Temple Mount

Jerusalem Palestinians prepare for Ramadan amid holy month’s uneasy politics

By Michele Chabin — March 7, 2024
JERUSALEM (RNS) — Ramadan will be more modest this year for Muslims conscious of the deprivation in Gaza and the lack of money in their own wallets due to the war.

Why Hamas is selling its assault on Israel as a holy war

By Michele Chabin and Yonat Shimron — October 17, 2023
(RNS) — The reference to Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque, the third holiest site in Islam, was a rallying cry to unite Muslims everywhere.

The ‘problem’ of where ancient Jerusalem was built gets thornier

By David I. Klein — July 6, 2023
(RNS) — A new find near the Temple Mount suggests that the ‘City of David’ was more likely a suburb of ancient Jerusalem.

“And in the end, the love you take”

By Jeffrey Salkin — June 28, 2023
My final sermon -- a mix tape with Sinatra, the Monotones, Rav Kook, and Cynthia Ozick. More than four decades of striving for the holy.

Rocket fire from Gaza, Lebanon at Israel as Passover begins

By Sam McNeil — April 7, 2023
JERUSALEM (AP) — Militants fired rockets from Gaza and Lebanon toward Israel on Thursday, following confrontations between Israeli police and Palestinian worshippers at a major Muslim shrine in Jerusalem for a second day in a row.

Violence erupts at Jerusalem holy site for a 2nd night

By Isabel Debre and Fares Akram — April 5, 2023
(AP) — Since Ramadan began March 22, scores of Muslim worshippers have repeatedly tried to stay overnight in the mosque, a practice that is typically permitted only during the last 10 days of the monthlong holiday.

The dangerous week ahead in the Old City of Jerusalem

By Daoud Kuttab — April 4, 2023
(RNS) — Jerusalem is on edge as radical Jewish activists push to hold a ritual where Muslims gather for Ramadan.

Why a visit by Israel’s national security minister to Al-Aqsa Mosque caused a firestorm

By Daoud Kuttab — January 6, 2023
(RNS) — Israel must decide whether its future will be as a modern democracy or a theocracy. 

Palestinian backers and Israel at odds over holy site visit

By Edith M. Lederer — January 5, 2023
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Tuesday’s visit by Israel’s new National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir to a flashpoint Jerusalem holy site has fueled fears of unrest.

Signs invited Jews to visit the Temple Mount. Why Israel’s chief rabbi forbade them.

By Avi Shafran — December 20, 2022
(RNS) — Jewish nationalists bent on affirming the Jewish connection to the Mount have increasingly visited the site.

Jordan’s King Abdullah, custodian of holy sites, meets US Christian leaders

By Daoud Kuttab — May 11, 2022
(RNS) — Reconfirming the status quo in Jerusalem will require some hard diplomacy and a lot of goodwill.

Israeli police enter tense holy site as Jewish visits resume

By Joseph Krauss — May 5, 2022
JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli police entered the Al Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem to clear away Palestinian protesters after controversial visits by Jews that had been paused for the Muslim holidays resumed.

As Jews pray on Temple Mount, status quo in Jerusalem’s holiest site begins to shift

By Eetta Prince-Gibson — December 15, 2021
(RNS) — A group that advocates for Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount reported that more than 10,000 Jewish worshippers had visited it between September and November in violation of an agreement between Israel and Jordan — an increase of 80% compared with recent years.

Jewish prayers held discreetly at contested Jerusalem shrine

By Ilan Ben Zion — August 25, 2021
(RNS) — “What is happening is a blatant and dangerous violation of the status quo,” said Sheikh Omar al-Kiswani, a top official with the Waqf, the Jordanian-backed Islamic trust that administers the site. “The Israeli police must stop providing protection to extremists.”

Politics foil replacing hazardous bridge to Jerusalem site

By Ilan Ben Zion — July 22, 2021
JERUSALEM (AP) — The tenuous state of the Mughrabi Bridge has raised fears of another disaster after a stampede at a religious festival left 45 people dead.
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