Israeli authorities are facing mounting accusations of systematically undermining the centuries-old arrangements governing access to Jerusalem's holy sites, following a series of incidents over the Easter and Eid al-Fitr periods that critics say amount to a deliberate attempt to reshape the religious identity of one of the world's most contested cities.
On Holy Saturday, Israeli security forces blocked and arrested Palestinian Christians attempting to reach the Church of the Holy Sepulchre — the site where Christians believe Jesus was crucified, buried, and resurrected — in Jerusalem's walled Old City. The following day, Orthodox Easter Sunday, Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir led a group of supporters into the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, Islam's third-holiest site, where he declared support for expanded Jewish worship access. Non-Muslim religious rituals are banned at the compound under the longstanding arrangements that govern the site. Jordan and Palestinian officials condemned the visit. The incidents came after an unprecedented 40-day closure of both the Al-Aqsa compound and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which Israeli authorities justified on security grounds during a period of regional military tension. The closures meant Friday prayers and Eid al-Fitr observances at Al-Aqsa were cancelled, and the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa — the most senior Roman Catholic cleric in the Holy Land — was prevented from leading Palm Sunday services at the church.
At the heart of the dispute is the Status Quo, a framework governing Jerusalem's holy sites that dates to the Ottoman period in the 16th century and was later enshrined in international agreements including the Treaty of Paris (1856) and the Berlin Treaty of 1878. Under this arrangement, the Al-Aqsa compound is administered by the Islamic Waqf, a religious trust, which determines access and permitted activities. Critics argue that Israeli policy has steadily eroded this framework — allowing thousands of Jewish settlers into the compound to conduct prayers and assert Jewish claims over the site — while substituting the Status Quo's specific provisions with a vaguer principle of "freedom of access" that they say is applied selectively.
The restrictions extend beyond the holy sites themselves. Palestinians holding West Bank or Gaza identity documents cannot enter Jerusalem without Israeli-issued permits, which are rarely granted, effectively barring many Muslim and Christian worshippers from their holiest sites. This year, Israeli forces also briefly detained Sheikh Mohammad al-Abassi, the imam of Al-Aqsa Mosque, preventing him from entering the compound for a week.
Why this matters: Jerusalem's holy sites sit at the intersection of religious devotion, national identity, and international law. The Status Quo is not merely a local custom but part of a web of international agreements, and challenges to it carry implications well beyond the region. While Israel reversed its ban on the Latin Patriarch after significant international backlash — suggesting that diplomatic pressure can produce results — critics argue that governments and institutions which profess support for religious freedom and the Status Quo must translate that commitment into concrete accountability measures, rather than allowing incremental changes on the ground to normalise a new reality in the city.