Visits by Jewish Temple Mount activists to the Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount during the Jewish High Holidays, as well as visits by Israeli officials to the site at these and other times, were preceded and followed by clashes between police and Muslim protesters, in which at least 44 Palestinians were injured by Israeli police using tear gas and rubber bullets, and 13 police officers were injured by protesters throwing rocks. These clashes were followed in October by a wave of violence in Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Gaza in which 127 Palestinians and 16 Israelis were killed in these areas between October 1 and December 31. The violence also spread to Israel beyond West Jerusalem. Because religion and ethnicity were often closely linked, it was difficult to categorize much of this violence as being solely based on religious identity. Observers said national grievances may have motivated many of the Palestinian attacks. The Israeli government continued to limit access to a number of key religious sites, including the Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount, which saw an unprecedented eight-week long restriction on access for some Muslims beginning in August, as well as the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the Ibrahimi Mosque/Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron, and Rachel’s Tomb. In addition, travel restrictions, such as limits on travel between the West Bank and Jerusalem for Yom Kippur, and further construction of the separation barrier impeded the ability of Muslims to enter Jerusalem and Christian clergy to reach churches to conduct services. The Israeli government and the PA sometimes prevented Jewish Israelis from visiting Jewish religious sites in PA-controlled territory for security reasons. The authorities permitted both Muslims and Christians to pray at the Western Wall, although security restrictions limited the access of Palestinians to the Western Wall plaza. Jewish worshippers there observed a strictly-enforced separation by gender. Proselytizing Christian groups not recognized by the PA, such as Jehovah’s Witnesses and evangelical groups, had difficulties gaining recognition of personal status documents they issued. Religiously intolerant material continued to appear in official PA media. Israeli and PA officials condemned so-called “price-tag” attacks and vandalism, but authorities were rarely able to prosecute cases successfully.
Following visits to the Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount by Jewish Temple Mount activists during the Jewish High Holidays in September and October, and increased Israeli police deployments to accommodate the historically large number of activist visitors, there were incidents of violence between Muslim worshippers and Israeli police. The police use of tear gas and rubber bullets in the clashes resulted in minor injuries such as tear gas inhalation and contusions to at least 44 Palestinians, who were throwing stones and, according to some press accounts, Molotov cocktails, which resulted in injuries of a similar nature to at least 13 Israeli police officers. Israeli police during some of these clashes broke windows and damaged doors and carpets of Al-Aqsa Mosque. The Jerusalem Islamic Waqf, the Jordanian-funded Islamic trust and charitable organization which continued to administer the site, complained on at least one occasion that INP officers entered the mosque itself – in full combat gear, including boots – to disarm protesters.
Similar clashes involving Palestinians and police occurred in areas of the Old City and East Jerusalem where Muslim worshippers who had been denied entry to the Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount had gathered to pray, such as in Jerusalem’s Silwan neighborhood and outside the Old City’s Lions’ Gate.
A wave of violence between Palestinians and Israeli citizens and Palestinians and Israeli security forces occurred in Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Gaza between October 1 and December 31, claiming the lives of 127 Palestinians and 16 Israelis. The violence also spread to Israel beyond West Jerusalem. Observers said national grievances made it hard to attribute the violence solely to religious disputes.
During visits to the Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount by Israeli government officials, including cabinet members, there were also incidents of physical violence between the Israeli police and Muslims. In these clashes, police use of tear gas and rubber bullets resulted in minor injuries to the stone-throwing Palestinians. For example, on July 26 and September 13, preceding and following visits by Minister of Agriculture Uri Ariel to the Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount, there were clashes between police and Muslim protesters, in which the police barricaded the protesters inside the Al-Aqsa Mosque before opening the site to visiting Jewish Temple Mount activists. Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu on October 8 ordered police to bar sitting government ministers and members of Knesset from the Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount, saying he believed it would help calm tensions at the site.
Palestinians reportedly threw stones and clashed with Israel Defense Forces (IDF) escorts during visits of Jewish groups to Joseph’s Tomb in Nablus. On October 18, visits by Jewish groups to religious sites in the West Bank, including Joseph’s Tomb in Nablus, without a security escort, were followed by clashes between Jewish Israelis and local Palestinians resulting in minor injuries on both sides, before the IDF intervened to disperse Palestinian protesters.
According to observers, there were three categories of Christian religious groups active in the West Bank and Gaza: churches the PA recognized in accordance with status quo arrangements reached during Ottoman rule as well as Protestant churches with established episcopates; churches the PA did not officially recognize but which were established between the late 19th century and 1967 and continued to operate, such as some Protestant and evangelical churches; and a small number of churches which became active within the last decade and whose legal status remained uncertain.
Nonrecognized churches such as Jehovah’s Witnesses and some evangelical Christian groups, which faced a ban on their normal practice of proselytization, reported they were able to conduct most other operations unhindered by the PA. The PA, however, reportedly refused to recognize personal status legal documents issued by some of these non-recognized groups, which the groups said made it difficult for them to register newborn children under their fathers’ names. Many nonrecognized churches advised members with dual citizenship to marry or divorce abroad in order to register the marriage officially in the second country.
The PA Ministry of Waqf (religious endowments) and Religious Affairs continued to pay for the construction of new mosques, the maintenance of approximately 1,800 existing mosques, and the salaries of most Palestinian imams in the West Bank. The ministry also continued to provide limited financial support to some Christian clergy and Christian charitable organizations, but did not provide financial support to Jewish institutions in Israeli settlements in the West Bank.
The PA continued to implement its policy of providing imams with themes they were required to use in weekly Friday sermons in West Bank mosques and prohibited them from broadcasting Quranic recitations from minarets prior to the call to prayer.
Authorities continued to enforce rulings by Israel’s High Court declaring the segregation of men and women on public streets and sidewalks in the ultra-Orthodox Jewish neighborhood of Mea She’arim in Jerusalem to be illegal.
The Israeli government continued to control access by Muslims and Jews to the site referred to by Muslims as al-Haram al-Sharif (containing the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa Mosque), and by Jews as the Temple Mount (which is the site of the first and second Jewish temples). Although the Waqf continued to administer some aspects of the site, the Israeli government restricted the Waqf’s ability to control visitors’ access. In accordance with status quo agreements with the Waqf, the Israeli government continued to prevent non-Muslim worship and prayer at the Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount, but also imposed access restrictions on Muslim worshippers without coordination with the Waqf – particularly during Jewish holidays – which the Waqf and Palestinian Authority reported as a breach of the status quo. The INP continued to be responsible for security at the Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount, with police officers stationed both inside the site and outside each entrance to the site. Israeli police conducted routine patrols on the outdoor plaza and regulated traffic in and out of the site.
Waqf officials repeated previous years’ complaints over what they said were violations of the status quo agreements by Israeli police regarding control of access to the site, saying Israeli police did not coordinate with the Waqf on decisions to allow non-Muslim visitors onto the site or to restrict access to broad categories of Muslim worshippers. Waqf employees remained stationed inside each gate and on the plaza but Waqf officials said they were able to exercise only a reduced oversight role. They reportedly could object to the presence of particular persons, such as individuals dressed immodestly or causing disturbances, but lacked the authority to remove such persons from the site. Waqf officials reported the Israeli police on occasion briefly detained Waqf guards or expelled them from the site and from the vicinity of visiting Jewish activist groups.
The Israeli government cited security concerns in its frequent restrictions on access to the Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount by Muslims, which generally involved barring the entry of men, and sometimes women, under the age of 50. Local political and nongovernmental organization (NGO) observers said the frequency and duration of restrictions on Muslim access to the site for an eight-week period beginning in late August (corresponding to the Jewish High Holidays in September/October ) was unprecedented.
On at least 27 days during the year, Israeli security authorities imposed age restrictions on Muslim visitors, including a consecutive eight-day period beginning at the end of September. The INP frequently banned male Muslim worshippers under 50 from accessing the site during morning non-Muslim visiting hours, Sunday through Thursday, when Jewish activist groups toured the site.
On several days in August Israeli police prohibited all Muslim women regardless of age from visiting the site during non-Muslim visiting hours, and issued “black lists” barring at least 50 Muslim women they accused of verbally harassing Jewish visitors to the site. Israeli authorities stated the reason for the blanket bans and black lists was the occurrence of altercations between groups of female Muslim worshippers and Jewish tourists, whom the Muslim worshippers perceived to be Jewish Temple Mount activists attempting to break the injunction against non-Muslim prayer on the site. Israeli authorities in September outlawed female and male groups accused of harassing Jewish visitors at the Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount; the groups, known as the “murabitat” and “murabitun” respectively, reportedly had no official membership.
According to media reports, the Israeli government provided improved access to the site for Muslims from Gaza in comparison to 2014, when Gazans were not allowed to transit to the Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount to pray, permitting approximately 100-200 Gazans over the age of 60 to transit the Erez Crossing to Jerusalem for weekly Friday prayers at the Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount for most weeks beginning during Ramadan in July and extending throughout the year.
Muslim officials, including representatives of the Waqf, continued to object to Israeli restrictions on access to the Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount for Muslim worshippers, and opposed calls from some Israeli groups to divide visiting hours between Muslims and non-Muslims and to allow non-Muslim prayer there.
The Waqf continued to restrict non-Muslims who visited the Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount from entering the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa Mosque – a practice it started in 2003 when Israel ended coordination with the Waqf over non-Muslim visits – and lodged objections with Israeli police over non-Muslim visitors wearing religious symbols or religious clothing, such as Jewish prayer shawls, on the Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount. The INP sometimes acted upon these objections and enforced the restrictions of its own accord.
Israeli police continued to screen non-Muslims for religious paraphernalia, and prohibited them from praying publicly on the site. Israeli police continued to have exclusive control of the Mughrabi Gate entrance – the only entrance through which non-Muslims could enter the site – and allowed visitors through the gate during set visiting hours, although the police sometimes restricted this access due to what it stated were security concerns. Israeli police maintained checkpoints outside other gates to the Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount, including to prevent non-Muslims from entering these other areas, but did not coordinate with Waqf guards inside.
Despite the Israeli government’s policy prohibiting non-Muslim worship at the site, some Jewish groups escorted by Israeli police at the Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount performed religious acts such as prayers and prostration, including more than a dozen instances reported by Waqf officials from late August to early October. In most cases, Israeli police acted to prevent them from praying or removed them, but in other cases, some of which were documented on social media in photos and videos, the police appeared not to notice the acts of prayer. Some Jewish Temple Mount activists toured the site in bare feet, consistent with their interpretation of Jewish tradition at the temple, to which the Waqf raised objections. Israeli authorities sometimes barred individual Jewish Temple Mount activists who had repeatedly violated rules against non-Muslim prayer on the site, including members of the Knesset and Temple Mount movement leaders.
Some government coalition Knesset members and Israeli NGOs, such as the Temple Institute and Temple Mount Faithful, continued to call on the Israeli government to implement a temporal division at the Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount to set aside certain hours for Jewish worship, similar to the arrangement used at the Ibrahimi Mosque/Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron. The Israeli government stated it considered agreements with Jordan restricting Jewish prayer at the Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount to remain authoritative. Prime Minister Netanyahu restated his support for maintaining the status quo arrangement at the Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount, including the ban on Jewish prayer.
The Israeli government continued to permit both Muslims and Christians to pray at the Western Wall, the place of worship nearest the holiest site in Judaism, although Israeli police frequently limited access to Palestinians to the Western Wall plaza for what they stated were security reasons. The Rabbi of the Western Wall continued to set the guidelines for religious observance mandating the strict separation of women and men, which the Israeli government continued to enforce. Men and women at the Western Wall had to use separate areas to visit and pray, with the women’s section being less than half the size of the men’s section. The authorities continued not to permit women to bring a Torah scroll onto the plaza and prevented women from accessing the public Torah scrolls at the site, but they continued to allow both men and women to practice their religious rituals as desired on a temporary mixed gender platform located south of the Mugrabi ramp and adjacent to the Western Wall. The authorities designated the platform for members of the Conservative and Reform movements of Judaism. Non-Orthodox mixed gender groups continued to use it for religious ceremonies such as bar and bat mitzvahs. This accommodation of the desire for “egalitarian” Jewish prayer (permitting men and women to pray as they wished and together) remained a subject of debate in the Jewish community throughout the year. Ultra-orthodox Jewish leaders continued to oppose mixed-gender prayer spaces at the wall, and activist groups such as Women of the Wall (WOW), an NGO and prayer group, stated the platform accommodation as currently constructed was insufficient to meet their demands to conduct Jewish prayer services – including the use of Torah scrolls – at the traditional Western Wall site.
The Israeli police continued to assist WOW to enter the women’s area of the Western Wall for its monthly service. In May police briefly detained a man after preventing him from passing a Torah from the men’s section to a WOW-sponsored bat mitzvah celebration in the women’s section. In February police did not intervene to prevent male protesters from throwing snowballs at the WOW during its monthly service.
In February Israeli police entered the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem and expelled clergy, worshippers, and tourists, reportedly citing public safety concerns about the metal reinforcements and structure of the Sepulchre tomb itself, according to local press. Church leaders from the Greek Orthodox and Latin (Catholic) Patriarchates said the police action had not been coordinated with them. The Israeli police continued to put up security checkpoints in the Old City during major religious holidays, including the Orthodox Easter holiday, which Christian leaders said reduced the ability of congregants and clergy to enter the Church of the Holy Sepulchre to participate in religious services. Some Christians said restrictions on pilgrims and coordination with the Israeli police had improved compared to 2014, however. During busy periods the Israeli police site commander continued to provide security and facilitate access to the church and managed tensions between followers of different streams of Christianity at the site. Other Christian leaders said police used excessive force in their efforts to regulate crowds in the Old City during the Easter events.
The Israeli government imposed increased movement restrictions on Palestinians in the West Bank, September 23-24, during the Yom Kippur holiday. As in previous such closures, authorities prohibited West Bank residents including those who held Israeli-issued access permits, from entering Jerusalem or Israel, except those working for international organizations or in a humanitarian capacity.
The Israeli government announced it had increased the number of permits for Palestinians from the West Bank to access Jerusalem for religious holidays, but Palestinian Christian leaders said the Israeli government prevented many of these permits from being used in practice. For example, they stated Israel had granted permits to some but not all members of the same immediate family, including children, thereby discouraging the families – who refused to be separated – from traveling. In contrast to 2014, the Israeli government did not impose increased restrictions on Palestinian access to Jerusalem from the West Bank during Ramadan.
The Israeli government continued to prohibit Israeli citizens in unofficial capacities from traveling to the parts of the West Bank under the civil and security control of the PA (Area A). Some Jewish religious leaders said this restriction prevented Jewish Israelis from visiting several Jewish religious sites, such as Joseph’s Tomb.
The IDF and the PA on occasion jointly provided security escorts for Jews to visit religious sites in the West Bank in Area A, particularly Joseph’s Tomb in Nablus. Some Jews said securing an IDF escort required extensive coordination.
According to local Palestinian political leaders and the local press, Israeli authorities continued to prevent most Palestinians from accessing Rachel’s Tomb, a Bethlehem shrine of religious significance to Jews, Christians, and Muslims and under Israeli jurisdiction in Area C, but continued to allow relatively unimpeded access to Jewish visitors.
The IDF continued to limit access to the Ibrahimi Mosque/Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron, a site revered by Jews, Christians, and Muslims as the tomb of Abraham. Muslim leaders continued to oppose publicly, in statements to local media, the IDF’s control of access, citing Oslo-era agreements which gave Israel and the PA shared responsibility for the site. The IDF again restricted Muslim access on 10 days corresponding to Jewish holidays and Jewish access on 10 days corresponding to Muslim holidays. The IDF restricted Muslims to one entry point with IDF security screening. The IDF granted Jews access to several entry points without security screening. Both Muslims and Jews were able to pray at the site simultaneously but in separate physical spaces. Israeli authorities continued to ban the Muslim call to prayer from the Ibrahimi Mosque, saying it disturbed the Jewish settlers in the surrounding areas.
The Israeli government continued building the separation barrier in areas north, east, and south of Jerusalem in the West Bank. Religious organizations providing education, health care, and other humanitarian relief and social services to Palestinians in and around East Jerusalem stated the barrier impeded their work. Clergy members stated the barriers and checkpoints impeded their movements between Jerusalem and West Bank churches and monasteries, as well as the movement of congregants between their homes and places of worship. For example, Christian leaders said the separation barrier hindered Bethlehem-area Christians from reaching the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. They also said it made visits to Christian sites in Bethlehem difficult for Palestinian Christians who lived on the west side of the barrier. Foreign pilgrims and religious aid workers also reported difficulty or delays accessing Christian religious sites in the West Bank because of the barrier.
The Israeli Ministry of Defense (MOD) in August began construction on a section of the separation barrier south of Jerusalem near the Cremisan Valley convent of Salesian nuns and their school containing approximately 170 Muslim and Christian Palestinian students. Despite appeals from the convent and affected landowners, the Israeli High Court of Justice issued a ruling in July permitting the MOD to continue construction of the barrier, provided the MOD left a 225-meter (738-foot) gap near the convent. According to the convent leadership, local Christian advocacy NGOs, and Jerusalem-based church leaders, the barrier, if completed as proposed by the High Court, would still impede access to the convent and school from the Palestinian communities in nearby Beit Jala, and cut off area residents from their privately-owned agricultural lands. On August 20, Israeli security forces dispersed an open air Mass and interfaith public prayer demonstration against the barrier in the Cremisan Valley, using tear gas against protesters, according to the local press.
Although the PA removed the religious affiliation category from Palestinian identity cards in 2014, older identity cards continued to circulate, listing the holder as either Muslim or Christian per requirements existing before 2014.
The Israeli government retained its previous regulations regarding visa issuance for foreigners to work in Jerusalem and the West Bank, which Christian institutions said impeded their work by preventing many foreign clergy from entering and working. Christian advocates in the Latin (Catholic) and Anglican Churches, for example, continued to express concerns about the difficulty of obtaining permits. The Israeli government continued to limit Arab Christian clergy serving in the West Bank or Jerusalem to single entry visas, which local parish leaders in the West Bank said complicated needed travel to areas under their pastoral authority outside the West Bank or Jerusalem (such as Jordan). Clergy, nuns, and other religious workers from Arab countries said they continued to face long delays before they received visas, and reported periodic denials of their visa applications. The Israeli government stated visa delays or denials were due to security processing.
Israel continued to prohibit some Arab Christian clergy from entering Gaza, including bishops and other senior clergy seeking to visit congregations or ministries under their pastoral authority.
According to church leaders and lay Palestinians, a combination of factors continued to provide the impetus for increased Christian emigration from Jerusalem and the West Bank, including the limited ability of Christian communities in the Jerusalem area to expand due to building restrictions; the difficulties Christian clergy experienced in obtaining Israeli visas and residency permits; Israeli government family reunification restrictions; taxation problems; and economic hardship created by Israeli-imposed travel restrictions.
There continued to be instances in which official PA media carried religiously intolerant material. PA television broadcast interviews in March, May, and June in which program hosts agreed with guests who denied a historical Jewish presence in Jerusalem. On children’s programs broadcast on PA television in March there were references to Jews as “evil.” PA President Abbas issued public statements on September 17, during a period of clashes between Palestinians and Israeli security forces in Jerusalem, saying every drop of Palestinian blood spilled in Jerusalem was “pure” and Israeli security forces had desecrated the Al-Aqsa Mosque “with their dirty feet/shoes.”
PA President Abbas, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat, and the Council of Religious Institutions of the Holy Land (CRIHL) – a group bringing together the Chief Rabbinate of Israel, the heads of churches in Jerusalem, the PA Ministry of Waqf and Religious Affairs, and the PA sharia courts –continued to condemn so-called “price tag” attacks. The Israeli government continued to designate “price tag” vandals as members of “illicit organizations,” and an Israeli police unit specialized in investigating “price tag” attacks and other attacks on places of worship. Israeli police and the IDF reported investigating all known instances of religiously motivated attacks and making arrests where possible, although NGOs, religious institutions, and the media continued to report those arrests rarely led to successful prosecutions. Many “price tag” attacks reportedly continued to go unprosecuted.
The Chief Rabbinate of Israel, the heads of churches in Jerusalem, the PA Ministry of Waqf and Religious Affairs, and the PA sharia courts continued interfaith dialogue about religious tolerance through the CRIHL, although the group did not meet in full during the year. The CRIHL issued joint statements condemning “price tag” attacks.
Observers of archaeological practices in Jerusalem continued to state the Israel Antiquities Authority, an Israeli government entity, exploited archaeological finds bolstering Jewish claims to the city, while overlooking other historically significant archaeological finds. The Western Wall Heritage Foundation continued to promote ongoing archaeological excavations north and west of the Western Wall plaza, including in tunnels underneath the Old City’s Muslim Quarter, which the Jerusalem Islamic Waqf stated were altering the religious landscape of the area around the Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount.