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 Hamad's job is to help keep the peace at one of the world's
holiest places, a site sacred to both Muslims, who call the compound
the Noble Sanctuary, and to Jews, who refer to it as the Temple
Mount because of the building that once stood there. The guard is
not much concerned with the sun-creamed tourists. But he pays close
attention to the groups of devout Jews and Israeli nationalists who
try most days to enter the site and pray.
Those groups are at the center of a creeping shift in Jerusalem:
After 900 years, Jews are chipping away at Muslims' exclusive
control of the site, the third holiest in Islam. The shift, which
has provoked violence in the past, threatens to open a dangerous new
front in the Israel-Palestinian conflict, adding religious enmity to
a political struggle in the very heart of the disputed city.
Al-Aqsa has banned non-Muslim prayer since 1187. Like Muslims across
the region, Hamad and the other 70 or so guards employed by the
Waqf, the Islamic trust that oversees the mosque, see Jews praying
there as a serious insult.
The risk of confrontation remained small as long as the groups
pushing for the right to pray remained at the fringes of Judaism. A
decade or so ago, a handful of Jewish faithful would enter the
compound each day. Attempts at prayer were rare. The Chief Rabbinate
of Israel declared in 2007 that Jews should not visit the site
because it was too holy.
But in recent years the radical fringe has become increasingly
mainstream, drawing in nationalist, secular supporters and backing
from high-profile politicians. A hundred or more Jews can arrive at
the mosque some days, in large, organized groups. Last year Yossi
Farenti, then Jerusalem District Police Chief, told the Israeli
parliament's Internal Affairs committee that the number of Jews
visiting the site had increased 27 percent in the first half of
2014. "There is indeed a worsening in the past few years as to what
happens at Temple Mount," he said. "This is a fact. No one
disagrees. You can see it in the numbers."
A growing number of rabbis have contradicted the Chief Rabbinate,
saying visits should be encouraged precisely because the Temple
Mount is divine. Jewish visitors mumble prayers under their breath
and walk barefoot on the ancient stones in a sign of obeisance.
A range of groups, some of them well financed by the Jewish
diaspora, are campaigning for open access to Temple Mount, which
Jews believe is the point from where God created the world and was
the site of the second Jewish temple until 70 AD (see "Disputed
land"). They want the right for Jews to pray alongside Muslims. Some
even want to build a new temple and have crafted sacred
gold-and-silver vessels and hand-stitched priestly vestments ready
for the day it is sanctified. Other supporters are breeding red
heifers, hoping for one without a white blemish that can be
sacrificially slaughtered at the temple, as described in the Book of
Numbers.
Palestinian Muslims and others across the region fear their control
is slipping.
"They want to change the rules," said Hamad, the Waqf guard.
CHANGE IN STRATEGY
Perched on an esplanade at the eastern edge of Jerusalem's Old City
– the Mount of Olives and the Garden of Gethsemane behind – there
are few patches of land more contested than this 35 acres.
The critical moment in the modern era was Israel's capture of the
Old City in the six-day war of 1967. For Israeli Jews, control of
the Old City tied together politics, religion and nationhood.
Following the victory, tens of thousands flocked to the Western
Wall, believed to have been a retaining support for the second
Jewish temple built 2,500 years ago. It was the first mass Jewish
pilgrimage to the site since the temple's destruction.
But days later, with the approval of the prime minister, Defence
Minister Moshe Dayan went to see the imams of the Islamic Waqf and
handed them back the keys to the mosque.
 "I said that Israeli troops would be removed from the site and
stationed outside the compound," Dayan wrote in his autobiography.
"The Israeli authorities were responsible for overall security, but
we would not interfere in the private affairs of the Muslims
responsible for their own sanctuaries.
"We had no intention of controlling Muslim holy places or of
interfering in their religious life."
Over time, a status quo evolved under which Jews have been allowed
to enter and tour the area but forbidden to pray. Israeli police and
some military help provide security, but the Waqf administers the
compound.
There were some early attempts to change that. In the 1980s, a
messianic terrorist group called the Jewish Underground plotted to
blow up the Dome of the Rock and replace it with a temple. That plan
was foiled by the Shin Bet, Israel's domestic intelligence agency.
In 1990, another group calling itself the Temple Mount Faithful
tried to lay a cornerstone for a new Jewish temple, provoking riots
that killed 22 Palestinians.
The Waqf says things really began to shift from September 2000, when
Ariel Sharon, then Israel's opposition leader, visited Temple Mount
with a large delegation just before an election. Many Palestinians
saw the move as a provocation. It led to a violent uprising called
the Second Intifada, also known as the Al-Aqsa Intifada, which
continued for five years and left about 3,000 Palestinians and 1,000
Israelis dead. Access to Al-Aqsa for both Muslims and non-Muslims
was greatly restricted.
In recent years the groups committed to overturning the status quo
have shifted strategy, becoming more organized and gaining donors
and influence.
While there are still radical elements, and frequent verbal and
physical confrontations with Muslims at Al-Aqsa, the groups try to
cast the issue as one of religious freedom, arguing that Jews should
enjoy the same prayer rights as Muslims.
A SHOOTING
The most visible proponent of the new approach is Yehuda Glick, a
red-bearded, American-born rabbi who set up the Temple Mount
Heritage Foundation in 2007 and now acts as a spokesman for several
Temple Mount organizations.
A 49-year-old father of eight, Glick has become a rallying figure
for the movement, frequently photographed with supporters such as an
outspoken politician from Netanyahu's right-wing Likud party, or
studying pictures of a possible new temple.
 In 2013 and again in 2014 he was arrested by police after
confrontations at Al-Aqsa and banned from visiting. He sued and won
a court ruling allowing him to return once a month under tight
supervision.
Last October, as Muslim anger at the presence of Jewish worshippers
triggered clashes, Glick was shot four times by a Palestinian when
he left a conference in central Jerusalem. After 10 days in a coma,
and life-saving operations by a Muslim surgeon, Glick came around.
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"I respect the Muslims' right to pray," he told Reuters as he
recovered from his injuries. "But there is no reason in the world
that at the only holy place for the Jewish people, a Jew should not
have the right to pray.
"The Temple Mount is the holiest place in the world according to the
Bible and there should be freedom to pray for all believers – Jews,
Christians and Muslims."
"AN AGGRESSION"
That is not how Mohammad Ahmed Hussein, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem
and the head of the Waqf, sees it.
As the inheritor of a job handed down almost without break since the
12th century, Hussein is the overriding religious authority at
Al-Aqsa and holds the keys to the mosque. He believes the precedent
created by more than 800 years of religious practice is
incontrovertible.
"No one but Muslims are allowed to perform any kind of prayers at
Al-Aqsa," he told Reuters, referring to the compound rather than
just the mosque itself.
"Jewish prayer at Al-Aqsa is not so much an insult as it is an
aggression. If Jews try to pray at Al-Aqsa, it will only create more
tensions in the region."
For Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, that is potentially a
big problem.
Netanyahu has repeatedly said the arrangement that has governed
Al-Aqsa since 1967 should not change. But after Glick was shot,
Israeli authorities temporarily shut all access, including for
Muslims. In protest, Jordan withdrew its ambassador to Tel Aviv, the
first time it had taken such a step since signing a peace deal with
Israel in 1994. Jordan has had special responsibility for Al-Aqsa
since the 1967 war. The Hashemite Kingdom has financed the Waqf and
paid for renovations to the mosque and the Dome of the Rock. Its
anger was echoed in Egypt, Saudi Arabia and beyond, leaving
Netanyahu worried about regional stability.
He beefed up Israeli security around the Old City, a move that many
Palestinians saw as proof that change was coming.
"A SMALL GESTURE OF DEFIANCE"
Six months on, the situation appears calmer, though tensions remain.
Five days a week – there is no access on Fridays or Saturdays –
religious-nationalist Jews join foreign tourists to walk up the
covered wooden ramp, through the Moroccans' Gate, the only one of
the 11 ancient gates non-Muslims can use, and into the holy
compound.
Israeli guards assemble the Jews into groups of 10, confiscate their
religious and prayer accoutrements for the length of the visit, and
then assign them Israeli police escorts.
At the top of the ramp, where Israeli forces keep dozens of riot
shields and other security equipment, Waqf guards join the Jewish
groups. The Israeli police lead the visitors around, while the Waqf
guards maintain more distance.
On one recent visit, a pious Jewish teenager, yarmulke on his head
and long curls hanging either side of his face, fell to the ground
in the act of prayer. Police quickly hoisted him to his feet and
warned that he would be thrown out if he tried to pray again.
As the group passed in front of Al-Aqsa mosque, the police urged
them not to get too close. Several ignored the warnings and stepped
towards the portico, where Muslim men and women enter via separate
doorways.
A group of women in headscarves and veils began shouting "Allahu
Akbar" ("God is Greatest") at the top of their voices, protesting
the group's presence.
As the Jewish group moved away from the mosque into a grove of trees
on the eastern edge of the plaza, it was left alone, allowing
surreptitious prayer to begin.
Efrem Goldberg, an American rabbi, wrote an account of a visit he
made to the Temple Mount last year, in which he described feeling
intimidated by Muslims there. "In a small gesture of defiance," he
wrote, "we continuously prayed in our hearts and when we paused
opposite the Kodesh Ha' Kadashim" – the Holy of Holies, where Jews
believe the Ark of the Convenant once stood – "we even had Daniel
Katz," a rabbi, "give us the priestly blessing."
A THIRD TEMPLE?
Last month, an estimated 30,000 Jews waving banners and carrying
Israeli flags marched through the Old City to celebrate Jerusalem
Day, the anniversary of Israel's victory in the 1967 war.
Palestinian protesters clashed with Jewish marchers as they thronged
to the Western Wall.
Some left-wing Israelis criticize the event as a provocation. For
supporters, the march is a chance to impose a Jewish presence
throughout the Old City.
Netanyahu said in a speech that "only under Israeli rule will there
be freedom of worship for all religions in Jerusalem. Believers pray
at their holy sites not in spite of our rule in the city, but
precisely because of it."
Some Palestinians think it is a matter of time before Temple Mount
supporters in the Israeli government propose dividing up prayer
times, giving Muslims certain hours to worship and Jews others.
Glick said the momentum is all in one direction.
"The Third Temple, which will be a house of prayer for all nations,
will be built very soon," he said, repeating a mantra of the Temple
Mount faithful.
Hamad, who said he has seen a steady change during his 10 years as a
Waqf guard, is convinced a crisis is coming.
"It's going to blow up," said the 36-year-old. "It's certain."
(Edited by Simon Robinson)
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