OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)
Palestinian warnings are mounting over a new escalation at Aqsa Mosque, coinciding with the Jewish holiday of Shavuot, amid expectations of attempts to impose Talmudic rituals inside the Mosque compound as settler incursions intensify and efforts continue to alter the Mosque’s identity and historic administration.
Jerusalem affairs researcher Ziyad Ibhais warned in a Facebook post of expected incursions during the holiday of “Shavuot,” also known as the “Festival of Weeks,” which falls on Friday, May 22, even though settler incursions into Aqsa do not usually take place on Fridays.
Ibhais predicted a “compensatory raid” on Thursday, alongside attempts to introduce “plant and animal offerings,” even if only through smuggling pieces of freshly slaughtered animals into the Mosque compound. He also warned of renewed attempts to storm the Mosque on Friday with larger numbers of settlers.
Shavuot, also referred to as the “Festival of the Giving of the Torah” or the “Harvest Festival,” commemorates, according to Jewish tradition, the revelation of the Torah and the beginning of the harvest season.
The holiday is called the “Festival of Weeks” because it comes seven weeks after Passover, although the Torah itself does not specify a fixed date for it. In Zionist ideology, it has increasingly been associated with the concept of the “return of the people of Israel” to what is described as their “homeland.”
The occasion gained greater significance with the expansion of the Zionist settlement project and the establishment of agricultural kibbutzim due to its connection with farming and harvest traditions.
Shavuot is also considered the only Jewish holiday without an official work prohibition because of its agricultural character. Rituals associated with it include eating bread dipped in wine, consuming dairy and honey products, staying awake to read the Torah, decorating homes and synagogues with greenery, and in some communities, pouring water as a symbol of “the source of life.”
Unprecedented rise in settler incursions
According to statistics from the Islamic Waqf Department, approximately 985 settlers stormed Aqsa Mosque during Shavuot in 2025, marking the highest number recorded for the holiday compared with previous years: 668 settlers in 2024, 354 in 2023, and 754 in 2022.
Ibhais noted that last year, settlers succeeded in bringing in parts of a freshly slaughtered animal as a symbolic sacrifice and attempted to scatter them near the Dome of the Chain inside Aqsa, believing it to be the site of the alleged “Temple altar,” before they were discovered and removed from the Mosque.
A group of female settlers also reportedly scattered bread dipped in wine near the Dome of the Chain and poured water on their feet as part of rituals associated with the holiday.
The researcher explained that “religious Zionism” and “Temple organizations” link Shavuot with the idea of “sacrifice,” during which a “bread offering” is traditionally presented at the start of the harvest season. He said the occasion is increasingly being exploited to attempt to impose animal sacrifice rituals inside Aqsa “as if the alleged Temple already exists.”
“We are facing rituals of gradual encroachment and replacement more than rituals connected to spirituality or the afterlife,” he warned.
Shavuot is the third and final occasion celebrated by “Temple organizations” inside Aqsa during May. It follows the “Second Passover” on 1 May, which saw a “compensatory raid” involving 214 settlers, and “Jerusalem Day” on 15 May, when 1,412 settlers stormed the Mosque compound while raising Israeli flags inside its courtyards.
Warnings of erasing Aqsa’s identity
Meanwhile, the Quds Foundation warned that Aqsa Mosque “stands on the brink of direct steps aimed at liquidating its identity and physical character,” cautioning that the historic Jordanian custodianship over the Mosque is nearing collapse as Israeli police impose de facto control over the site.
In a statement issued Wednesday, the organization said that gradual “Judaization measures” and the absence of effective deterrents, except for limited forms of Palestinian steadfast presence, are encouraging settlers to continue advancing efforts to alter the Mosque’s identity.
The foundation addressed Jordanian authorities directly, warning that the kingdom’s historic custodianship over Aqsa “is now under threat of removal and termination.”
It added that the situation “requires thinking about entirely different options based on “popular support in Occupied Jerusalem, Jordan, and the Arab and Islamic worlds.”
According to the Islamic Waqf Department, 176 settlers stormed Aqsa Mosque during the morning incursion period on Wednesday, among them Israeli Knesset National Security Committee chairman Zvika Fogel from the far-right “Jewish Power” party.
Before leaving, Fogel posed for a photograph in front of one of the Mosque’s landmarks alongside Rabbi Elisha Wolfson, head of the “Temple Mount Yeshiva,” who is considered one of the rabbis most frequently involved in incursions into the holy site and who regularly delivers religious lectures and sermons inside its courtyards.