al-Aqsa mosque "EMPOWER IAS"

 

Context:

• On Monday, Israeli police stormed the Al-Aqsa mosque compound in East Jerusalem, leaving a reported 300 people injured. The stand-off came at the end of a week of tensions over the eviction of Palestinian residents from two neighbourhoods of East Jerusalem, Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan, to make way for Jewish settlers.

Cause of the clashes

• The Al-Aqsa is located on a plaza at Temple Mount, which is known in Islam as Haram-e-Sharif.
• The Mount is also Judaism’s holiest site.
• The most imposing structure on the compound is the Dome of the Rock, with its golden dome.
• The Western Wall, also known as the Wailing Wall sacred to Jews, is one side of the retaining wall of the Al-Aqsa compound.
• Soon after the 1967 Six-Day War ended, Israel gave back to Jordan the administration and management of the Al-Aqsa compound.
• While non-Muslims have not been allowed to worship at Al-Aqsa, Jewish individuals and groups have made repeated attempts to gain entry to the Mount Temple plaza.
• Since the late 1990s, around the time of the first intifada, such attempts began occurring with a regularity as Jewish settlers began claiming land in East Jerusalem and surrounding areas.
• It has led to repeated clashes and tensions at Al-Aqsa.

 

 

Rival claims over Jerusalem

• Both Israel and Palestine have declared Jerusale their capital.
• In July 1980, the Israeli Parliament passed the Jerusalem Law declaring it the country’s capital.
• Palestinians declared Jerusalem the capital of the putative state of Palestine by a law passed by the Palestinian Authority in 2000.
• The 1988 Palestinian Declaration of Independence also declared Jerusalem as the capital.
• For the present, the Palestinian Authority has its headquarters in Ramallah.

 

About Al-Aqsa Mosque

• It is located on a plaza at Temple Mount, which is known in Islam as Haram-e-Sharif.
• The Mount is also Judaism’s holiest site.
• The most imposing structure on the compound is the Dome of the Rock, with its golden dome.
• The Western Wall, also known as the Wailing Wall sacred to Jews, is one side of the retaining wall of the Al-Aqsa compound.
• Al-Aqsa translates from Arabic to English as “the Farthest Mosque”.
• According to the Quran, it is believed that Prophet Muhammad travelled from Mecca to Al-Aqsa during the Night Journey, and then on to heaven.
• It was originally built as a small prayer house but the mosque was reconstructed by the Umayyad caliph Abd al-Malik in 705 CE.

 

 

Significance of Al-Aqsa Mosque

• Al-Aqsa is central to the rival claims over Jerusalem because both Israel and Palestine have declared it their capital.
• In July 1980, the Israeli Parliament passed the Jerusalem Law declaring it the country’s capital.
• The Palestinians declared Jerusalem the capital of the putative state of Palestine by a law passed by the Palestinian Authority in 2000.
• The 1988 Palestinian Declaration of Independence also declared Jerusalem as the capital.