In a groundbreaking and deeply controversial shift that upends a long-standing global consensus on one of the Middle East’s most sensitive holy sites, Israeli authorities have for the first time formally permitted Jewish prayer inside the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied East Jerusalem. This step marks the most significant breach yet of the decades-old internationally recognized status quo that has governed access to and administration of the site for generations.
According to an anonymous Palestinian source familiar with site management from the Jerusalem Islamic Waqf — the religious endowment that oversees the mosque under the status quo agreement — Israeli police allowed Israeli settlers entering the compound on Sunday to bring Jewish prayer books (known as siddurim) and conduct organized group prayer. While unapproved individual Jewish prayer has been quietly tolerated during regular settler incursions in recent years, this marks the first time the practice has received explicit official backing.
The decades-old status quo framework, which has been accepted by the international community for decades, designates the entire 14.4-hectare Al-Aqsa compound as an exclusively Islamic holy site, with full authority for access, worship arrangements, maintenance and archaeological work falling exclusively to the Jerusalem Islamic Waqf. Since Israel occupied East Jerusalem in 1967, however, the agreement has faced incremental erosion, and the formal permission for Jewish prayer represents the most consequential breaking of that arrangement to date.
Explaining the gravity of the shift, the anonymous Palestinian source emphasized a critical line between visiting the site as a guest under existing rules and imposing new, unapproved practices. “There is an important distinction between coming to visit the site and coming to pray there,” the source said. “When I come to your place as a visitor, you impose your rules on me. But today, they come with their own rules. When the police officially allow that, it means, in one way or another, that you are allowing them to establish their own rules in the space. This is an official breach of the status quo.”
The source added that the decision has transformed what were once isolated, quiet individual acts of Jewish prayer into an organized, institutionalized group practice. “Jewish prayer at Al-Aqsa Mosque is becoming an organised practice, rather than merely an isolated individual act,” they said. The development is part of a rapidly accelerating campaign of restrictions on Palestinian access to the compound and the Waqf’s administrative control that has picked up dramatic pace since October 2023, the source added. “The pace of developments at Al-Aqsa Mosque since 7 October is staggering. Things are changing at an incredible speed, almost daily. We have essentially lost control.”
Israeli newspaper Haaretz has confirmed that the push to allow Jewish worshippers to bring prayer materials into Al-Aqsa launched in early 2024, and Israeli police have already permitted prayer, singing and dancing in the mosque’s open courtyard. The paper added that Israeli police confirm their enforcement policies at the site are set “in accordance with directives from the political leadership.”
Just last month, a mass incursion of ultranationalist Israelis led by far-right Israeli cabinet ministers and lawmakers saw more than 3,500 settlers enter the compound. Leading the raid was Itamar Ben Gvir, Israel’s far-right National Security Minister — who has direct oversight over Israeli police, and is a prominent settler who has long demanded the imposition of full “Israeli sovereignty” over the Al-Aqsa compound. During the July raid, Ben Gvir publicly declared: “Look at what is happening here – Jews praying, feeling like they are the owners here.”
Mustafa Abu Sway, a senior member of the Jerusalem Islamic Waqf Council, told Middle East Eye that the repeated violations are not isolated incidents, but a deliberate government strategy backed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “This desecration, including the introduction of prayer books inside the mosque, forms part of the systematic dismantling of what remains of the historic status quo at the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque, with Itamar Ben Gvir determining what happens on the ground, with the approval of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu,” Abu Sway said.
Abu Sway added that alongside the expansion of organized Jewish access and worship at the site, the Israeli government continues to enforce harsh, arbitrary restrictions on Muslim worshippers seeking to enter the compound and limit the Waqf’s ability to carry out its administrative duties. “Muslim worshippers are prevented from entering in a manner that appears arbitrary on the surface but in fact reflects a systematic policy,” he added.