Israel continues Al-Aqsa desecration, one of the Hamas red lines that prompted the October 7 attack

In a January letter, detailing its reasons for the Al Aqsa Flood operation, Hamas explicitly mentioned the continuing Judaisation of the third holiest mosque in Islam. The Zionists still don't care.

On January 21 this year, the Hamas media office published a document titled “Our Narrative… Operation Al-Aqsa Flood.” The document, consisting of 18 pages divided into five chapters, detailed the motivations behind the October 7 Al-Aqsa Flood operation. During this operation, the Palestinian resistance groups breached the Israeli territory from the Gaza concentration camp, leading to the capture of dozens of high-ranking Israeli military officials, most of whom are either dead due to the incessant Israeli bombardments of the enclave or still remain in captivity.

In the document, Hamas wrote of seven grievances that triggered the Palestinian resistance into its October 7 operation:

After 75 years of relentless occupation and suffering, and after failing all initiatives for liberation and return to our people, and also after the disastrous results of the so-called peace process, what did the world expect from the Palestinian people to do in response to the following (original emphasis):

• The Israeli Judaization plans to the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque, its temporal and spatial division attempts, as well as the intensification of the Israeli settlers’ incursions into the holy mosque (emphasis added).

• The practices of the extremist and right-wing Israeli government which is practically taking steps towards annexing the entire West Bank and Jerusalem into the so-called “Israel’s sovereignty” amid plans on the Israeli official table to expel Palestinians from their homes and areas.

• The thousands of Palestinian detainees in Israeli jails who are experiencing deprivation of their basic rights as well as assaults and humiliations under direct supervision of the Israeli fascist minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.

• The unjust air, sea, and land blockade imposed on the Gaza Strip over 17 years.

• The expansion of the Israeli settlements across the West Bank in an unprecedented level, as well as the daily violence perpetrated by settlers against Palestinians and their properties.

• The seven million Palestinians living in extreme conditions in refugee camps and other areas who wish to return to their lands, and who were expelled 75 years ago.

• The failure of the international community and the complicit[y] of superpowers to prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state.

Hamas then goes on to rhetorically ask:

What was expected from the Palestinian people after all of that? To keep waiting and to keep counting on the helpless UN! Or to take the initiative in defending the Palestinian people, lands, rights and sanctities; knowing that the defense act [the right to defend oneself] is a right enshrined in international laws, norms and conventions.

Proceeding from the above, Operation Al-Aqsa Flood on Oct. 7 was a necessary step and a normal response to confront all Israeli conspiracies against the Palestinian people and their cause. It was a defensive act in the frame of getting rid of the Israeli occupation, reclaiming the Palestinian rights and on the way for liberation and independence like all peoples around the world did.

It is worth noting that in its list of grievances, Hamas mentioned the continuing desecration of Al-Aqsa Mosque complex right at the top.

The importance of Al-Aqsa

Al-Aqsa is the third holiest site in Islam after Masjid al-Haram in Makkah and the Prophet’s mosque in Madinah. It occupies a seminal place in Islamic religious discourse with some important incidents during the life of Prophet Muhammad transpiring at the site. The Prophet made the miraculous night journey known as the Isra’ from the Great Mosque in Makkah to Al-Aqsa in Jerusalem before ascending to heaven from the mount housed under the Dome of the Rock, in the second half of the same journey known as the Mi’raj. The Qur’an talks about this journey in the first verse of chapter 17 titled Al-Isra:

“Glory be to the One Who took His servant Muḥammad by night from the Sacred Mosque to the Farthest Mosque whose surroundings We have blessed, so that We may show him some of Our signs. Indeed, He alone is the All-Hearing, All-Seeing.”

The Sacred Mosque in the verse refers to the Masjid al-Haram in Makkah, while the Farthest Mosque is a reference to Al-Aqsa in Jerusalem.

Before God commanded the Muslims to face the Ka’ba (the black cube at the centre of the Masjid al-Haram complex) for their prayers, they used to face towards Al-Aqsa. This is why the mosque is also known as the first qibla — or direction — to Muslims worldwide. Al-Aqsa also holds an important place in the Islamic eschatology, featuring prominently in the end of time prophecies.

Moreover, Palestinian identity is rooted in it. Consequently, resistance groups in Palestine pay homage to the mosque in their name. The very name of the October 7 operation — Al-Aqsa Flood — was a dedication to the mosque. The Second Intifada that began in 2000 and went on until 2005 was also known as the Al-Aqsa Intifada, underlining the mosque’s place in the Palestinian consciousness. As a result, any deliberate violation of the sanctity of the site is bound to raise the heckles of the Palestinians who see themselves as its custodians being the Muslims closest to it in proximity.

Jews beating up an Arab man during one of their regular anti-Arab marches.

Israeli apathy

But the Israelis don’t care. By all accounts they take pleasure in storming and desecrating the mosque while harbouring dreams of bringing it down one day to build their mythical Third Temple on its ruins. They have been making preparations for that fateful day for years with the full support and complicity of the Israeli state. Since the time Israel first occupied the mosque complex after the Six-Day War in 1967, the Israelis have made its desecration almost a central part of their Jewishness.

To mark the occupation of the mosque — which is camouflaged as the unification of East and West Jerusalem in 1967 following the annexation of the yet unconquered Palestinian territories — the Israelis take out flag marches across various parts of occupied Palestine, deliberately passing through Muslim and Christian quarters as a provocation.

The Israeli rabbinate has sanctioned the day of the conquest — whose actual date in the Gregorian calendar varies from year to year and fell between June 4 and 5 this year — as a minor holiday. They justify it by reasoning that the day marks the Jewish conquest of the Western Wall. Notably, no ruler over centuries of Muslim rule in Jerusalem ever prevented Jews from accessing the wall for prayers. But the Zionists never let facts come in the way of their propaganda.

The flag routes this year.

As they do every year, this year too hundreds of settlers invaded the sacred mosque grounds accompanied by the jackbooted thugs of the Israeli regime and cheered on by the Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir. The Islamic Waqf Ministry in Jerusalem, which looks after the upkeep of the complex, counted 928 settlers storming the mosque complex on June 5. The Jewish settlers performed garish dances and Talmudic rituals in the mosque grounds in gross violation of the sanctity of the Muslim holy place and in contravention of all human decency.

The cartoonish Ben-Gvir went on to declare Jewish sovereignty over the Muslim sanctuary. “Temple Mount is ours, Damascus Gate is ours, let the whole world know that,” he claimed. “Today, according to my policy, Jews entered the Old City freely. And on the Temple Mount Jews prayed freely. We say in the simplest way, it’s ours.”

Since the Israeli annexation of Al-Aqsa in 1967, the Israeli government has maintained an official policy of allowing Jews to visit the complex, but prohibits the performing of religious rituals in its premises. However, the policy remains only on paper, as the storming and desecration of the mosque followed by Jewish prayer rituals have become increasingly brazen over recent years.

The settlers are typically accompanied by the Israeli police and go on violent rampages against Arabs and their properties throughout the so-called flag march route. They chant vulgar slogans about Arabs and mouth filthy expletives against the Islamic Prophet. (Christians too draw their ire. Some consider spitting in the direction of Christians “an ancient Jewish custom.” The Christians are routinely subjected to this humiliation during their festivals as well as for merely existing.) The police instead of stopping the settlers or arresting them for the violence, apprehends the Palestinians for simply resisting such provocations.

This whole sequence of events is eerily reminiscent of their fascist counterparts in India. As the works of the late American scholar Paul R. Brass has extensively documented, this is how this grotesque sequence unfolds in the subcontinent: In Indian localities where the Muslims are in minority, during their many festivals the Hindus take out possessions specifically through the minority areas with an intent to rile the residents. These possessions are accompanied by offensive songs played over loudspeakers with volume turned up to 11. Sometimes offensive chants replace the music. Often the possession goers randomly attack Muslim-owned homes and mosques and beat up Muslims if they manage to get their hands on them. When angry Muslims react to such provocations, the brutes — who are typically armed with blunt weapons — go on a rampage, destroying property and ransacking homes. The police joins in on the action on the side of the Hindus, leaving the Muslims no recourse to justice. Even Hindu festivals that were previously not celebrated with possessions are now marked with them in an unabashed attempt to stamp Hindu supremacy over the beleaguered minority populations in the country. Such attacks on the Muslims and their properties have become increasingly common since the current regime under Narendra Modi first came to power in 2014, with the violent thugs confident that the state will do nothing to rein them in.

Considering both the Indian and Israeli fascists drink from the same ideological fount, their identical behaviour shouldn’t come as a surprise.

After the most recent provocation by the extremist Jews, Hamas issued a stern statement, condemning the Israeli state for its “criminal policies against our sanctities”. In its missive dated June 5, the leading Palestinian resistance groups said:

The permission given by the fascist occupation government to the settler gangs to organize the so-called "Flags March" in the streets of occupied Al-Quds, accompanied by attacks and violations against our people and sanctities, under the full protection of the occupation police, confirms the arrogance of this fascist government and the occupation’s approach aimed at Judaizing the sanctities. It is an aggression on the feelings of hundreds of millions of Muslims around the world.

We warn the occupation of the consequences of continuing these criminal policies against our sanctities, especially Al-Aqsa Mosque. We affirm that the resistance, which is writing heroic chapters in the Al-Aqsa Flood battle across our Palestinian land and is pursuing the occupation and its settlers in the West Bank, will find ways to cause pain to this criminal enemy, ensuring the restraint of its extremist settler leaders.

Restrictions on Muslims, unfettered access for Jews

The storming and desecration of Al-Aqsa Mosque isn’t limited to the annual flag marches. It has become increasingly routine outside of it as well. Typically, all Jewish festivals see this garish ritual of settlers accompanied by police forces, storming the mosque compound. Moreover, they beat Muslim worshippers and stop them from accessing the site for prayers. For example, during Ramadan, which fell this year between March and April, the Israeli state authorities and settlers launched brutal attacks on Muslims for merely making their way to the mosque for prayers during the holiest month in the Islamic calendar.

The violation of the mosque's sanctity was particularly severe in 2021 when the Israeli police attacked worshippers in the prayer area, fired tear gas shells, destroyed carpets and books, and broke the mosque's glass windows. A similar sequence of events followed a year later, leading to the death of a Palestinian and dozens more injured.

The beating up of the worshippers inside the mosque during the holiest days and nights of the Islamic calendar has become something of an Israeli ritual.

Moreover, while Muslim access to their religious site is increasingly being curtailed, with random rules that prohibit people above a certain age from visiting, intrusive checkpoints, and the ever-present threat of violence, the Israeli state is giving its Jewish citizens near carte blanche at the site. They do as they please.

They attempt to smuggle literal goats for Passover sacrifice, they storm the mosque to celebrate Purim, they carry out Talmudic rituals and dances at the mosque to mark the eve of Yom Kippur, they trample upon the sacred site in celebration of Hanukkah, they assault the third holiest mosque in the world to observe Shavuot, and they make it a point to desecrate the Islamic holy site to celebrate Sukkot. The list is endless. You name a Jewish festival and you will be sure to find Al-Aqsa desecration as part of the celebrations.

The pattern is clear: no Jewish festival is complete without deliberate provocation of Muslims by desecrating their revered mosque.

To put this behaviour in perspective, imagine if there were a group of extremist Christians in the United States that celebrated Easter, Good Friday, and Christmas every year by singing hymns, dancing, and praying to Jesus in the biggest synagogue in the city. And while the group made its way to the said synagogue it vandalised every Christian shop in its way and beat up any Christian who resisted the vandalism.

Unimaginable, right? Yet, extremist Jews in Israel have been doing the Jewish equivalent of the exact same thing to the Muslims in Jerusalem at every opportunity for years with barely a word of objection from their biggest benefactors in the West.

The Judaisation of Al-Aqsa

There is a very clear purpose to these Israeli actions: the Judaisation of the Al-Aqsa Mosque complex. With an extreme right-wing government at the helm, extremist Jews see this as their chance to destroy the Muslim holy site once and for all to make way for the Third Temple.

The Israeli state directly funds the Temple Institute which works towards a solitary purpose: building the Third Temple at the site of the Al-Aqsa Mosque complex.

In January 2023, another extremist Jewish group, which also works towards the same aim as the Temple Institute, wrote a letter to Ben-Gvir, asking him to allow the resumption of the Passover sacrifice at the site, a practice that has been in abeyance for the past two millennia:

There is a golden opportunity to return the crown to its former glory and to renew the Passover sacrifice for the first time in about two thousand years, a move that will advance the Geulah, Redemption, immediately and will be recorded in the pages of history as the beginning of the building of the third Temple.

On January 14, which marked the 100th day of the ongoing genocide in Gaza, Al Qassam Brigades’ spokesman Abu Obeidah issued a video statement that underlined another egregious provocation that prompted the October 7 attacks: the import of red heifers in preparation for their slaughter, a ritual that will serve as the prelude to the construction of the Third Temple.

Abu Obeidah said:

We look back 100 days to remember the educated, the complicit, and the incapacitated among the world powers governed by the law of the jungle, reminding them of an aggression that reached its peak against our path [Al-Quds] and Al-Aqsa, with the start of its actual temporal and spatial division, and the bringing of red cows as an application of a detestable religious myth designed for aggression against the feelings of an entire nation in the heart of its Arab identity, and the path of its Prophet [the Night Journey of Isra’] and Ascension to heaven [the Mi’raj] (emphasis added).

To fulfil their nefarious desires, extremist Jews have already imported red heifers from a Texas farm, bought the land that fits the description for the sacrifice spot, readied rabbis to do the deed when the day arrives, consecrated diamond-cut stones (because metal will desecrate them) that will be used for the construction of the temple, and prepared ornaments that will decorate the temple.

The Israeli military personnel in Gaza have been performing Jewish rituals during the course of their ongoing carnage and have variously been pictured making graffiti of the Third Temple on the walls of the mosques they have destroyed, wearing insignia that depict the temple, and blowing silver trumpets supplied by the Temple Institute. All this while their political leadership has invoked the Biblical Amalekites while referring to the Palestinians. It all points towards nefarious designs in a state that has gone completely off the rails.

There was much speculation about the red heifer sacrifice taking place in April this year in the lead up to the temple’s construction. But to everyone’s relief, it didn’t come to pass.

However, such sentiments about the building of the temple at the expense of the historic mosque have a wide currency in the Israeli society, as the continued desecration of Al-Aqsa by Jewish settlers makes it explicit.

In a clear and deliberate attempt to poke the Palestinians right in the eye, the Netanyahu cabinet held a meeting underneath Al-Aqsa in May last year.

The Israeli attempt to Judaise Al-Aqsa and Jerusalem is multi-pronged. A report published in 2022 outlined how the Israeli government is engineering a demographic change in Jerusalem by increasing Jewish population via settlement blocs at the expense of the original Arab inhabitants.

When it comes to the mosque itself, the Israelis typically drag their feet before allowing, if at all, repair works in the mosque each time they cause extensive damage to the centuries-old structure during their numerous incursions.

Moreover, there appears to be a concerted effort to weaken the foundation of the structure as a result of extensive digging that the Zionist state is carrying out in the vicinity of the complex. They don’t allow the Palestinians any access to the digging sites even as observers, which only raises suspicions about their evil designs.

A report from early 2023 noted an unprecedented acceleration in Israeli excavations at the Muslim holy site:

A 12 January report released by the Palestinian Information Center (PIC) has cited Fakhri Abu Diyab, a Jerusalem-based, Palestinian investigator and researcher, as saying that since the start of 2023, there has been an unprecedented acceleration in Israeli excavation under the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

“These excavations have intensified since the beginning of the current year … We have never witnessed excavations of this intensity and speed in the vicinity of Al-Aqsa Mosque before … [It is] as if the occupation is planning to carry out a premeditated and dangerous action against the Mosque, perhaps to bring about a fundamental change in the region, or to prepare it for a Judaization scheme,” Abu Diyab was quoted as saying by Palestinian news agency SAFA.

That same news story went on to add:

In June of 2022, Azzam Al-Khatib, director general of the holy site’s affairs, said that if the digging continued, the mosque would soon be dangerously close to collapsing.

That would be an extremist Jew’s wet dream.

However, given the significance of Al-Aqsa to Muslims worldwide, such an act would be a bridge too far. If it were to occur, it has the potential to set the world on fire. And on the evidence of the last eight months, the Israelis seem to be pining for just such an eventuality.

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