Occupied Jerusalem- Since the seventh of last October, Al-Aqsa Mosque has become an arena for venting the settlers’ resentment over the Al-Aqsa flood battle, a scene for glorifying their dead and prisoners, and a smooth transition station between the sanctities in occupied Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, where supporters of the Temple groups wore their military uniforms, and their voices rose to accelerate the demolition of the mosque. Al-Aqsa and the establishment of the alleged temple.
Tel Aviv Tribune Net monitored the behavior of members of the most prominent Temple groups in Al-Aqsa Mosque, through what they published on their official accounts, amid the field absence of Jerusalemite journalists and Al-Aqsa guards from the violations carried out by the settlers during their storming.
The Temple groups repeatedly expressed their annoyance at calling the battle “the Al-Aqsa Flood,” and one of their activists, former Knesset member Moshe Feiglin, said in his recent storming of Al-Aqsa Mosque: “They called the battle “the Al-Aqsa Flood,” and we should call it “the Temple Battle” and not “Iron Sword, the heart of the battle is this place. We don’t have much more time. It’s over. We must build the temple.”
Pictures from Gaza
In response, the groups bragged about pictures sent by occupation soldiers from inside the Gaza Strip, claiming the centrality of the alleged Temple in what the occupation called “the battle of the iron swords.” They published pictures of soldiers wearing helmets bearing the image of the Temple, and others in which they raised a flag bearing the image of the Temple above one of the tanks, or placed its logo. On their military uniform.
Extremist Arnon Segal commented on the last photo, saying: “A new symbol on the IDF uniform. They have Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis, and we have the Trustees of the Temple Mount.”
The “Temple Mount Trustees” is a Zionist movement founded in 1967 as the nucleus of the Temple groups, and its supporters caused the first Al-Aqsa massacre in 1990.
Among the pictures published by the groups was a soldier raising the victory sign in front of a mural of Al-Aqsa Mosque in one of Jabalia’s schools in the northern Gaza Strip, after distorting it and writing phrases from the Jewish “Shemaa” prayer, the phrase “The people of Israel are alive,” “Christ is now,” and a call to build construction. The alleged structure as quickly as possible.
The Temple groups manipulated some images coming from Gaza, such as a picture of Israeli tanks with a model of the alleged Temple embedded in front of it and the description “Soon in the Temple Mount” written in reference to Al-Aqsa Mosque.
They also combined an image of the Dome of the Rock behind a picture of soldiers raising the Israeli flag over a model of the dome after they destroyed the headquarters of the Palestinian Legislative Council in Gaza at the beginning of last November.
Military uniforms and emblems
The soldiers also provided the groups with a picture of a beach that they said was in Gaza, after they wrote on it the phrase “The Temple Mount is in our hands.” That phrase was written by one of the soldiers on a piece of paper and carried with a smile from inside Gaza, after he took another picture inside Al-Aqsa Mosque in his military uniform, so that it turned out to be one of the groups. Activists of the “Bedino” group, the most prominent temple group.
He was not the only soldier who combined his storming of Al-Aqsa with his aggression against Gaza. Since October 8, the spokesman for the Union of Temple Organizations, Assaf Farid, joined the ranks of the army, and continued to document his storming of Al-Aqsa in his military uniform, before he went to Gaza or returned. Of which. And dozens of others came to “be blessed,” as they say, in light of the mosque’s closure to Jerusalemites themselves.
Last November, the Temple groups mourned two of their activists after they were killed by Palestinian resistance bullets in the northern Gaza Strip.
One of the most prominent intruders, Noam Friedman – who tried to slaughter a goat in Al-Aqsa 4 times – did not hide his pride in front of the camera in Al-Aqsa of his five sons who are serving in the occupation army, including one in Gaza.
Invitations and incitement
In addition to storming Al-Aqsa in military uniform, the occupation police officers inside the mosque since October 7th have worn a slogan that reads, “Iron swords, we fight over the house.”
It was also documented that one of the intruders wore a T-shirt on which was drawn a map of Palestine and the occupied Golan and the flag of the occupying state, and wrote next to it: “Our enemy understood that whoever controls the Temple Mount controls the entire land.”
As for former Knesset member Yehuda Glick, he stormed the mosque a few days ago wearing a scarf that said, “The people of Israel are alive.”
While the occupation intimidated the Jerusalemite imams and preachers and prevented them from talking about the Gaza Strip in Friday sermons, the settlers began to pray publicly inside Al-Aqsa Mosque and pray for their dead and prisoners, glorifying them with speeches near the Gate of Mercy at times, and speaking on the phone with some soldiers to support them at other times, in addition to the families of the dead and prisoners storming the mosque. Al-Aqsa and praying for their children, organized by the Temple groups.
The Temple groups clearly stated their goal through sentences they addressed to their supporters, such as: “Understand: when Hamas attacks us, target the Temple Mount,” “The Temple Mount must be closed until the kidnappers return,” and “When Israel is in trouble, go up to the Temple Mount.”
She also commented on speeches by resistance leaders that showed the centrality of Al-Aqsa, saying, “Listen to them. The Temple Mount is the target. We must close it to them.”
Achieving sovereignty
Tel Aviv Tribune Net asked Abdullah Marouf, a specialist in Al-Aqsa Mosque affairs and professor of Jerusalem studies, about his explanation of the behavior of the Temple groups in Al-Aqsa since October 7, and he said, “These groups are a cornerstone of the current Netanyahu government, as they see that the current war… It is its war, and the government’s victory means its ability to build the temple and accelerate salvation and the coming of the Messiah.”
He added, “The Netanyahu government wants to prove, by facilitating the storming of settlers in military uniforms and restricting the entry of worshipers, that it is the one controlling Al-Aqsa, in response to calling the battle the Al-Aqsa flood, in its desire to prove its sovereignty and withdraw the image of victory from the resistance.”
Marouf explained that the Temple groups are trying to link their name to the Temple and turn the conflict into a religious conflict to mobilize support for extremist Jewish and Christian groups around the world who believe in the inevitability of building the Temple for the coming of the Messiah the Savior.
He continued, “The absence of a reaction to these violations at Al-Aqsa is a harbinger of the situation reaching undesirable stages, because these groups consider the absence of a reaction as divine signals of the necessity of progress and obtaining greater gains.”
The expert in Jerusalem affairs did not rule out unprecedented attacks that “can be avoided by giving this issue its true extent of action and appropriate reaction.”