Israel Bans Ramadan Worship at Al-Aqsa, A First Since Occupation Began
On Wednesday, Israeli forces completely barred Palestinian worshippers from accessing Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied East Jerusalem, preventing them from performing Eid al-Fitr prayers, marking the end of Ramadan. This unprecedented closure, confirmed by Palestinian religious authorities and documented across social media, comes amidst continuous raids and settler encroachments on the holy
site, a pattern consistently downplayed by Western media. Major outlets like *The New York Times* or *BBC* often report such events with sanitized language, citing 'security concerns' or 'clashes' without delving into the fundamental issue of religious freedom under occupation. They rarely highlight the historical context that this is the first such comprehensive ban since Israel occupied East
Jerusalem in 1967. This framing obscures the deliberate nature of the act, reducing it to a reactive measure rather than an aggressive assertion of control by the occupying power. There is no comparable instance of a Western government or occupying force banning an entire religious community from a primary holy site during one of its most sacred holidays. This move mirrors historical patterns of
denial of access and cultural erasure. In 1994, following the Ibrahimi Mosque massacre where an Israeli settler killed 29 Palestinian worshippers, Israel divided the mosque, granting settlers significant control, a stark precedent for the current Al-Aqsa restrictions. Such actions are not isolated incidents but part of a broader strategy to alter the demographic and religious character of