Al-Aqsa and the Holy Sepulchre: How has Israel undermined the Status Quo?

The Old City in occupied East Jerusalem is home to some of the world’s most important religious sites for Muslims, Christians and Jews.

For decades, an internationally recognised arrangement known as the Status Quo has governed access and control.

Since Israel’s illegal occupation of East Jerusalem in 1967, however, successive governments have increasingly undermined these arrangements, fuelling tensions and violence.

Al-Aqsa Mosque, one of the holiest sites in Islam, is at the heart of Israeli violations. For years, Israel has imposed repeated restrictions on Muslim access while enabling a growing Jewish presence.

Violations are highlighted when Muslim and Jewish festivals overlap, and Israeli forces often violently remove Palestinian worshippers to allow Israelis in. 

In February, Israel closed Al-Aqsa Mosque entirely, citing the war with Iran, drawing criticism from Muslim nations. The prolonged shutdown, including during Ramadan and Eid al-Fitr, was the first of its kind since 1967.

Although Israel also prevented Israelis from accessing the site during this period, there are concerns that settlers may be allowed to storm Al-Aqsa and perform rituals to mark Passover (1-9 April) as they did in 2025.

Israel has also closed the 4th-century Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem’s Old City and banned attendance ahead of Easter (5 April) for the first time in centuries. The church is the holiest site in Christianity and where, according to Christian belief, Jesus was crucified and resurrected.

What are the arrangements for religious sites?

Historically, the Status Quo has served as the default set of rules governing access to and maintenance of major holy sites shared by different religions and denominations.

It dates back to a firman - a decree issued in 1757 by the Ottoman Sultan Osman III - in response to disputes between Christian groups.

The decree effectively froze ownership and responsibilities at key sites, preserving arrangements “as they were” to prevent further conflict.

The decree was reaffirmed in 1852 and 1853, when disagreements between the Greek Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches played a role in sparking the Crimean War between Russia and France and its allies.

The Status Quo was then codified by the Treaty of Berlin, signed between European powers and the Ottoman Empire in 1878, and expanded to cover holy sites across Jerusalem. It established that “no alteration can be made to the status quo in the holy places”.

Today, the Status Quo is widely regarded as a binding international framework governing religious sites in the city.

What are the Status Quo rules at Al-Aqsa Mosque?

Al-Aqsa Mosque is the third-holiest site in Islam, after the holy mosques in Mecca and Medina.

It is a 14-hectare complex in Jerusalem’s Old City. It includes the Dome of the Rock, built in the 7th century, the al-Qibli Mosque, and a network of courtyards and shrines above and below ground.

The site also contains the Foundation Stone, from where Muslims believe the Prophet Muhammad ascended to heaven during the night journey from Mecca.

The complex stands on a plateau believed by Jews to be the site of the First Temple, which existed between the 10th and 6th century BCE; and the subsequent Second Temple, destroyed by the Romans in 70 BCE.

For Jews, it is the holiest of holies. Many Orthodox Jews believe that rebuilding a Third Temple will presage the coming of the Messiah and redemption.

The Western Wall - part of the complex's outer structure and known to Muslims as the al-Buraq Wall - is the holiest prayer site in Judaism.

The site is also significant for Christians as a location in the Old Testament.

For decades, the Al-Aqsa Mosque has been recognised under the Status Quo as an exclusively Muslim site, including the Western Wall. The Muslim ownership of the site was also recognised by the British Mandate in 1930. 

The arrangement gives Muslim authorities control over access, worship, maintenance and excavations within the complex. 

Who controls the site today?

After the fall of the Ottoman Empire, Jerusalem came under British rule in 1923. The Supreme Muslim Council oversaw Al-Aqsa through the Jerusalem Islamic Waqf, a religious endowment.

In 1924, the council asked King Hussein bin Ali of the Hashemites to assume custodianship of the site. The Hashemites funded restoration work and were widely seen as legitimate guardians in the post-Ottoman period.

Today, the site remains administered by the Jerusalem Islamic Waqf under the custodianship of the king of Jordan.

In 1967, Israel occupied East Jerusalem during the Arab-Israeli war. Within hours of reaching the Western Wall, Israeli forces demolished the Moroccan Quarter next to it in order to create a prayer plaza, widely seen as the first major breach of the Status Quo.

Israel’s control of East Jerusalem, including the Old City, is widely regarded as a violation of international law, which holds that an occupying power has no sovereignty over the territory it occupies and must not make permanent changes there.

Since then, Israel has controlled security and access to the site, while the Waqf has continued to manage internal religious affairs.

Under the 1994 peace treaty with Jordan, Israel recognised Amman’s custodianship of holy sites in Jerusalem - a position long supported by the international community.

However, Israel has continued to undermine the Status Quo, particularly since the Second Intifada (2000–2005).

This has included limiting the Waqf’s authority over access and allowing near-daily incursions by Israeli settlers under police protection. These raids are carried out without Waqf approval. 

In recent years, Israeli authorities have also permitted Jewish prayer and rituals inside the complex during these raids in a significant departure from long-standing arrangements.

Israel has also restricted the Waqf’s role in maintaining the site, while carrying out excavation work beneath the complex for years.

What incidents have there been at Al-Aqsa Mosque?

Since 1967 there have been numerous attempts to destroy Al-Aqsa, including an arson attack in 1969 by an Australian and a plot to blow it up in the 1980s by Jewish extremists.

Jewish groups have also tried to extend raid times and expand areas to pray in, increasingly with the support of Israeli political leaders and the backing of Israeli forces. 

The repeated Israeli violations have been met by Palestinian popular and armed resistance. 

In 1990, 21 Palestinians were killed by Israeli police protesting against Jewish extremists trying to install a stone for a new temple within the complex.

Six years later, 74 Palestinians and 16 Israeli soldiers died during protests against the opening of a tunnel approved by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during his first term.

In September 2000, Ariel Sharon, Israeli leader of the right-wing Likud party, raided Al-Aqsa, accompanied by Israeli forces.

Protests against the raid escalated into the Second Intifada, which lasted more than five years, resulting in the deaths of an estimated 3,000 Palestinians and 1,000 Israelis.

In 2021, Israeli riot police stormed the site amid a protest by Palestinians residents of Jerusalem against planned evictions in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood of Jerusalem. 

Hamas cited these last violations as one of the reasons for leading an attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, which it called the "Flood of Al-Aqsa".

What about this year?

Since 2023, the number of attempts by Israeli settlers, far-right activists and politicians to pray at Al-Aqsa has increased, often accompanied by armed Israeli police.

Itamar Ben Gvir, the far-right Israeli national security minister, has regularly prayed at Al-Aqsa.

When he did so in January, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu backed him. “The changes Ben-Gvir is making are not changing the Status Quo, and it is in coordination with me. I decide on the policy,” the prime minister said at the time,

The site has also been frequented by the Temple Mount Faithful, an extremist Orthodox Jewish movement that aims to destroy the Dome of the Rock and build the Third Temple. 

Meanwhile, the Israeli Knesset is currently debating a bill, sponsored by far-right lawmaker Avi Maoz, that will give Jerusalem’s chief rabbis full authority over prayer arrangements at the Western Wall, drawing criticism from other Jewish groups.

What about tension at other sites?

Tension at Al-Aqsa often draws most attention - but other sites have also attracted conflict.

In Bethlehem, Rachel’s Tomb, known as the Bilal bin Rabah Mosque to Muslims, is administered by the Israeli Ministry of Religious Affairs. 

Access to the site is controlled by checkpoints and largely restricted to Jews and tourists. But it has seen frequent clashes amid ongoing restrictions on Muslim use.

In 2010, Unesco, the UN body in charge of culture, education and science, said that Rachel’s Tomb was “an integral part of the occupied Palestinian territories", along with the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron. 

This sparked a row with Israel, which said that Rachel’s Tomb “was never a mosque”. It pulled funding from Unesco in 2018. 

Other contested holy sites covered by different agreements have also seen an increase in access restrictions and settler incursions since October 2023.

They include the Ibrahimi Mosque, where Israel seized municipal control of the building in December 2025.

In 1994 lone gunman Baruch Goldstein killed 29 Palestinians who were worshipping at the mosque during Ramadan. When it reopened, the prayer hall was formally partitioned on the recommendations of an Israeli-led commission, with two-thirds of the space reserved for Jews and the remaining third for Muslims. 

Which sites are covered under the 1949 Status Quo?

After the creation of Israel in 1948, a United Nations Conciliation Committee codified the 1878 Status Quo regarding Christian sites, listing nine sites in Jerusalem and Bethlehem.

In Jerusalem, the sites are concentrated in the Old City (the Tomb of the Virgin Mary and the Chapel of the Ascension are outside the walls to the east). The other sites are in Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank.

Jerusalem

- The Church of the Holy Sepulchre

- Deir es-Sultan

- The Tomb of the Virgin Mary 

- The Western Wall/al-Buraq Wall

- Rachel’s Tomb/Bilal bin Rabah Mosque

- Chapel of the Ascension/Zawiyat al-Adawiya

Bethlehem

- The Church of the Nativity

- The Chapel of the Milk Grotto

- The Chapel of the Shepherd’s Field

What about churches?

At certain Christian churches that fall under the Status Quo, access is shared between the Greek Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Armenian Apostolic, Ethiopian Orthodox, Syriac Orthodox and Coptic Orthodox denominations.

In 2018, the Greek Orthodox, Armenian and Catholic Churches that run the Holy Sepulchre temporarily closed the site, protesting against a bill that would allow Israel greater powers over church lands.

There have also been interdenominational clashes.

At the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, a fistfight broke out between Ethiopian and Coptic clergy in 2002 when one monk moved his chair into the shade. In the resulting brawl, 11 people were hospitalised.

Repeated fights broke out at the church in 2008, including on Palm Sunday, among followers of the Greek and Armenian denominations.

The same groups fought at Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity months earlier in a dispute over who could clean which part of the site, which is revered as the birthplace of Jesus.

One feature of the Holy Sepulchre is the Immovable Ladder, a wooden ladder leaning against a window that, under the Status Quo, is not allowed to be moved or altered since it was first placed there three centuries ago.

Other immovable objects at Status Quo sites include the vessels at the Tomb of the Virgin Mary, believed to be the resting place of Jesus’ mother.

The tomb includes a qibla, a niche in a wall used by Muslims to indicate the direction of Mecca, that included two vessels for washing. The niche is no longer used but the vessels remain.