Elder of Ziyon notes the huge numbers of Palestinians from the West Bank who now routinely arrive for Friday Prayers at Al-Aqsa Mosque, giving the lie to those who malign Israel for supposedly keeping very tight controls on would-be visitors. He notes that during the most recent week, 60,000 Palestinians attended Friday Prayers, and that for many weeks before that, similarly large groups attended. Meanwhile, Jewish visitors, who supposedly are running riot over the Al-Aqsa Compound, never number more than a few hundred each day. More on the loosening of restrictions on Palestinian visitors to Al-Aqsa can be found here: “Israel allows a lot more Palestinians to visit the Temple Mount than you would know from the media,” Elder of Ziyon, February 3, 2023:
This morning’s article [Feb. 3] at the official Palestinian Wafa news agency is pretty much identical to articles written every Friday for months:
Tens of thousands performed Friday prayers at the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque, despite the strict military measures imposed by the Israeli occupation authorities at the gates of the mosque and the entrances to the Old City in occupied Jerusalem .
These so-called “strict military measures” consist of nothing more than checking the identity cards of Muslims trying to go up to the Temple Mount, in order to keep out those with a previous history of inciting violence. Out of 60,000 Palestinians who arrived for Friday Prayers last week, perhaps 20 or 30, at most, were kept out for security reasons. Hardly a draconian regime.
The Islamic Endowments Department in Jerusalem estimated that about 60,000 worshipers performed Friday prayers in the vicinity of Al-Aqsa Mosque, from Jerusalem and the West Bank, and within the lands of 1948 [how Palestinians refer to Israel].
Our correspondent reported that the occupation forces deployed in the streets of the city and the vicinity of Al-Aqsa Mosque, and stationed at its gates, and stopped the worshipers and checked their identity cards.
As already stated above, the Israeli police check identity cards to weed out known troublemakers. And they do this, too, with Jewish worshippers, not wanting to admit to the Temple Mount those “far-right” Jews who might try to start trouble with the Palestinians by, for example, praying loudly on the Mount.
I read these every week, with the only difference being the number of estimated worshippers – 70,000 last week, 75,000 two weeks ago, 55,000 three weeks ago.
In other words, tens of thousands of worshippers arrive at Al-Aqsa every Friday. But few in the non-Muslim world realize this. Ask any non-Muslim in the Western world to guess how many Muslims attend Friday Prayers at Al-Aqsa – I have done this myself – and the highest estimate is likely to be “a few thousand.” So many people have been brainwashed into believing that those terrible Israelis keep the number of Muslim visitors way down. They don’t realize just how many Palestinians routinely arrive, and how, on special occasions, more than 200,000 Muslims have been known to ascend to the Temple Mount. If the size of those Muslim crowds were better known, there might be more sympathy for the Israelis who are ultimately responsible for security on the Mount.
But what I [Elder of Ziyon] hadn’t noticed is that the worshippers are coming from the West Bank as well as Jerusalem and Israel.
I thought that Israel didn’t allow West Bank Palestinians to enter the compound. That’s how things used to be, except for Ramadan.
Apparently, Israel eased the restrictions last Ramadan – and continued easing them. From AP, April 5:
Israel will allow women, children, and men over 40 from the West Bank to pray at the Al-Aqsa Mosque on Friday in an apparent bid to help calm tensions during the holy month of Ramadan.
The government said in a statement that it could further relax restrictions if things stay quiet.
I cannot find any articles since then on whether Israeli officials further loosened restrictions since then, but it appears that they have, even after Ramadan. In previous years articles would complain that “occupation forces prevented the entry of hundreds of citizens from the West Bank to Jerusalem to perform the Friday prayer at Al-Aqsa.” That verbiage is gone. Now I’m only seeing that Israeli police are checking identity cards and not allowing a few people to enter, probably based on their inciting disturbances in the past….
Without any public announcement, over the past year – starting early last April – Israel has been admitting Palestinian worshippers to the Temple Mount from the West Bank, beginning with those Israel believes are least likely to cause trouble: women, children, and men over 40. Furthermore, the Israeli government did issue a statement that if things stay quiet – by that was meant no riots, no Muslims attacking Jewish visitors to the Temple Mount with rocks and Molotov cocktails, or throwing the same objects on Jewish worshippers at the Western Wall far below – it would further “relax restrictions.” This clearly meant that men from the West Bank under the age of forty would now be allowed on the Temple Mount. No longer are the Palestinian media complaining about younger men being prevented from visiting the Mount, which must mean that the restrictions on them have indeed been lifted. The Israeli police still check identity cards for potential troublemakers, who might incite attacks on Jewish visitors, but that is the extent of their control at the entries. A “few people” are prevented from entering. Twenty, maybe thirty, out of 60,000 may be turned back based on their previous history of violence; that amounts to 1/20th of 1%, an infinitesimal number.
Israel is not trying to punish or harass or limit the numbers of Palestinians wanting to worship at al-Aqsa. The Arab numbers are huge. 60,000, 75,000, 150,000, even at one point 250,000 Muslims have been allowed to pray inside Al-Aqsa and on the 35-acre esplanade outside the Mosque. Israel only stops a handful of those deemed high security risks. The Jewish state has steadily, quietly, loosened the former restrictions on visitors to Al-Aqsa from the West Bank. First Israel allowed in children, women, and men over 40, from the West Bank, categories deemed by Israel to be less likely to riot or attack Jewish visitors on the Mount, or Jewish worshippers at the Western Wall below. Now it has been allowing men under 40 from the West Bank to attend services, with only known troublemakers kept out. As for Israeli Arabs, their access to Al-Aqsa was never blocked, save for those who had a history of violence.
Why is it, do you think, that nowhere In the mainstream Western media has there been a single article about Israel now allowing Palestinian Arabs from the West Bank, whatever their age or sex, to visit the Temple Mount and worship at Al-Aqsa just as Israeli Arabs already do? And Isn’t this something for which Israel ought to be praised? Or is that the reason, we may suspect, why it isn’t being reported? It makes Israel look good, and that will never do.
