Prayers through the checkpoints

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1:10We are going to the Abrahamic mosque to pray the Friday prayer. And we have a lot of restriction here, Israeli restriction to reach the Abrahamic mosque. And you can see the mosque from your house. How many checkpoints have you had to go through just to meet me here?

1:35How many metres do you live from the mosque? How long would it take for you to travel that 100 metres? Maybe one minute and maybe two hours. It depends on the checkpoint and the soldier and the mind of the soldier in the checkpoint. So it can take you two hours sometimes to go 100 metres. Really it takes more than if the mind of the soldier in the checkpoint is not good. Hebron's old city is now a labyrinth of Israeli checkpoints. and a complicated network of various barriers. Many Palestinians here feel surrounded by razor wire and a dense web of surveillance cameras. You can see them on many street corners.

2:30You're listening to the documentary on the BBC World Service. I'm Emily Wither, and for heart and soul, I've come to the occupied West Bank, where Palestinian worshippers say visiting their mosques has become harder since increased Israeli security following October 7, 2023. That day, 1 ,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage by Hamas, which is regarded as a terrorist group by many countries. The Israeli military insists extra security is needed to keep their population safe, but many Palestinians we spoke to argue the measures amount to collective punishment. We're with a Muslim worshipper in Hebron.

3:13He's too afraid to give his name for fear of Israeli repercussions. He grew up in the old city and is used to checkpoints. Jewish settlers also live right in the heart of Hebron, the second largest Palestinian city in the West Bank. But in the last two years, Israeli forces imposed a new system, and residents say they feel more restricted than ever and that their neighborhoods are increasingly fragmented.

3:40So we're just going through a metal detector in a metal turnstile. It's one in, one out. There are surveillance cameras everywhere. And this is what you have to do before you even reach the checkpoint, where the Israeli soldiers will check exactly who is trying to come to Friday Paris. Every day they make a restriction for players to enter, and the Palestinians try to return from this restriction and they are waiting for two hours or more than two hours and they try or choose to return from here to another mosque to break outside this area. Do a lot less people now try and come to the mosque because of the extra restrictions?

4:29Me and me, yes. 100 % they are less than. And before 7th October, they have a lot of people come here to breathe. But now they cannot reach the Abraham mosque freely.

4:44It is noticeably quiet here, especially considering it's Friday when Muslim communities tend to come together in worship. Locals tell us this is the new normal, that people are afraid or simply finding it hard to physically get here. The UN's Human Rights Office, OCHA, found the Israelis have now set up over 800 barriers in the West Bank, such as roadblocks and checkpoints, which it says severely restricts Palestinian movement and is a steep increase in the last two years, and more keep appearing. In the first two weeks of September, the UN recorded Israeli forces installed five new road gates in the Hebron area.

5:27The IDF told us their goal is to provide security for all residents and in accordance with situational assessments Therefore, there are dynamic checkpoints and efforts to monitor movements in various areas We sit down with our worshipper and he switches to Arabic He wasn't sure if we'd even meet today and he says inviting us round to his house is impossible because it's now surrounded by more Israeli checkpoints Every day gets worse. When we talked a few days ago, the situation was much better. They have now installed gates in between the gates. They have installed internal gates on the street, so it is now segregated.

6:10I can't go to my brother who lives 50 meters away, nor can he come to me. In normal days, he needed a pass to come and visit me. Imagine that in the past two years, not one of my relatives could come and visit me, even with a security permit. Impossible. He lives in an area called H2, the 20 % of Hebron that's under direct Israeli military control. It's home to around 33 ,000 Palestinians and over 700 Jewish settlers. We should add here that settlements are illegal under international law. Israel disagrees. Since July, Ocha found freedom of movement in Hebron for some Palestinians has been restricted even further.

6:54They say roads and Israeli-controlled checkpoints can be closed at a moment's notice, and the closures prevent some families from reaching their home. This system has also restricted access to key sites, including the Ibrahimi Mosque.

7:11When I'm in my bedroom in particular, my window face is a mosque. However, to actually reach it in the present circumstances is almost impossible. I would not be exaggerating if I say that praying at the mosque once a day, if we're permitted, is an endeavor I have to think twice about it. I have to think how I'm going to return home after I reach the mosque, because I could reach the mosque and not be able to return home. So you can understand the difficulties. If I drew a circle and placed my house in the middle of it, there would be 17 military checkpoints around my home. I asked him if he understood why the Israelis felt they needed extra security after October 7th, and he said the strictness of the closures has no clear justification.

8:05The man we're talking to lives with his wife and children, metres away from one of the West Bank's most contested and holiest places the Tomb of the Patriarchs known to Muslims as Ibrahimi Mosque it's revered by Jews, Muslims and Christians as Abraham, Isaac and Jacob's burial place to get inside there are separate entrances to different areas for Jewish and Muslim worship and an uneasy understanding exists between the two communities that share and love this ancient shrine How important of a place is it to you and to your faith? I want to tell you something. Imagine you were born in an area where the mosque opposite you or the temple opposite you is the symbol of your life.

8:52In Hebron society, people were jealous of us living in this neighborhood because we were neighbors to a holy place. Now, a Hebron resident in another area has easier access to the mosque. The holy place for me is an essential symbol tied to my soul. Normally Muslims should pray five times a day. However, in the present situation, if I can manage to pray once a day, it's a historic achievement for me. Have you ever seen the restrictions here so tough?

9:25What changed is that the whole scene is now different. Although visiting the mosque was difficult before October 7, It is now considered a dream. Not only are we suffering from excessive security measures, but the situation has become impossible. How has your faith given you strength through all of this? My faith is the only thing that is giving me patience to face these measures. I see myself as defending my right to exist on my land, opposite a significant religious edifice. And this belief has to do with our faith as Muslims. because we know that this land is ours and that we should look after it, despite all the measures taken by the Israelis against us.

10:12But this only makes me more insistent on being here and on holding on to my faith.

10:22It's also an important religious symbol for Jews. Here, worshippers celebrate a Jewish holiday in the largest section of the Tomb of the Patriarchs. For many settlers, living in Hebron is a way of claiming a physical connection to biblical history. They see it as the cradle of Jewish presence in the land, and settlers now sit in the heart of the Israeli government. They believe the land was promised to them by God. Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gavir lives nearby in Kiryat Arba, an Israeli settlement on the outskirts of Hebron. The Cave of the Patriarchs, or Ibrahimi Mosque, has historically been managed by the Waqf, a Muslim religious trust, along with the Palestinian Authority.

11:07But this year, Israeli authorities announced they were transferring administrative control to a settler-linked religious council and Israel's civil military administration. They say it's in order to carry out renovations and building work, roofing the sites in a courtyard. Israeli human rights groups warn it's a breach of the status quo, while Waqf official and manager of the Ibrahimi Mosque, Sheikh Motaz Abu Sneina, told us the same.

11:37So he's reaffirming the right of Palestinians to preserve the Ibrahimi Mosque and saying that Israel is attacking not only the historic status quo of the Ibrahimi Mosque, but also the demographic around it, trying to change it by emptying it, and trying to change the way it looks. More and more Israeli flags are up. They put menorah on the top of the Ibrahimi mosque. They're tampering with the electricity, tampering with the water. They're trying in every way possible to change the status quo, the right of Palestinians to the place and the general atmosphere. How often are you able to talk to the Israelis about some of the issues that you're facing?

12:31Because you both want to be at the site. Are you able to meet and talk through some of the tensions? He's saying that despite attempts by the Palestinian Waqf to have minimal understanding with the occupation forces, the Israeli side, over holidays, Jewish holidays, Muslim holidays, preserving the right for worship for Palestinians, protecting the safety of Palestinian worshippers. The Israeli side is only using force. They're not listening. They're not cooperating. This is the reality. We have total control of the Ibrahimovic. I asked Yishai Fleischer, the spokesperson for the Jewish community of Hebron, if they were trying to alter the status quo.

13:25The main reason that control has been lifted from the tomb of the patriarchs and matriarchs is because the WACF slash PA just don't get the stuff done. They leave everything incredibly disheveled, dirty and bad. We also need the place covered. They slow that down. And in general, they don't take care of the tombs themselves. They keep them in despicable shape for simple reasons of maintenance and of a sense that they keep it dirty on purpose so that it could be repressive against the Jews. So that is the main reason why we're reasserting control. And this is after years of trying to work with them.

14:00And therefore, the Israeli government, Israeli military, the civil administration have all demanded that they release their grip. The vision for the complex is such that it's going to become a world heritage site. the kind that everybody around the world is going to connect with. It is the seat of the Abrahamic tradition. It is the thing that's supposed to connect people who see themselves as walking in the path of Abraham. So Christians, Muslims and Jews. The Israeli military told us the Cave of the Patriarchs is open to all residents except in specific circumstances and that the status quo is fully maintained and close coordination between the IDF and the WACF officials is ongoing at the site.

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16:28You're listening to Heart and Soul on the BBC World Service with me, Emily Wither. We've now travelled to occupied East Jerusalem to the Old City. For Muslims, it's home to the third most important site in Islam, the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, or Haram al-Sharif, known to Jews as the Temple Mount. Muslims believe it was where the Prophet Muhammad ascended to heaven. While for Jews, the site is their holiest place, because it was the location of two biblical temples. Jews are allowed to visit but not pray there. As you're about to hear, Palestinians say they're finding it harder to access this site too.

17:07And in recent years, the Israeli government and police have allowed Temple Mount activists, along with their representatives in government, to pray on the compound. and some Palestinians and Israeli human rights groups look to Hebron. They say they fear Israel will one day replicate the Cave of the Patriarch's model at the Temple Mount, allowing Jewish prayer and dividing access by physical space or time.

17:37We've just come in from the bustling alleyways of the old city through an arched doorway into a very quiet courtyard. It's like we've left all of the busyness of the streets behind us. And we've come up some stairs and there is a perfect view of the Dome of the Rock, the Golden Dome glistening in the sunshine. And it's framed by air conditioning units, washing, hanging up and satellite dishes for TVs. We're here to meet a woman in her 40s. She grew up in the old city and now works as a supervisor in the women's section at the Al-Aqsa Mosque. She has a breathtaking view of the site from her home.

18:20She didn't want to give her name as she too is fearful of Israeli repercussions. Over strong coffee and homemade date cookies, she tells us how access to the site has changed.

18:34She says that she for sure notices the difference in the last couple of years since the Gaza war started. It's evident to anyone from inside the old city and outside it, from Jerusalem in general and the visitors, that the restrictions have multiplied. And not only the gates leading to Al-Aqsa compound. It's the whole old city. You have random shutdowns, you have random restrictions based on nothing other than the mood of the Israelis. She says it's evident to everyone that the numbers are much, much less in the last couple of years than before. And the whole atmosphere has changed. It's quieter and sadder.

19:24How has that made you feel?

19:30She's describing the feeling as if the Eid or Christmas arrives and your loved ones unable to visit you. It's a very hard feeling to look at Al-Aqsa and see it empty, more empty by the day. She studied special education for kids and she has a special kind of love for children. she used to have them around her, running around, singing, playing. And on Eid, she would prepare boxes of gifts, little gifts, maybe sweets, something simple to give out. Now, it's not only that there are not enough kids to give gifts to, it's also if she prepares something as simple as that, the Israelis stop her and forbid her and ask her a question about what's the goal of that?

20:28Why are you taking that? Who are you giving this to? I can see it's really, really upset you. Do we have a tissue? I do. I do. She's saying that it breaks her heart to remember how when she was a child growing up in the old city of Jerusalem, she used to play and run around Al-Aqsa compound freely. Today she can't even find children who play and come and worship with their families. She also remembers growing up with her grandparents and cousins and extended family. They used to meet and eat and hang out in the yards of Al-Aqsa Mosque. Today the yards are almost empty. What does it mean to you personally to work at this holy site?

21:29She says that it means a lot to her. It's not one thing that she can pin down. But at the end of the day, when she thinks about it, God selected her to do this work, and she sees it as a great honor. She gets to be in service of Al-Aqsa mask, while many Muslims, most Muslims from around the world cannot even visit it as a holy site. Last year she was given a restriction order banning her from the site for 15 days. Palestinian officials say Israeli police issue these routinely for the Al-Aqsa Temple Mount compound and the wider old city. According to data from the Jerusalem Palestinian Governorate, in 2023 there were 740 orders issued.

22:20They say banning orders have dropped significantly in the last two years, but that's because worshippers are being restricted in other ways. She's looking for the restriction order that the Israelis gave her.

22:35Do you know why you were given the restraining order? It's not listed in the document. it's all based on false claims and nonsense the border police man who was at the gate she was coming back after prayer with her son who was 10 years old at the time they were crossing back from al-Aqsa mosque to go to their house and he stopped her and was trying to prevent her from entering. She argued back that she's not doing anything against the law. She was just at prayer that she can see her house from where he stopped her and asked him to let her go. He refused and later argued that she wasted his time arguing back.

23:24But why were you given a restraining order for Al-Aqsa when this happened on the streets of the old city. She's saying the Israelis know that our souls are connected to Al-Aqsa Mosque. And as residents of the old city of Jerusalem, we have this in common. So if you do anything as a punishment, they know where to punish us hard. It's to forbid us from going to pray at Al-Aqsa Mosque. She says that they control everything and on a daily basis they change the rules without prior announcement, without consulting with anyone. So she might go to the gate that she entered through yesterday or earlier today and they tell her suddenly you can't enter because we limited the age group or limited for women or men only.

24:21We asked the Israeli police about these banning orders and increased restrictions. They declined to comment. The woman you've been hearing from also told us Jewish settlers praying on the compound became a normal day-to-day event. She said they can't do anything but sit and watch. Under the long-standing arrangements here, Jewish prayer on the mount was not permitted. Jordan is custodian of the site, while the Waqf, the Islamic Trust, runs it. Israel is in control of security and access. We spoke to Islamic scholar Mustafa Abishway. He's on the Islamic Waqf Council. I started by asking what he thinks has changed at the compound.