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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Conflict Management at the Temple Mount/Al-Aqsa Compound: Lessons From Recent Crises
Yitzhak Reiter, Megan Selway
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DOI:10.17265/2159-550X/2026.07.001
Al-Qasemi College, Baqa-El-Gharbia, Israel; Reichman University, Herzliya, Israel
Unrest at Jerusalem’s Holy Compound often manifests widely throughout the country and region. When Israel gained control of the sacred site during the 1967 war, Israel agreed to limit Jewish worship at the Temple Mount while Jordan administered Al-Aqsa, the third most holy site for Sunni Muslims. Known as the Status Quo, this arrangement has steadily eroded in the past 15 years. This paper analyzes the series of crises from 2014 to 2023 and identifies the pattern: Domestic Israeli pressure results in an ever-increasing number of Jewish worshippers to ascend the Temple Mount; Muslims interpret this as a desire to Judaize or divide the sacred site. Israeli police forces—along with a weakened Jordan—manage resulting violence, often with diplomatic rows and occasionally with United States intervention. This repeating cycle evinces Israel’s ineffective conflict management and predicts future disputes. Hamas named its October 7, 2023, military offensive on southern Israel “Operation Al-Aqsa Flood”. Constructing a narrative of Israel’s intention to usurp the Muslim holy space, Hamas seeks to mobilize both domestic Palestinian and global Islamic support for its actions.
Al-Aqsa Mosque, Temple Mount, conflict management, status quo, Israeli-Palestinian conflict, sacred sites, religious identity
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