Tense times at Jerusalem holy site

By Martin Asser BBC News Online in Jerusalem

The compound is holy to Muslims and Jews

Al-Aqsa Mosque is back on the political agenda, having been largely out of sight during the three-year Palestinian uprising named after it - the al-Aqsa Intifada.

The Israeli authorities have begun allowing non-Muslims to enter the mosque compound for the first time since the intifada broke out in September, 2000.

Israeli security forces control the gates to the compound - but inside is under the authority of the Islamic Waqf, or religious trust, which has taken a stand against the decision to let non-Muslims in.

"We don't permit it, but it is not in our hands," says Shaikh Khalil al-Alami, head of the al-Aqsa guards unit.

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Shaikh Khalil says, in the current circumstances, al-Aqsa should not be a place for tourists, not when Palestinians living just a few kilometres away are prevented from using it for prayer because of Israel's security clampdown.

Buildings under Waqf control, therefore, remain closed to non-Muslims, including the al-Aqsa building itself and the Dome of the Rock shrine with its distinctive golden dome.

Visits began in July, but were quickly suspended because of tensions with local Muslims. They recommenced on 20 August with breaks on Fridays and Saturdays.

Foreign tourists

This time, most Muslims seem relatively tolerant towards the few foreign tourists who enter the compound take a few photos and go away again.

Their concerns focus on the Israelis who to come to walk around a place revered by Jews as the Temple Mount, housing Judaism's Holy of Holies in ancient times and the site where believers say the new Temple will be erected when the Messiah comes.

Some Jewish groups advocate the rebuilding of the Temple now, fuelling Muslim fears about the future security of the third holiest shrine in Islam.

The gate for non-Muslim visitors - the Gate of the Moroccans - opens at about 0700 and closes at 1130 before most Muslims start arriving for noon prayers.

Some Israelis want to assert Judaism's links with the compound

Visitors pass through a metal detector and their bags are searched near the entrance to the Western Wall, at the foot of a badly eroded path that leads up to the Moroccans' gate. Foreigners are sent straight through - no questions asked.

As I have written before, on a previous visit, it is a stunningly beautiful location. Sunday morning is even more atmospheric, as the bells from the nearby Church of the Holy Sepulchre ring out over the otherwise peaceful Old City.

More than a dozen Israeli police and border police are scattered around the compound in strategic positions awaiting the first Jewish visitors.

At about 0800 two men in ultra-Orthodox clothes, a woman and two children enter by the gate, prompting a flurry of activity among mosque guards.

Tight security

Three civilian guards take up positions around the visitors, maintaining a triangular formation as they escort them past the facade of the al-Aqsa Mosque - whose doors have been hurriedly closed.

They are joined by three Israeli police as the procession turns north and circumambulates the elevated plateau on which the Dome of the Rock is built, before returning to the gate.

Police escort the Jewish visitors

A policeman with a video camera films the whole thing. It takes about 15 minutes.

Another group arrives shortly afterwards, two men and several boys, some dressed in the shabby fashion of the "hilltop youth" activists who build settlement outposts in the West Bank.

After their circumambulation, the "hilltop youths" then go round again in a larger group, led by a Hebrew-speaking tour guide.

Ban on prayer

In all, about 40 Israelis show up between 0800 and 1000. A few are conventional tourists (posing for pictures in front of the spectacular Islamic monuments), but most have clearly come to assert Judaism's links with this place, talking to no-one and barely looking right or left as they progress round the compound.

One man is escorted out of the Moroccans' gate by two policemen, for reasons that are not immediately apparent.

Perhaps he had broken the strict police ban on any of the Jewish visitors praying while they are in the Muslim compound.

The situation in the compound appears delicately balanced

Palestinians inside the mosque say they feel provoked by the mere fact of a non-Muslim presence, but the establishment of non-Islamic religious practices would be the last straw, they say.

"We're angry, but the strong are in control," says one young bearded man in Islamic dress in a group that watches impassively as the Israelis pass.

"They have guns and soldiers and police. But there is One who is stronger. Allah."

The young Muslims begin recounting the familiar litany of Palestinian grievances against Israel, including the apparent double standard that allows someone from the UK to enter al-Aqsa, while someone who lives 100 metres away is kept out of Friday prayers because he is under 40.

"But we won't resort to violence," says the spokesman of the group. "That is what the Israelis are waiting for."

Soon afterwards our discussion is broken up by some of the Israeli police who have peeled off from the tour group and demand to see the young men's identity papers.

For now, the situation in the compound appears delicately balanced - with Muslims watching defensively as the Jews make their symbolic assertions of faith and sovereignty under tight police control.

The problem is that history here is full of events which can easily upset the balance.