AN UUCSA JUMU’AH MESSAGE

 

The recent closure of Masjid Al-Aqsa by Israeli occupation authorities represents a grave escalation and must be understood as part of a deliberate political and religious project aimed at consolidating Israeli control over Islamic holy sites in Al-Quds.

 

As detailed by Jerusalem affairs researcher Ziad Ibhais, within one hour of the American–Israeli aggression against Iran, Israeli authorities ordered the closure of the Ibrahimi Mosque in Al-Khalil under emergency directives from the Israeli Home Front Command. Less than an hour later, at approximately 11:30 a.m. on Saturday, 28 February 2026, Israeli police stormed Masjid al-Aqsa, expelled worshippers, and announced its closure until further notice, citing wartime “precautionary measures.”

 

This justification is deeply disingenuous. Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem lack public shelters and protective infrastructure, while nearly 46% of Palestinians living in the territories occupied in 1948 reportedly have no access to air-raid shelters. Preventing worshippers from entering Al-Aqsa while leaving them exposed in homes, markets, and streets cannot plausibly be framed as a measure for their protection. After the genocidal war in Gaza, any claim that such measures are motivated by concern for Palestinian safety rings hollow—indeed, to the point of laughability.

 

The closure must instead be viewed within the ideological framework guiding the current Israeli government and the broader Zionist right. Increasingly influenced by the movement of Religious Zionism, Israeli policy treats Al-Aqsa as the site of a future “Temple,” while the Ibrahimi Mosque is framed by the same movement as the “Cave of Machpelah.” This worldview promotes a now-accelerated process of religious replacement, seeking to displace the existing Islamic reality of these sacred spaces.

 

Imposing Israeli emergency regulations on these most significant masajid serves two strategic objectives. First, it attempts to entrench Israeli sovereignty over the sites by establishing that decisions to open or close them lie solely with the Israeli government, thereby marginalizing the Islamic authorities responsible for their administration—namely the Islamic Waqf in Al-Quds and the Palestinian Waqf in Hebron. Second, it deepens the isolation of these mosques from their worshippers, especially during the sacred month of Ramadan, testing the feasibility of controlling and closing them whenever political circumstances allow.

 

This closure does not occur in isolation. For more than a decade, Israeli authorities have steadily sought to seize the authority to regulate access to Al-Aqsa from the Waqf administration. Key precedents include the 2017 crisis surrounding the installation of electronic gates at the mosque’s entrances, the COVID-19 closures in 2020, and the unprecedented closure of Al-Aqsa during the twelve-day confrontation with Iran in June 2025. Each stage has gradually normalized Israeli control over decisions affecting the Masjid.

 

In the weeks preceding the current escalation, a series of measures signalled an intensification of pressure on Al-Aqsa. These included halting the entry of all supplies for worshippers and staff until the head of the Waqf Council appeared before occupation police, extending the daily settler incursions by an extra hour during Ramadan, renewed efforts at spatial division targeting Dar al-Hadith near Bab al-Rahma, bans on i‘tikāf during the first Friday and Saturday nights of Ramadan, proposals to place the Masjid under the Israeli rabbinate, and daily police patrols inside the masjid that harassed, searched, and intimidated worshippers.

 

Taken together, these developments point to a systematic policy aimed at reshaping the status of Al-Aqsa through four main avenues: controlling its administration, expanding the temporal division of prayer times, advancing spatial division within the compound, and entrenching permanent security domination over worshippers.

 

For these reasons, the closure of Al-Aqsa must be recognized for what it is: an act of war carried out through administrative and security measures.

 

As Kamal Khatib of the Islamic Movement in Palestine has warned:

 

“Whatever the rounds and arenas of this war may be—its beginnings, its endings, and even its very trigger—are tied to what is happening in the Palestinian arena in general, and in Masjid al-Aqsa in particular. Here lies the gateway to war, or the doorway to peace.”

 

Our eyes must remain unwaveringly fixed on Masjid al-Aqsa, with relentless focus and awareness, and we must urgently escalate both physical mobilisation and spiritual action, together with duʿāʾ, during this sacred climax of Ramadan. This belligerent closure will not—and cannot—be tolerated.

 

UUCSA commends South Africans who planned to travel to Al-Aqsa for ṣalāh and iʿtikāf—may Allah ﷻ still facilitate your journey and accept your intention, and recompense you for any losses. May He swiftly reopen the Masjid, filling it without restrictions, and grant the Ummah the blessing of ṣalāh in Al-Aqsa, free from occupation.

 

Released by:

 

The Sub-Committee on Palestine
United Ulama Council of South Africa

 

16 Ramadan 1447 / 06 March 2026