Ramadan For The Palestinians.

Jerusalem; March 2026: Zaid Ibhais, researcher on Jerusalem affairs, says the Israeli occupation is advancing a gradual agenda aimed at transforming Al-Aqsa Mosque from an exclusively Islamic holy site into a shared Jewish-Islamic space, as part of a longer-term plan to strip it of its Islamic identity and redefine it as a purely Jewish sacred site. He explains that closures, restrictions, and repeated storming during Ramadan reflect an escalating policy designed to impose new realities on the ground.

According to Ibhais, Ramadan has increasingly turned into a season of confrontation since 2014, frequently overlapping with Israeli religious and political events. He argues the occupation now treats the holy month as a strategic testing period to push forward this agenda, expand incursions, and normalize gradual changes to the status of Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Sacrifice, the Temple, and Using Rituals as a Colonial Tool in Zionist Ideology –

Zaid Ibhais explained that temple groups are advancing a gradual agenda focused on reviving sacrificial rituals as a means to alter the reality of Al-Aqsa Mosque. He highlighted that repeated attempts to carry out these sacrifices around, and increasingly inside, the mosque reflects a broader ideological plan aimed at normalizing a new religious narrative connected to the concept of the Temple.

Ibhais stresses that these actions are not just religious practices but a deliberate use of rituals as a colonial tool, designed to impose symbolic and political changes and gradually reshape the identity of this sacred space.

How Genocide Is Used as a Weapon of Terror Against Palestinians –

Zaid Ibhais explained that the current strategy in Jerusalem relies on fear and the threat of genocide to suppress popular and Arab resistance. He asserted that the occupiers use fear, threats of genocide, and structural control over Al-Aqsa to suppress Arab and Palestinian resistance.

While official Arab institutions remain largely silent and paralysed, popular resistance in Gaza, Lebanon, and Al-Aqsa continues. The occupiers’ agenda seeks to transform Al-Aqsa’s identity, imposing a parallel Jewish presence and undermining its Islamic character.

Al-Aqsa is central to the struggle, its control symbolizes the survival of Palestinian resistance, while its loss would leave the broader cause highly vulnerable.

What did Palestinians Experience during Ramadan?

Zaid Ibhais said that with the beginning of Ramadan, in the first ten days that preceded the war on Iran, the occupation did not leave the main issue related to attempts to change the identity of the mosque.

The first issue it opened was the administration of the mosque, as it requested-actually tried-that, by order of the head of the Islamic Waqf (Endowments) Council in Jerusalem to be represented before the occupation police. Of course, this did not happen; the representative refused to appear before the police.

In response, the occupation prevented everything that facilitates basic needs for worshippers such as bringing in iftar meals for those arriving, and later allowing suhoor for the Waqf staff and also things like bringing in necessary coverings (like tents) at this time of year to protect from wind, cold, and rain, as well as allowing entry for medical/ambulance teams and equipment to serve Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Consequently, everything related to facilitating prayer became subject to its administration and it also worked to cut off communication with the Islamic Waqf in a way that makes it appear as though the Waqf is managing the prayer, while in reality restricting all possible facilitation for those coming to the mosque.

Suvro Sanyal; Team Maverick.