one. It’s just amazing to watch the discourse shift in that direction. Your thoughts on that?
MARIAM BARGHOUTI: I mean, look, the Israeli narrative towards Palestinians has always been very, very clear. It’s been one of domination and supremacy, one of “we’re going to take over your lives” and you see it with the night raids in villages, the way soldiers speak to Palestinians, it’s with this arrogance. And very, very heavy supremacy. It’s the language to the international community that’s always baffling, and how the international community constantly buys these narratives that Israel is working for its security, completely contextualization, that Israel was built through colonizing Palestinian lands, and then it continues to reinforce its state with an occupation that’s entering its fiftieth year this year. So it’s … The narrative isn’t really new, it’s more how people are taking it without doing further research, without trying to understand the Palestinian narrative.
AARON MATE: And in terms of what Palestinians have been doing over the past week, so much attention was paid to the violence that’s happened this weekend. As I said, four Palestinians being shot dead, there also were three Israeli settlers killed in a stabbing attack by a Palestinian inside a West Bank settlement. But a lot of people missed this unprecedented boycott of the Al Aqsa compound with thousands of people praying in the streets. Can you talk about this civil disobedience campaign that’s been going on for over a week now?
MARIAM BARGHOUTI: Right. And it’s very important, because you’re constantly asking Palestinians, you should be non-violent. The international community is constantly prodding us to have this “Palestinian Gandhi” and right now you have these mass protests of unarmed civilians in Jerusalem that are trying and shouting for their right to move with ease to a place of worship. And that is very important to understand, that they’re going to pray, and they’re still being stopped and impeded and obstacles are placed before them. And suddenly there is no real support for Palestinians, despite being suppressed violently, despite having a settler shoot a Palestinian protester who later died that day. It’s mass civil disobedience, completely non-violent, and still, no one’s really speaking about it. So that leaves Palestinians completely alone, searching for other alternatives to try and liberate themselves, to try and find whatever this place has left to afford of dignity.
AARON MATE: And Mariam, in response to the Israeli crackdown, the Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas has said he’s suspending security cooperation with Israel. He’s made similar statements before. Is there any belief that that will actually amount to anything?
MARIAM BARGHOUTI: I mean, on the ground, there’s complete disenchantment with the Palestinian Authority. For the past two decades, it has been nothing but complicit with the Israeli occupation, especially through security coordination, where they’re basically turning in Palestinians to Israel. And it’s a one way street. Palestinian authority hasn’t benefited from Israeli intel at all. So even if Mahmoud Abbas does give a speech, we need to remember how he completely forfeited the Palestinian call when a hunger strike was going on, one of the largest hunger strikes in Palestinian history, and instead was cajoling to the Trump administration. You have to keep in mind that this same Palestinian Authority that’s claimed to stand with Palestinians in Jerusalem is also helping Israel asphyxiate Gaza very slowly. So it’s taking whatever the PA has to say with a grain of salt, really. It’s more of an avoiding this eruption to be directed towards the PA, while it’s very much complicit with the Israeli occupation.
AARON MATE: Mariam, finally, what are some of the short term solutions that are being proposed to this standoff over the Al Aqsa compound? And even if they’re resolved, do you think that the anger that’s been unleashed by this week of violence and restrictions on the compound is gonna subside, given the reality of the everyday occupation?
MARIAM BARGHOUTI: If Palestinian demands of removing these metal detectors, as if it’s an airport and not a residential area, then there is a possibility of moving forward. But as long as Israel keeps escalating and that is exactly what it’s doing, it’s trying to provoke Palestinians even further, then I don’t see any way the situation to kind of de-escalate. On the contrary, I see it as further entering an uprising from the Palestinian end.
AARON MATE: Mariam Barghouti, Palestinian-American writer, speaking to us from Ramallah. Mariam, thank you.
MARIAM BARGHOUTI: Thank you.
AARON MATE: And thank you for joining us on The Real News.
MARIAM BARGHOUTI: Thank you.
AARON MATE: Talk about what’s been happening since Friday, when the violence erupted, leading to initially the killing of three Palestinians, but these clashes have continued through the weekend.
MARIAM BARGHOUTI: Right. Well you have Palestinians in Jerusalem instigating these waves of protests across Palestine, in protest of basically, what it is essentially is a checkpoint near Lion’s Gate, near the old city of Jerusalem. And Palestinians have been confronting and protesting these measures that are being enforced by Israel as part of its larger systematic policy of encroaching on Palestinian life and controlling Palestinian daily life.
AARON MATE: When you say checkpoints in the old city, what do you mean?
MARIAM BARGHOUTI: I mean, you have Israeli soldiers that would check people’s IDs, you have what they’re saying are these metal detectors, but they mean so much more. And it’s basically this process to just move from one place to another in the same city, on the same street, where you are humiliated and you must endure this kind of degradation by Israeli forces, just to be able to move from one point to another.
AARON MATE: Okay, so Mariam, when we talk about what’s happening right now in Jerusalem, many people here are just hearing news that Israel wants to impose some metal detectors after there was a shooting attack in which some Palestinian gunmen killed two Israeli soldiers at the compound. But the standoff, or this protest, is about much more than that. Can you talk about what context might be missing from that picture?
MARIAM BARGHOUTI: Right. This is not an event that’s happening in a vacuum. It’s an accumulation of Israeli strategy and policies to control and dominate Palestinian life. It’s kind of this reinforcing the narrative that we are here, we are present, and we are going to continue controlling your life until you flee. Just recently, an Israeli minister told, warned Palestinian, basically, of a third Nakba, warning them of another ethnic cleansing. They’re well aware of what their strategies are under these justifications of “well there was an attack.” You had an incident in Hebron happen in ’94, when an Israeli settle went into the Ibrahimi mosque and shot Palestinians, killing tens of Palestinians. And at the end, what happened now is Israel was able to take over a large portion of Hebron. You have an entire street, Shuhada Street, which was once a vibrant market, that is now closed. So it’s not just metal detectors. It has nothing to do with security, more than it does with trying to asphyxiate Palestinians very, very slowly.
AARON MATE: You mentioned that Israeli minister warning of another Nakba, so just to explain to people what that means, a Nakba is the term Palestinians use to describe 1948, when some 700,000 Palestinians were forced to flee from their homes during the war that led to Israel’s independence. And this minister, [inaudible 00:04:19] whose cabinet the regional cooperation minister, Tzachi Hanegbi, he wrote, “Remember 1948, remember 1967, this is how a Nakba begins.” So Mariam, can you talk more about what Palestinians have been saying in terms of the incitement that they’ve gotten from Israelis like this minister? There also has been some opposition to, but not very much attention paid, to the fact that you’ve had right wing Israelis touring the holy Al Aqsa site under armed protection.
MARIAM BARGHOUTI: Right, I mean, look. This is nothing new. If you ask the Palestinians, they will tell you, well it might seem unusual or as if it’s breaking news to the international community, but for us, this is daily life. This is what it’s been like for decades, with complete silence. And Israel continues with impunity. So what’s happening right now is we’ve reached a breaking point, and if you follow up on Palestinian politics, you realize that every moment Palestinians rise, it’s usually more intense than the other. Because you can strangle people for so long before they start trying to fight back. They’re reiterating the right to exist. That’s what’s happening here. And I think that’s the very, very important message, is that there has been this ethnic cleansing, this fight over a narrative. The Zionist movement started with the myth of a land for people without a land, and you have Palestinians saying that’s not true at all, and we are enduring this heavy oppression. We have Gaza that just entered 10 years of siege. That’s 10 years. It’s unfathomable. You have the West Bank that’s been divided by 530 more checkpoints. You have Palestinians with Israeli citizenship that are treated as second and third class citizens. And you have 50%, half of the Palestinian population, in the diaspora.
AARON MATE: Mariam, it’s just amazing, after so many years watching this conflict and seeing on the Israeli side of the narrative, or at least the pro-Israeli side of the narrative, denying things like the Nakba. And now you have a minister openly threatening to impose another one. It’s just amazing to watch the discourse shift in that direction. Your thoughts on that?
MARIAM BARGHOUTI: I mean, look, the Israeli narrative towards Palestinians has always been very, very clear. It’s been one of domination and supremacy, one of “we’re going to take over your lives” and you see it with the night raids in villages, the way soldiers speak to Palestinians, it’s with this arrogance. And very, very heavy supremacy. It’s the language to the international community that’s always baffling, and how the international community constantly buys these narratives that Israel is working for its security, completely contextualization, that Israel was built through colonizing Palestinian lands, and then it continues to reinforce its state with an occupation that’s entering its fiftieth year this year. So it’s … The narrative isn’t really new, it’s more how people are taking it without doing further research, without trying to understand the Palestinian narrative.
AARON MATE: And in terms of what Palestinians have been doing over the past week, so much attention was paid to the violence that’s happened this weekend. As I said, four Palestinians being shot dead, there also were three Israeli settlers killed in a stabbing attack by a Palestinian inside a West Bank settlement. But a lot of people missed this unprecedented boycott of the Al Aqsa compound with thousands of people praying in the streets. Can you talk about this civil disobedience campaign that’s been going on for over a week now?
MARIAM BARGHOUTI: Right. And it’s very important, because you’re constantly asking Palestinians, you should be non-violent. The international community is constantly prodding us to have this “Palestinian Gandhi” and right now you have these mass protests of unarmed civilians in Jerusalem that are trying and shouting for their right to move with ease to a place of worship. And that is very important to understand, that they’re going to pray, and they’re still being stopped and impeded and obstacles are placed before them. And suddenly there is no real support for Palestinians, despite being suppressed violently, despite having a settler shoot a Palestinian protester who later died that day. It’s mass civil disobedience, completely non-violent, and still, no one’s really speaking about it. So that leaves Palestinians completely alone, searching for other alternatives to try and liberate themselves, to try and find whatever this place has left to afford of dignity.
AARON MATE: And Mariam, in response to the Israeli crackdown, the Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas has said he’s suspending security cooperation with Israel. He’s made similar statements before. Is there any belief that that will actually amount to anything?
MARIAM BARGHOUTI: I mean, on the ground, there’s complete disenchantment with the Palestinian Authority. For the past two decades, it has been nothing but complicit with the Israeli occupation, especially through security coordination, where they’re basically turning in Palestinians to Israel. And it’s a one way street. Palestinian authority hasn’t benefited from Israeli intel at all. So even if Mahmoud Abbas does give a speech, we need to remember how he completely forfeited the Palestinian call when a hunger strike was going on, one of the largest hunger strikes in Palestinian history, and instead was cajoling to the Trump administration. You have to keep in mind that this same Palestinian Authority that’s claimed to stand with Palestinians in Jerusalem is also helping Israel asphyxiate Gaza very slowly. So it’s taking whatever the PA has to say with a grain of salt, really. It’s more of an avoiding this eruption to be directed towards the PA, while it’s very much complicit with the Israeli occupation.
AARON MATE: Mariam, finally, what are some of the short term solutions that are being proposed to this standoff over the Al Aqsa compound? And even if they’re resolved, do you think that the anger that’s been unleashed by this week of violence and restrictions on the compound is gonna subside, given the reality of the everyday occupation?
MARIAM BARGHOUTI: If Palestinian demands of removing these metal detectors, as if it’s an airport and not a residential area, then there is a possibility of moving forward. But as long as Israel keeps escalating and that is exactly what it’s doing, it’s trying to provoke Palestinians even further, then I don’t see any way the situation to kind of de-escalate. On the contrary, I see it as further entering an uprising from the Palestinian end.
AARON MATE: Mariam Barghouti, Palestinian-American writer, speaking to us from Ramallah. Mariam, thank you.
MARIAM BARGHOUTI: Thank you.
AARON MATE: And thank you for joining us on The Real News.

Temple Institute head Yisrael Ariel, who has called for the destruction of churches and mosques and the mass slaughter of those who refuse to accept his extreme version of Judaism, at the al-Aqsa mosque compound in June. (via Facebook)
Since the gun battle at the al-Aqsa compound on 14 July that ended in the deaths of three Palestinian citizens of Israel and two Israeli police, Israeli media have largely focused on outrage that anyone would carry out an attack at a holy site, while praising Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s collective punishment against the Palestinian population.
“They are the strife mongers,” Yedioth Ahronot columnist Ben-Dror Yemini wrote. “They are harming the justified struggle for equality. They are spreading lies and nurturing incitement. For our sake, for their sake, Israel’s Arabs should also get rid of this nuisance.”
“Netanyahu and [PA leader Mahmoud] Abbas both acted responsibly to prevent a holy war; but the Arab world’s condemnation of Israel is a reason for concern,” read the subheading of an analysis by Haaretz’s Barak Ravid.
Missing from commentaries across the board has been any acknowledgment of the role played by fanatical settlers intent on wresting control of the al-Aqsa compound in occupied East Jerusalem and eventually destroying it as part of an apocalyptic vision.
The compound, known to Muslims as Haram al-Sharif and to Jews as Temple Mount, includes the al-Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock. It is one of the holiest shrines for Muslims all over the world, as well as a touchstone of Palestinian identity.
Game changer”
Since the gun battle at the al-Aqsa compound on 14 July that ended in the deaths of three Palestinian citizens of Israel and two Israeli police, Israeli media have largely focused on outrage that anyone would carry out an attack at a holy site, while praising Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s collective punishment against the Palestinian population.
“They are the strife mongers,” Yedioth Ahronot columnist Ben-Dror Yemini wrote. “They are harming the justified struggle for equality. They are spreading lies and nurturing incitement. For our sake, for their sake, Israel’s Arabs should also get rid of this nuisance.”
“Netanyahu and [PA leader Mahmoud] Abbas both acted responsibly to prevent a holy war; but the Arab world’s condemnation of Israel is a reason for concern,” read the subheading of an analysis by Haaretz’s Barak Ravid.
Missing from commentaries across the board has been any acknowledgment of the role played by fanatical settlers intent on wresting control of the al-Aqsa compound in occupied East Jerusalem and eventually destroying it as part of an apocalyptic vision.
The compound, known to Muslims as Haram al-Sharif and to Jews as Temple Mount, includes the al-Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock. It is one of the holiest shrines for Muslims all over the world, as well as a touchstone of Palestinian identity.
Game changer”

Temple movement leader Yehuda Glick, right, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
Israelis who seek to take over al-Aqsa see the 14 July attack and subsequent violence as an opportunity to advance this agenda. Immediately after the incident, the Temple movement’s official body released a statement calling to expel Palestinians from the compound: “We must liberate the Temple Mount from the murderous Islam and return it to the people of Israel.”
“Looking forward to building the Temple this year and hope that you will soon see the face of our righteous Messiah,” Baruch Marzel one of the most extreme leaders among Israel’s West Bank settlers, wrote last week in an open letter to the mufti of Jerusalem – the top Muslim official in the city.
Bezalel Smotrich, a Jewish Home party lawmaker, does not want to wait that long. “I would set up a synagogue on the Temple Mount today, this morning,” he said on Monday.
Under Israeli military protection, these settlers and extremists tour the grounds on a daily basis, hoping to provoke violent reactions from Palestinian worshippers by shouting and singing nationalistic anthems.
This then provides occupation forces with the necessary pretext to enact harsh measures, with the eventual goal of cleansing non-Jews and replacing the Muslim holy sites there with a Jewish temple, thus triggering a civilizational clash with Islam.
Yehuda Glick, a longtime leader of the Temple movement, now a Likud Party lawmaker, last week welcomed Israel’s ban on Muslims entering the al-Aqsa compound in the days following the shootings.
“This is an enormous game changer,” he said. “Everything is part of the redemption process but the things that happen on the Temple Mount are especially so.”
“Radical Muslims who desecrate with blood the holiness of the Temple Mount, the holiest place to the Jewish people, have no right to be there,” Glick and the Jewish Home party’s Shuli Moalem-Refaeli said.
Last week, Glick held a Temple movement emergency session in the Knesset building, Israel’s parliament. Attendees included genocide advocate Rabbi Yisrael Ariel and Bentzi Gopstein, leader of the anti-miscegenation youth movement Lehava.
Genocidal ideologyYisrael Ariel, the chief rabbi of the Temple movement, articulated an apocalyptic end times scenario in 2015.
“[God] is the one who commanded us to go from city to city conquering them, and to impose the seven laws [of the Sons of Noah] throughout the world,” Ariel said.
Ariel added that if Muslims and Christians “raise the flag of [surrender] and say, ‘From now on, there is no more Christianity and no more Islam,’ and the mosques and Christian spires come down,” then they would be allowed to live. “If not,” he warned, “you kill all of their males by sword. You leave only the women.”
“We will conquer Iraq, Turkey [and] we will get to Iran too,” Ariel proclaimed.
Ariel is the founder and head of the Temple Institute, the government-funded group that has published detailed blueprints and a computer animation of what the Temple, to be built over the ruins of al-Aqsa, will look like.
The Temple Institute has received funding from Israel’s education ministry to develop a curriculum to instill “longing for the Temple” in children as young as those attending kindergarten. In 2013, Israel’s mayor of Jerusalem, Nir Barkat, presented Ariel with an award for his organization’s work.
This genocidal ideology is rooted in religious Zionism and its political wing is represented by the Jewish Home party.
In 2012, Zevulun Orlev, one of the party’s lawmakers in the Knesset, called for the construction of a temple at the compound, saying that removing the Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa mosque would mean that the “billion-strong Muslim world would surely launch a world war.”
This messianic extremism has taken hold in the Likud Party of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as well.
In 2014, Likud’s Moshe Feiglin, then deputy speaker of the Knesset, explained the fanatical worldview. “We are in the major front of the fight for the free world against the evil forces of the most extreme Islam,” Feiglin asserted. “Behind the violence, there is a spiritual battle, and the core of that battle is that place – the Temple Mount.”
Pretext of “religious freedom”Many other Israeli politicians are following the Temple movement’s lead.
A Likud Party website has launched a petition to “raise the Israeli flag on the Temple Mount.”
“The Temple Mount is not in our hands,” the petition declares. “We must change this absurdity.”
Transport minister Yisrael Katz has vowed that Israel “will not cede sovereignty” over al-Aqsa.
“We need to close the Temple Mount to Muslims for an extended period of time,” Jewish Home lawmaker Moti Yogev said.
Incitement from Israeli officials has become commonplace in recent years. Dozens of Knesset members have given verbal, and even material, support to the Temple movement.
While their statements occasionally elicit a headline, they are rarely taken into consideration in analysis of the explosive situation at the al-Aqsa compound.
This incitement is often couched in calls for Israel to unilaterally change the status quo and allow Jewish prayer at al-Aqsa, citing a lack of religious freedom at the occupied holy site.
But Israel’s official chief rabbis have long formally prohibited prayer by Jews at the compound for theological reasons – out of concern that Jews could inadvertently desecrate places that must remain ritually pure.
In keeping with this tradition, leaders in Israel’s Orthodox Jewish community blame those who insist on going to the al-Aqsa compound for the resulting bloodshed. The prohibition on visiting the Temple Mount is firmly upheld by leading Orthodox rabbis.
“Those who visit the Temple Mount are turning the Israeli-Arab conflict into a religious conflict,” the Eidah Chareidis, a major anti-Zionist Orthodox Jewish organization in Jerusalem, has warned.
“The true story”
However, as Feiglin revealed at a Knesset session in 2013, the call for Jews to be allowed to pray at the compound is a pretext for an Israeli seizure of the site.
“Let’s be truthful. The struggle here in not about prayer,” Feiglin admitted. “Arabs don’t mind that Jews pray to God. Why should they care? We all believe in God. The struggle is about sovereignty. That’s the true story here. The story is about one thing only: sovereignty.”
To make the job of journalists covering events at the al-Aqsa compound easier, I have compiled below this article a list of current and former Knesset members and ministers who have supported the Temple movement’s apocalyptic goals in varying degrees.
Some of the Israeli politicians identify with the movement themselves, while others understand it is politically expedient to make public statements in support of Israeli sovereignty at al-Aqsa.
Likud lawmaker Avi Dichter, for example, is aformer head of Israel’s Shin Bet secret police. Dichter appeared in the 2012 documentary The Gatekeepers, which marketed him and five other former Shin Bet chiefs as tough but pragmatic security types who have become “doves.”
But last week, Dichter posted on Facebook a photo of himself in front of the Dome of the Rock with text reading, “Open the Temple Mount for Jews.”
Provocation and bloodshed
Israelis who seek to take over al-Aqsa see the 14 July attack and subsequent violence as an opportunity to advance this agenda. Immediately after the incident, the Temple movement’s official body released a statement calling to expel Palestinians from the compound: “We must liberate the Temple Mount from the murderous Islam and return it to the people of Israel.”
“Looking forward to building the Temple this year and hope that you will soon see the face of our righteous Messiah,” Baruch Marzel one of the most extreme leaders among Israel’s West Bank settlers, wrote last week in an open letter to the mufti of Jerusalem – the top Muslim official in the city.
Bezalel Smotrich, a Jewish Home party lawmaker, does not want to wait that long. “I would set up a synagogue on the Temple Mount today, this morning,” he said on Monday.
Under Israeli military protection, these settlers and extremists tour the grounds on a daily basis, hoping to provoke violent reactions from Palestinian worshippers by shouting and singing nationalistic anthems.
This then provides occupation forces with the necessary pretext to enact harsh measures, with the eventual goal of cleansing non-Jews and replacing the Muslim holy sites there with a Jewish temple, thus triggering a civilizational clash with Islam.
Yehuda Glick, a longtime leader of the Temple movement, now a Likud Party lawmaker, last week welcomed Israel’s ban on Muslims entering the al-Aqsa compound in the days following the shootings.
“This is an enormous game changer,” he said. “Everything is part of the redemption process but the things that happen on the Temple Mount are especially so.”
“Radical Muslims who desecrate with blood the holiness of the Temple Mount, the holiest place to the Jewish people, have no right to be there,” Glick and the Jewish Home party’s Shuli Moalem-Refaeli said.
Last week, Glick held a Temple movement emergency session in the Knesset building, Israel’s parliament. Attendees included genocide advocate Rabbi Yisrael Ariel and Bentzi Gopstein, leader of the anti-miscegenation youth movement Lehava.
Genocidal ideologyYisrael Ariel, the chief rabbi of the Temple movement, articulated an apocalyptic end times scenario in 2015.
“[God] is the one who commanded us to go from city to city conquering them, and to impose the seven laws [of the Sons of Noah] throughout the world,” Ariel said.
Ariel added that if Muslims and Christians “raise the flag of [surrender] and say, ‘From now on, there is no more Christianity and no more Islam,’ and the mosques and Christian spires come down,” then they would be allowed to live. “If not,” he warned, “you kill all of their males by sword. You leave only the women.”
“We will conquer Iraq, Turkey [and] we will get to Iran too,” Ariel proclaimed.
Ariel is the founder and head of the Temple Institute, the government-funded group that has published detailed blueprints and a computer animation of what the Temple, to be built over the ruins of al-Aqsa, will look like.
The Temple Institute has received funding from Israel’s education ministry to develop a curriculum to instill “longing for the Temple” in children as young as those attending kindergarten. In 2013, Israel’s mayor of Jerusalem, Nir Barkat, presented Ariel with an award for his organization’s work.
This genocidal ideology is rooted in religious Zionism and its political wing is represented by the Jewish Home party.
In 2012, Zevulun Orlev, one of the party’s lawmakers in the Knesset, called for the construction of a temple at the compound, saying that removing the Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa mosque would mean that the “billion-strong Muslim world would surely launch a world war.”
This messianic extremism has taken hold in the Likud Party of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as well.
In 2014, Likud’s Moshe Feiglin, then deputy speaker of the Knesset, explained the fanatical worldview. “We are in the major front of the fight for the free world against the evil forces of the most extreme Islam,” Feiglin asserted. “Behind the violence, there is a spiritual battle, and the core of that battle is that place – the Temple Mount.”
Pretext of “religious freedom”Many other Israeli politicians are following the Temple movement’s lead.
A Likud Party website has launched a petition to “raise the Israeli flag on the Temple Mount.”
“The Temple Mount is not in our hands,” the petition declares. “We must change this absurdity.”
Transport minister Yisrael Katz has vowed that Israel “will not cede sovereignty” over al-Aqsa.
“We need to close the Temple Mount to Muslims for an extended period of time,” Jewish Home lawmaker Moti Yogev said.
Incitement from Israeli officials has become commonplace in recent years. Dozens of Knesset members have given verbal, and even material, support to the Temple movement.
While their statements occasionally elicit a headline, they are rarely taken into consideration in analysis of the explosive situation at the al-Aqsa compound.
This incitement is often couched in calls for Israel to unilaterally change the status quo and allow Jewish prayer at al-Aqsa, citing a lack of religious freedom at the occupied holy site.
But Israel’s official chief rabbis have long formally prohibited prayer by Jews at the compound for theological reasons – out of concern that Jews could inadvertently desecrate places that must remain ritually pure.
In keeping with this tradition, leaders in Israel’s Orthodox Jewish community blame those who insist on going to the al-Aqsa compound for the resulting bloodshed. The prohibition on visiting the Temple Mount is firmly upheld by leading Orthodox rabbis.
“Those who visit the Temple Mount are turning the Israeli-Arab conflict into a religious conflict,” the Eidah Chareidis, a major anti-Zionist Orthodox Jewish organization in Jerusalem, has warned.
“The true story”
However, as Feiglin revealed at a Knesset session in 2013, the call for Jews to be allowed to pray at the compound is a pretext for an Israeli seizure of the site.
“Let’s be truthful. The struggle here in not about prayer,” Feiglin admitted. “Arabs don’t mind that Jews pray to God. Why should they care? We all believe in God. The struggle is about sovereignty. That’s the true story here. The story is about one thing only: sovereignty.”
To make the job of journalists covering events at the al-Aqsa compound easier, I have compiled below this article a list of current and former Knesset members and ministers who have supported the Temple movement’s apocalyptic goals in varying degrees.
Some of the Israeli politicians identify with the movement themselves, while others understand it is politically expedient to make public statements in support of Israeli sovereignty at al-Aqsa.
Likud lawmaker Avi Dichter, for example, is aformer head of Israel’s Shin Bet secret police. Dichter appeared in the 2012 documentary The Gatekeepers, which marketed him and five other former Shin Bet chiefs as tough but pragmatic security types who have become “doves.”
But last week, Dichter posted on Facebook a photo of himself in front of the Dome of the Rock with text reading, “Open the Temple Mount for Jews.”
Provocation and bloodshed

Israeli lawmaker and former Shin Bet head Avi Dichter posted this photo of himself at the al-Aqsa compound with a call to open it to Jewish prayer
Given the level of incitement regarding the most sensitive site in the country – on top of the climate of desperation created by Israel’s deadly siege of Gaza, expanding colonies in the occupied West Bank including Jerusalem and the erosion of rights of Palestinian citizens of Israel – attacks like the one on 14 July should come as no surprise to informed observers.
As Dichter said in 2013 when he was public security minister – before embracing the Temple movement’s agenda – Jewish prayer at al-Aqsa, “will serve as a provocation, resulting in disorder, with a near certain likelihood of subsequent bloodshed.”
That may be precisely what many Israelis hope for. Following a stabbing attack by a Palestinian on Friday that left three Israelis in the illegal settlement of Halamish dead, Tzachi Hanegbi, a senior Likud minister and close ally of Netanyahu, threatened Palestinians with a “third Nakba” – a reference to Israel’s mass expulsions and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in 1948 and 1967.
Another former public security minister, Hanegbi promised back in 2003 that Jews “soon, very soon” would be able to pray at the al-Aqsa compound.
Israeli leaders and politicians who support the Temple movementEli Ben-DahanDeputy defense minister Eli Ben-Dahan of Jewish Home personally donated $12,000 to the Temple Institute, which spearheads efforts to replace the Muslim holy sites with a Jewish temple.
“We have to call upon the government and Knesset to permit Jewish prayer, to make Jewish prayer something normal and permitted,” Ben-Dahan told a conference in the Knesset last November.
Ben-Dahan has previously described Palestinians as “beasts” who “aren’t human.”
Tzipi HotovelyIn a recent speech to supporters of the Temple movement, deputy foreign minister Tzipi Hotovely of Likud called on Jews to go to the al-Aqsa compound.
In 2015, Hotovely made headlines when she said her dream was to see an Israeli flag over the Temple Mount and insisted Jews be able to pray there.
Zeev ElkinJerusalem affairs minister Zeev Elkin of Likud has said that a full takeover of the compound should be Israel’s national goal.
“It is important to remove it [the Temple Mount] from the purview of the wild-eyed religious,” Elkin stated. “We must explain to broad swathes of the people that without this place, our national liberty is incomplete.”
Oren Hazan
Likud lawmaker Oren Hazan told the “Students for the Temple Mount” group that he would build the temple if he became prime minister.
When asked by this reporter how he would carry out the demolitions, he responded, “It would not be responsible at this point in time to tell you how we would do it, but I will say it clear and loud: when I have the opportunity to do it, I will.”
Yuli Edelstein
Knesset speaker Yuli Edelstein of Likud said in 2012, “My job is to deal with the daily process, connecting and building the people of Israel, which leads to the Temple.”
Miri Regev
Culture minister Miri Regev of Likud proposed a bill to implement something similar at Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa compound to what Israel has imposed in Hebron.
Following the 1994 massacre by an American Jewish settler of 29 Palestinian worshippers at Hebron’s Ibrahimi mosque – another site sacred to Muslims and Jews – Israeli forces partitioned the mosque and turned the Old City into a ghost town.
Regev again called for a new arrangement immediately following the 14 July attack.
Ayelet Shaked
Justice minister Ayelet Shaked of Jewish Home, who published a genocidal call to kill Palestinian mothers just before the 2014 offensive on Gaza, has also called for unilaterally changing the status quo to allow Jews to pray at the al-Aqsa compound.
Uri Ariel
Agriculture minister Uri Ariel of Jewish Home is a leading figure in the Temple movement and has repeatedly called for the construction of a Jewish temple.
“We’ve built many little, little temples,” Ariel has said, “but we need to build a real temple on the Temple Mount.”
Gilad Erdan
Public security minister Gilad Erdan of Likud has also lent his support to this effort. “In my opinion, our right to the Temple Mount is unshakeable,” Erdan said at the Seekers of Zion conference in the Knesset in November.
Erdan is also in charge of Israel’s effort to fight the Palestinian-led boycott, divestment and sanctions movement.
Danny Danon
Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, former deputy defense minister Danny Danon of Likud, has called to allow Jewish prayer at al-Aqsa.
Yitzhak Aharonovitch
A former public security minister, Yitzhak Aharonovitch of the Yisrael Beitenu party also came out in support in 2014. “It is important to open the [Temple Mount] to Jews, tens of thousands of worshippers come here,” he said.
Yehiel Hilik Bar
Deputy Knesset speaker and a former secretary-general of the nominally leftist Labor Party Yehiel Hilik Bar initially co-sponsored a bill with Miri Regev altering the status quo at al-Aqsa, however he pulled his backing after receiving criticism.
Bar said that he and the Labor party “are part of the Zionist center-left that sees our holy sites as the basis of our existence and the essence of our history.”
David Tzur, a former lawmaker for the ostensibly “dovish” Hatnua party, led by Tzipi Livni, has also called for Jewish prayer at the al-Aqsa compound.
Michael Ben-Ari
Among those who have led Israeli incursions into the compound is former lawmaker Michael Ben-Ari, a leading inciter against Africans and Palestinians who once destroyed a copy of the New Testament on video.
Build Temple “as soon as possible”Other lawmakers who have demanded that Jews be able to pray at the al-Aqsa compound include former Knesset member Zvulun Kalfa of Jewish Home and Likud’s Ofir Akunis, who serves as science minister.
Smotrich, Shuli Muallem-Refaeli and Nissan Slomiansky of Jewish Home, and Miki Zohar, Avraham Neguise and Hazan of Likud signed a bill supporting Jewish prayer at al-Aqsa.
Yinon Magal of Jewish Home told the Knesset that Jews must be able to pray at the al-Aqsa compound and that a temple must be built as soon as possible.
Tourism minister Yariv Levin of Likud said, “It seems to me that when Jews for so many years sat in exile and prayed for a return to Zion, they did not mean Tel Aviv, but Jerusalem. They did not dream of returning to the Knesset building and the Prime Minister’s office, but to someplace else – to the Temple Mount.”
Minister for social equality Gila Gamliel of Likud has said, “the Temple is the ID card of the people of Israel.”
Lawmaker Arieh Eldad has gone up to al-Aqsa in demonstration of Israeli control.
A host of other lawmakers, including Amir Ohana and Anat Berko of Likud, have participated in conferences in support of the Temple Movement.
Dan Cohen is an independent journalist and filmmaker.
Given the level of incitement regarding the most sensitive site in the country – on top of the climate of desperation created by Israel’s deadly siege of Gaza, expanding colonies in the occupied West Bank including Jerusalem and the erosion of rights of Palestinian citizens of Israel – attacks like the one on 14 July should come as no surprise to informed observers.
As Dichter said in 2013 when he was public security minister – before embracing the Temple movement’s agenda – Jewish prayer at al-Aqsa, “will serve as a provocation, resulting in disorder, with a near certain likelihood of subsequent bloodshed.”
That may be precisely what many Israelis hope for. Following a stabbing attack by a Palestinian on Friday that left three Israelis in the illegal settlement of Halamish dead, Tzachi Hanegbi, a senior Likud minister and close ally of Netanyahu, threatened Palestinians with a “third Nakba” – a reference to Israel’s mass expulsions and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in 1948 and 1967.
Another former public security minister, Hanegbi promised back in 2003 that Jews “soon, very soon” would be able to pray at the al-Aqsa compound.
Israeli leaders and politicians who support the Temple movementEli Ben-DahanDeputy defense minister Eli Ben-Dahan of Jewish Home personally donated $12,000 to the Temple Institute, which spearheads efforts to replace the Muslim holy sites with a Jewish temple.
“We have to call upon the government and Knesset to permit Jewish prayer, to make Jewish prayer something normal and permitted,” Ben-Dahan told a conference in the Knesset last November.
Ben-Dahan has previously described Palestinians as “beasts” who “aren’t human.”
Tzipi HotovelyIn a recent speech to supporters of the Temple movement, deputy foreign minister Tzipi Hotovely of Likud called on Jews to go to the al-Aqsa compound.
In 2015, Hotovely made headlines when she said her dream was to see an Israeli flag over the Temple Mount and insisted Jews be able to pray there.
Zeev ElkinJerusalem affairs minister Zeev Elkin of Likud has said that a full takeover of the compound should be Israel’s national goal.
“It is important to remove it [the Temple Mount] from the purview of the wild-eyed religious,” Elkin stated. “We must explain to broad swathes of the people that without this place, our national liberty is incomplete.”
Oren Hazan
Likud lawmaker Oren Hazan told the “Students for the Temple Mount” group that he would build the temple if he became prime minister.
When asked by this reporter how he would carry out the demolitions, he responded, “It would not be responsible at this point in time to tell you how we would do it, but I will say it clear and loud: when I have the opportunity to do it, I will.”
Yuli Edelstein
Knesset speaker Yuli Edelstein of Likud said in 2012, “My job is to deal with the daily process, connecting and building the people of Israel, which leads to the Temple.”
Miri Regev
Culture minister Miri Regev of Likud proposed a bill to implement something similar at Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa compound to what Israel has imposed in Hebron.
Following the 1994 massacre by an American Jewish settler of 29 Palestinian worshippers at Hebron’s Ibrahimi mosque – another site sacred to Muslims and Jews – Israeli forces partitioned the mosque and turned the Old City into a ghost town.
Regev again called for a new arrangement immediately following the 14 July attack.
Ayelet Shaked
Justice minister Ayelet Shaked of Jewish Home, who published a genocidal call to kill Palestinian mothers just before the 2014 offensive on Gaza, has also called for unilaterally changing the status quo to allow Jews to pray at the al-Aqsa compound.
Uri Ariel
Agriculture minister Uri Ariel of Jewish Home is a leading figure in the Temple movement and has repeatedly called for the construction of a Jewish temple.
“We’ve built many little, little temples,” Ariel has said, “but we need to build a real temple on the Temple Mount.”
Gilad Erdan
Public security minister Gilad Erdan of Likud has also lent his support to this effort. “In my opinion, our right to the Temple Mount is unshakeable,” Erdan said at the Seekers of Zion conference in the Knesset in November.
Erdan is also in charge of Israel’s effort to fight the Palestinian-led boycott, divestment and sanctions movement.
Danny Danon
Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, former deputy defense minister Danny Danon of Likud, has called to allow Jewish prayer at al-Aqsa.
Yitzhak Aharonovitch
A former public security minister, Yitzhak Aharonovitch of the Yisrael Beitenu party also came out in support in 2014. “It is important to open the [Temple Mount] to Jews, tens of thousands of worshippers come here,” he said.
Yehiel Hilik Bar
Deputy Knesset speaker and a former secretary-general of the nominally leftist Labor Party Yehiel Hilik Bar initially co-sponsored a bill with Miri Regev altering the status quo at al-Aqsa, however he pulled his backing after receiving criticism.
Bar said that he and the Labor party “are part of the Zionist center-left that sees our holy sites as the basis of our existence and the essence of our history.”
David Tzur, a former lawmaker for the ostensibly “dovish” Hatnua party, led by Tzipi Livni, has also called for Jewish prayer at the al-Aqsa compound.
Michael Ben-Ari
Among those who have led Israeli incursions into the compound is former lawmaker Michael Ben-Ari, a leading inciter against Africans and Palestinians who once destroyed a copy of the New Testament on video.
Build Temple “as soon as possible”Other lawmakers who have demanded that Jews be able to pray at the al-Aqsa compound include former Knesset member Zvulun Kalfa of Jewish Home and Likud’s Ofir Akunis, who serves as science minister.
Smotrich, Shuli Muallem-Refaeli and Nissan Slomiansky of Jewish Home, and Miki Zohar, Avraham Neguise and Hazan of Likud signed a bill supporting Jewish prayer at al-Aqsa.
Yinon Magal of Jewish Home told the Knesset that Jews must be able to pray at the al-Aqsa compound and that a temple must be built as soon as possible.
Tourism minister Yariv Levin of Likud said, “It seems to me that when Jews for so many years sat in exile and prayed for a return to Zion, they did not mean Tel Aviv, but Jerusalem. They did not dream of returning to the Knesset building and the Prime Minister’s office, but to someplace else – to the Temple Mount.”
Minister for social equality Gila Gamliel of Likud has said, “the Temple is the ID card of the people of Israel.”
Lawmaker Arieh Eldad has gone up to al-Aqsa in demonstration of Israeli control.
A host of other lawmakers, including Amir Ohana and Anat Berko of Likud, have participated in conferences in support of the Temple Movement.
Dan Cohen is an independent journalist and filmmaker.

Israel decided at dawn Tuesday to remove metal detectors it had placed at the entrances to al-Aqsa Mosque and replace them with smart cameras. The measure was strongly refused by Palestinians.
According to Israeli media sources, Israel's security Cabinet decided early Tuesday to replace the metal detectors with "advanced technologies," reportedly cameras that can “detect hidden objects.”
Before dawn, municipal workers were seen dismantling the electronic devices at al-Aqsa's gates and installing metal beams above some of the narrow stone paved streets for closed-circuit TV cameras.
Israeli media said there were plans to invest in advanced camera systems, while Israeli police will resort to manual inspections at the gates.
The PIC reporter affirmed old trees and historical stones were removed during the operation.
Palestinians declared their total rejection of the Israeli measure and continued their protests at the entrances to al-Aqsa.
At least 16 Jerusalemites were injured during the clashes that broke out early today at al-Asbat gate.
According to Israeli media sources, Israel's security Cabinet decided early Tuesday to replace the metal detectors with "advanced technologies," reportedly cameras that can “detect hidden objects.”
Before dawn, municipal workers were seen dismantling the electronic devices at al-Aqsa's gates and installing metal beams above some of the narrow stone paved streets for closed-circuit TV cameras.
Israeli media said there were plans to invest in advanced camera systems, while Israeli police will resort to manual inspections at the gates.
The PIC reporter affirmed old trees and historical stones were removed during the operation.
Palestinians declared their total rejection of the Israeli measure and continued their protests at the entrances to al-Aqsa.
At least 16 Jerusalemites were injured during the clashes that broke out early today at al-Asbat gate.
24 july 2017

Ahead of Sunday’s security cabinet meeting, several ministers of Israel’s right-wing government have called for the Palestinian young man who carried out a recent deadly attack in Halamish to be executed.
The ministers called for passing the death penalty for 19-year-old Palestinian Omar al-Abed who infiltrated into a house in the illegal settlement of Halamish in the West Bank last Friday night and stabbed to death three Jewish settlers from the same family in retaliation to Israeli measures at the Aqsa Mosque.
Israeli war minister Avigdor Lieberman said in an interview with Ynet that with such incident, there is certainly a place for the death sentence in the corridors of West Bank military courts.
Education minister Naftali Bennett also said that the option of death penalty exists in Israeli military courts and that there is no need for legislation.
He called on the military prosecution to demand the death penalty for Abed.
Justice minister Ayelet Shaked also called for going to military courts to extract a capital punishment verdict against the young man.
Transportation and intelligence minister Yisrael Katz made similar comments on Saturday night. He also said that he would raise the demand in the cabinet meeting and that the attorney-general told him that the death penalty was a possibility if it was the security cabinet’s position.
Although Israel’s military courts had reportedly not issued death sentences since 1962, its military and security forces have been carrying out “shoot-to-kill” orders for long years, extrajudicially executing scores of Palestinians on site when they could have been subdued or disarmed through non-lethal means.
The ministers called for passing the death penalty for 19-year-old Palestinian Omar al-Abed who infiltrated into a house in the illegal settlement of Halamish in the West Bank last Friday night and stabbed to death three Jewish settlers from the same family in retaliation to Israeli measures at the Aqsa Mosque.
Israeli war minister Avigdor Lieberman said in an interview with Ynet that with such incident, there is certainly a place for the death sentence in the corridors of West Bank military courts.
Education minister Naftali Bennett also said that the option of death penalty exists in Israeli military courts and that there is no need for legislation.
He called on the military prosecution to demand the death penalty for Abed.
Justice minister Ayelet Shaked also called for going to military courts to extract a capital punishment verdict against the young man.
Transportation and intelligence minister Yisrael Katz made similar comments on Saturday night. He also said that he would raise the demand in the cabinet meeting and that the attorney-general told him that the death penalty was a possibility if it was the security cabinet’s position.
Although Israel’s military courts had reportedly not issued death sentences since 1962, its military and security forces have been carrying out “shoot-to-kill” orders for long years, extrajudicially executing scores of Palestinians on site when they could have been subdued or disarmed through non-lethal means.

Israel is willing to consider alternatives to the controversial metal detectors it recently installed at a holy site in Jerusalem, a senior official says according to BBC news.
Major General Yoav Mordechai called on the Muslim world to put forward other suggestions.
Israel installed the detectors after two Israeli policemen were killed in the vicinity, earlier this month.
The measures angered the Palestinians, who accuse Israel of trying to take control over a sacred site, according to the PNN.
Tensions over the site, known to Muslims as Haram al-Sharif and to Jews as the Temple Mount, have surged in the past couple of days.
“We hope that Jordan and other Arab nations can suggest another security solution for this (problem),” Maj-Gen Mordechai told BBC Arabic, referring to the metal detectors.
“Any solution be it electronic, cyber or modern technology: Israel is ready for a solution. We need a security solution; not political or religious“.
The BBC World Service’s Middle East editor, Alan Johnston, says it is the first sign of a softening of Israel’s position over the measures.
Saturday saw fresh clashes between Palestinians and Israeli security forces. At least four Palestinians have been killed in the last two days’ protests.
On Friday, three Israeli settlers were stabbed to death at a settlement near Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank.
The United Nations Security Council is to meet on Monday to discuss ways of defusing the violence.
Major General Yoav Mordechai called on the Muslim world to put forward other suggestions.
Israel installed the detectors after two Israeli policemen were killed in the vicinity, earlier this month.
The measures angered the Palestinians, who accuse Israel of trying to take control over a sacred site, according to the PNN.
Tensions over the site, known to Muslims as Haram al-Sharif and to Jews as the Temple Mount, have surged in the past couple of days.
“We hope that Jordan and other Arab nations can suggest another security solution for this (problem),” Maj-Gen Mordechai told BBC Arabic, referring to the metal detectors.
“Any solution be it electronic, cyber or modern technology: Israel is ready for a solution. We need a security solution; not political or religious“.
The BBC World Service’s Middle East editor, Alan Johnston, says it is the first sign of a softening of Israel’s position over the measures.
Saturday saw fresh clashes between Palestinians and Israeli security forces. At least four Palestinians have been killed in the last two days’ protests.
On Friday, three Israeli settlers were stabbed to death at a settlement near Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank.
The United Nations Security Council is to meet on Monday to discuss ways of defusing the violence.

“We, in Jerusalem, feel like we are completely on our own, facing ongoing Israeli violations, while some Arab government are competing with each other on who is better in normalizing with Israel, while its soldiers are invading surgery rooms, attacking staff and patients, and are attempting to abduct wounded Palestinians, and even the corpses of those who were killed by the army.”
This was a statement issued by the al-Makassed hospital, in occupied East Jerusalem, after Israeli soldiers, once again, invaded the medical center, on Friday, before attacking patients and medical staff, in addition to breaking into patient’s rooms, and even surgery wards.
The administration of al-Makassed said the latest attack was the ugliest, and most violent, since the beginning of the first Intifada in 1987.
“The soldiers resorted to the excessive use of force against the physicians, nurses, staffers and even patients, in a direct violation of all international laws and human rights agreements,” it said, “On Friday alone, and by 4:30 in the afternoon, were provided medical care to more than 100 wounded Palestinians, and fifty others on Thursday. Many of the inured suffered serious injuries to the head, chest and abdomen, and we had to perform urgent surgeries to all of them.”
“There is also a large number of wounded Palestinians, who could not make it into the hospital because of the extensive Israeli siege around the it, and the heavy military deployment in its various wards.”
The hospital administration also denounced an invasion carried out by more than fifty Israeli soldiers, who broke into the urgent care units, blood bank, and various wards in the medical center, looking for wounded Palestinians to abduct them.
The soldiers even assaulted Palestinians who came to donate blood, before kicking them and the medial staff out of the blood bank unit.
The hospital called on the international community, all legal and human rights groups, to provide the urgently needed protection against these escalating, serious Israeli violations, especially since Tel Aviv pays no respect to the sanctity of medical centers, and related human rights agreements.
“We feel we are on our own, facing an unprecedented escalation, and the usual Arab and international silence and complicity. While some Arab countries are rushing to normalize with Israel, and extending bridges of love and cooperation with Tel Aviv, it is responding to that with more violations, storming hospitals with automatic machine guns, and even invading surgery rooms.”
The hospital thanked all Palestinians who donated blood, and added that at least 220 Palestinians donated blood on Friday alone.
The latest invasions into the hospital were not the first, as the soldiers have raided it, and its branches many times before, and even fired gas bombs at it, including the maternity and surgery wards.
Articles documenting some of the previous invasions into Al-Makassed hospital
Army Fires Gas Bombs Into Al-Makassed Hospital In Jerusalem
Israeli Soldiers Invade Al-Makassed Hospital In Jerusalem, For Fifth Time In One Month
Video: Israeli Military Attacks Against Al-Makassed Hospital Continue; Gas Bombs Fired
Video: ‘Al-Makassed Hospital In Jerusalem Subject To Ongoing Israeli Invasions’
Israeli Forces Raid Jerusalem’s Al-Makassed Hospital
Soldiers Invade Al-Makassed Hospital In Jerusalem
This was a statement issued by the al-Makassed hospital, in occupied East Jerusalem, after Israeli soldiers, once again, invaded the medical center, on Friday, before attacking patients and medical staff, in addition to breaking into patient’s rooms, and even surgery wards.
The administration of al-Makassed said the latest attack was the ugliest, and most violent, since the beginning of the first Intifada in 1987.
“The soldiers resorted to the excessive use of force against the physicians, nurses, staffers and even patients, in a direct violation of all international laws and human rights agreements,” it said, “On Friday alone, and by 4:30 in the afternoon, were provided medical care to more than 100 wounded Palestinians, and fifty others on Thursday. Many of the inured suffered serious injuries to the head, chest and abdomen, and we had to perform urgent surgeries to all of them.”
“There is also a large number of wounded Palestinians, who could not make it into the hospital because of the extensive Israeli siege around the it, and the heavy military deployment in its various wards.”
The hospital administration also denounced an invasion carried out by more than fifty Israeli soldiers, who broke into the urgent care units, blood bank, and various wards in the medical center, looking for wounded Palestinians to abduct them.
The soldiers even assaulted Palestinians who came to donate blood, before kicking them and the medial staff out of the blood bank unit.
The hospital called on the international community, all legal and human rights groups, to provide the urgently needed protection against these escalating, serious Israeli violations, especially since Tel Aviv pays no respect to the sanctity of medical centers, and related human rights agreements.
“We feel we are on our own, facing an unprecedented escalation, and the usual Arab and international silence and complicity. While some Arab countries are rushing to normalize with Israel, and extending bridges of love and cooperation with Tel Aviv, it is responding to that with more violations, storming hospitals with automatic machine guns, and even invading surgery rooms.”
The hospital thanked all Palestinians who donated blood, and added that at least 220 Palestinians donated blood on Friday alone.
The latest invasions into the hospital were not the first, as the soldiers have raided it, and its branches many times before, and even fired gas bombs at it, including the maternity and surgery wards.
Articles documenting some of the previous invasions into Al-Makassed hospital
Army Fires Gas Bombs Into Al-Makassed Hospital In Jerusalem
Israeli Soldiers Invade Al-Makassed Hospital In Jerusalem, For Fifth Time In One Month
Video: Israeli Military Attacks Against Al-Makassed Hospital Continue; Gas Bombs Fired
Video: ‘Al-Makassed Hospital In Jerusalem Subject To Ongoing Israeli Invasions’
Israeli Forces Raid Jerusalem’s Al-Makassed Hospital
Soldiers Invade Al-Makassed Hospital In Jerusalem
23 july 2017

Facebook deleted on Sunday the official page of the Jerusalem Intifada for publishing news about the Israeli violations at al-Aqsa Mosque.
For its part, the administration of the Intifada page said that despite the attempts exerted to block the site, it will continue to expose the Israeli crimes and document the Intifada events whatever the cost is.
The administration affirmed that blocking Palestinian Facebook pages falls in line with systematic efforts to silence the Palestinian voice and spread the false Israeli narrative instead.
The Intifada site aims to document the Jerusalem Intifada events, including the Israeli crimes, and seeks to be a first reference for researchers and those interested in reading about the history of the Palestinian Intifada.
For its part, the administration of the Intifada page said that despite the attempts exerted to block the site, it will continue to expose the Israeli crimes and document the Intifada events whatever the cost is.
The administration affirmed that blocking Palestinian Facebook pages falls in line with systematic efforts to silence the Palestinian voice and spread the false Israeli narrative instead.
The Intifada site aims to document the Jerusalem Intifada events, including the Israeli crimes, and seeks to be a first reference for researchers and those interested in reading about the history of the Palestinian Intifada.
22 july 2017

The Hamas Movement has said that Palestinian Authority (PA) chief Mahmoud Abbas’s decision to freeze contacts with Israel in response to its recent measures at the Aqsa Mosque is “meaningless without ending his security collaboration with it.”
In Twitter remarks, Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri also said that Abbas’s decision would be “pointless” without backtracking on his punitive measures against Gaza and giving the Palestinian resistance in the West Bank a free hand to defend its own people.
Abbas announced on Friday the suspension of his authority’s contacts with Israel to pressure it to revoke its recent security measures at the Aqsa Mosque.
However, Abbas did not state if his step would include the security cooperation between the PA and Israel in the West Bank.
In Twitter remarks, Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri also said that Abbas’s decision would be “pointless” without backtracking on his punitive measures against Gaza and giving the Palestinian resistance in the West Bank a free hand to defend its own people.
Abbas announced on Friday the suspension of his authority’s contacts with Israel to pressure it to revoke its recent security measures at the Aqsa Mosque.
However, Abbas did not state if his step would include the security cooperation between the PA and Israel in the West Bank.

Palestinian Authority (PA) chief Mahmoud Abbas on Friday announced the freezing of contacts with Israel on all levels until all its recent security measures at the Aqsa Mosque are reversed.
In a speech following his meeting with PA officials in Ramallah, Abbas said that the installation of metal detectors at the Aqsa Mosque’s entrances is a political measure enveloped by false security claims aimed at imposing Israel’s control over the Mosque and dividing it.
He also accused Israel of seeking to circumvent its obligations towards the peace process and turning the political conflict into a religious one.
Abbas pledged 25 million dollars to support the steadfastness of the Palestinian citizens in Occupied Jerusalem and called on the Palestinian Central Council to convene to develop mechanisms to protect the national project.
On several occasions before, Abbas had threatened to stop security coordination and contacts with Israel, but his remarks in this regard were always publicity stunts.
In a speech following his meeting with PA officials in Ramallah, Abbas said that the installation of metal detectors at the Aqsa Mosque’s entrances is a political measure enveloped by false security claims aimed at imposing Israel’s control over the Mosque and dividing it.
He also accused Israel of seeking to circumvent its obligations towards the peace process and turning the political conflict into a religious one.
Abbas pledged 25 million dollars to support the steadfastness of the Palestinian citizens in Occupied Jerusalem and called on the Palestinian Central Council to convene to develop mechanisms to protect the national project.
On several occasions before, Abbas had threatened to stop security coordination and contacts with Israel, but his remarks in this regard were always publicity stunts.