Another Gate

Imran Mulla writes:

British MP Shockat Adam was denied entry to Al-Aqsa Mosque through an Israel-controlled gate last week because he was Muslim, Middle East Eye has learnt.

MEE revealed last Friday that Adam, an independent MP for Leicester South, and Andrew George, Liberal Democrat MP for St Ives, arrived in Israel on 13 April and toured Hebron, Bethlehem, Tulkarm and East Jerusalem - areas recognised under international law and by the British government as being Palestinian territory under Israeli occupation.

Last Wednesday morning the delegation visited Al-Aqsa Mosque in East Jerusalem.

A witness to the scene told MEE last week that George and other members of the delegation entered the mosque compound through the Western Gate, which is controlled by Israel.

But Adam was identified as Muslim and denied entry.

On Wednesday, the parliamentarian confirmed he was "not allowed to enter".

"My colleagues were let through," Adam said. "[An Israeli officer] asked me my faith. I said I was a Muslim. He said I wasn't allowed through."

The mosque's Western Gate was previously connected to the Moroccan quarters of Jerusalem's Old City, which Israeli forces demolished in 1967 to build the Western Wall plaza.

The Western Wall is the last remnant of the supporting wall of the second Jewish temple, built by King Herod and destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD.

It is one of Judaism's most sacred sites, and Israeli authorities forbid Muslims from entering through the Western Gate.

Record number of settlers in Al-Aqsa

Last week during the Passover holiday over 6,000 Israeli settlers entered the courtyards to pray - a record number - in defiance of a delicate status quo governing worship and visits to the site.

Members of the delegation told MEE they witnessed Israeli settler groups enter the mosque complex under police protection, adding that there were few Palestinians inside the mosque.

Adam entered the mosque compound through another gate, controlled by the Jordanian Waqf.

"I went [to Al-Aqsa] four times," he said at a press briefing in London on Wednesday. "Every single time bar one there were always more Israeli settlers than there were Arabs in the compound.

"We saw dancing and singing. We were told the songs were celebrating the imminent building of the temple," Adam added.

For decades, Israel prohibited Jewish prayer at Al-Aqsa Mosque, one of the holiest sites in Islam, but ultranationalist settlers and several members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government oppose this stance and have increasingly allowed Jewish prayer there.

Adam said there were hundreds of settlers accompanied by armed Israeli soldiers in the mosque compound. Some of the settlers themselves were armed.

"It felt intimidatory."

He added that he "couldn't believe the level of animosity towards the Christian community" he witnessed among settlers, describing them spitting on Palestinian Christians.

The MPs also visited Masafer Yatta, south of Hebron in the southern West Bank, where they met members of the local Palestinian community and witnessed Israeli settlers attacking Palestinians. 

Members of the delegation told MEE that armed settlers and security forces confronted them while they were witnessing how Bedouin farmers were denied access to their land, before backing off when they found out there were British parliamentarians in the group.

'Colonisers'

In Hebron, they said security forces raised their assault rifles as the delegation's vehicle attempted to pass a checkpoint.

Adam said he came to believe during the trip that settlers could more accurately be labelled "colonisers".

"We saw first hand aggressive Israeli colonisers. It was absolutely shocking," he said.

"Many of these Israeli colonisers or settlers not only work with the protection of armed police, they work in collaboration with armed police."

Adam described visiting a man in Hebron who told the delegation he had been tortured and sexually abused when detained by Israeli forces after the 7 October 2023 Hamas attack. His house was surrounded by houses taken over by settlers.

"While we were sitting with him two colonisers came and said, 'you might as well give us this house or we will take it anyway'.

"We asked why. He said, 'God gave it to us'."

Liberal Democrat MP George said he was hopeful Palestinians and Israelis could "coexist". But he noted that the delegation met many Israeli and Palestinian campaigners who believed a two-state solution was unviable.

"I floated a two-stage solution where they'll be no resolution to the conflict until the state of segregation and discrimination is dismantled," he said, so then "full democracy" can be established with "votes for all".

This January, Israel launched a military operation called Operation Iron Wall with the aim of tightening its grip on resistance strongholds in the occupied West Bank.

The UN says the operation has seen at least 40,000 Palestinians forced from their homes. In the Tulkarm governorate in the north-west, the MPs met Palestinian families displaced from their homes by the military.

The delegation also visited Ramallah, where they met Palestinian political and human rights figures, including Mustafa Barghouti, general secretary of the Palestinian National Initiative.

Earlier this month, Labour MPs Abtisam Mohamed and Yuan Yang were refused entry by Israeli authorities to the occupied Palestinian territories on the grounds that they intended to "spread hate speech".

Adam said he believed the British Foreign Office likely contacted the Israeli government in advance of their visit, securing their entry into Israel.