Blocking access to the Aqsa mosque: It's just another day in East Jerusalem

Palestinian worshippers, Israeli police standoff

A couple of weeks ago, the Israeli police evicted a building occupied by violent settlers in Hebron, in a clean, rapid operation.

But violent spillovers ensued. Primarily in Hebron itself, where barbaric Jewish rioters - terrorists is a more apt description - attacked Palestinians, shooting them at point-blank range, organizing in terror gangs and trying to lynch Palestinians. Yes, lynch them.

But it has also spilled over in Jerusalem when the Israeli army decided to forbid all males below the age of 45 from entering the Aqsa mosque, for Friday prayers.

“Fear of confrontations between Arabs and settlers”, they said. The few settlers I saw that day, however, walked around the old city just fine. Plus settlers aren’t known to demonstrate in the Old City anyway.

I walked up to the mosque with a colleague from the Jerusalem office, and we were faced with a barrage of Israeli riot policemen. He sighed.

“Again? It used to be like that all the time, a couple of years ago... there’s no way they’re letting me through. You go... Maybe they’ll let you through”.

I figured it was worth a shot. This is likely my last Friday in Jerusalem...

So onwards I went.


The first door was completely blocked - no access through the gates of the Old City.
I tried all my excuses: "foreigner?" "diplomat!" "hmm... tourist!"

Nope.
I considered joining the crowd that was having its own alternative friday prayer outside of the city gates...

You can see the Israeli police barrier in the background...

Then decided against it.
Door number 2 - the main Bab El Amoud/Damascus Gate entry. The soldier was in a better mood, and the 'foreigner' card worked fine. I was in the Old City.



Getting onto the Haram-El-Sharif/Temple mount was another story though. I must have tried five or six gates...


The interesting part really was the 'negotiations' between Palestinian Jerusalemites and the Israeli police. The former were bolder than the West Bankers, the latter far more contained than the Army soldiers I usually see in the Occupied territories. One of them, believe it or not, actually apologised to people for not letting them through!
(yes, these are policemen in East Jerusalem, the others are trigger-happy soldiers in the Wild Wild West Bank. But still.)

Anyways. At gate number 6 or something - the one that's all the way down by the Kotel entrance - and a few minutes before the end of the prayer, I found a police officer who thought it would be fun to quiz me on religion:
"recite the fatiha!", he asked in Arabic.
"like, now?"
"Yeah, yeah!"
So I give a hurried, school-like reading.

Then it's time for the quiz. He goes:

"I testify...?"

What the fuck is that, a 'fill-in the blanks' exercise? Grmbl grmbl....

"that there is no God but God and Mohammad is his prophet", I answer.

Soldier smiles smugly. His buddies are enjoying the show.
By that time the prayer was already ending - at which time he decided to let me go.
I darted to see the prayer ending.

Anyways. A much lower than usual attendance at the Aqsa, unsurprisingly. Women, old men and children, that's who was there.


Needless to say, nothing happened on that day, no confrontations, demonstrations, nothing. Disappointed photojournalists sat at the Old City cafes, sipping tea and eating knaf'e.


Just another day in Jerusalem.