Moves to redraw authority inside Al Aqsa Mosque have accelerated in recent weeks, with measures that go far beyond crowd management or short-term restrictions. Long-established arrangements governing the site are being hollowed out through a steady pattern of interventions that curb religious activity, obstruct repairs and intrude into day-to-day administration. Taken together, these steps amount to a bid to normalise a new order within the compound, unfolding against the wider backdrop of a genocidal war that has reshaped power dynamics across the land.

Senior religious figures warn that the role of the Islamic endowment has been deliberately narrowed. Sheikh Ikrima Sabri says the cumulative effect is to isolate the mosque from its worshippers and from Jerusalem’s social fabric, using checkpoints, bans and repeated detentions of staff to create an atmosphere of intimidation. He argues that preventing maintenance and restoration work, traditionally the sole responsibility of the endowment, signals an intention to impose authority by default, undermining arrangements recognised for decades.

Researchers tracking developments at the site describe a shift from marginalisation to near erasure. Ziad Abuhayyis notes that religious and educational events have been blocked inside the Qibli prayer hall, setting precedents that were once unthinkable. He adds that limits placed on Ramadan practices last year illustrated a broader strategy: recasting the endowment as a symbolic presence while security forces act as the decisive power. Such changes, he warns, redefine sovereignty within the mosque and threaten to lock in irreversible realities.

Others say the pressure now extends to reshaping religious life itself. Hassan Khater argues that temporal and spatial divisions are being imposed, alongside the introduction of unfamiliar rituals and symbols, diluting the mosque’s exclusive character. He cautions that silence from regional and international bodies, including the Organization Of Islamic Cooperation and the Arab League, only emboldens further steps that could ignite far-reaching repercussions in Jerusalem.