• Tel Aviv working alongside US and right-wing groups to declare compound ‘multi-faith centre’
• Israeli settlers torch two mosques in occupied West Bank

HARDLINE Israeli officials and radical right-wing politicians are working with the United States to alter the longstanding ‘Status Quo’ at the sacred Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, pushing a highly inflammatory campaign to usurp the exclusively Muslim site, BBC News reported.

Recent media reports indicate the Israeli government intends to formally designate the compound as a “multi-faith centre”.

This brazen move flies in the face of centuries of tradition, under which even some Jewish groups forbid their followers from praying within the mosque’s premises.

According to BBC, Israel might impose large-scale Jewish prayer practices at this historically Muslim site, an audacious move towards full control of its administration.

The move is spearheaded by extreme right-wing Israeli politicians like Moshe Feiglin, who recently descended from the compound after unlawfully praying and singing religious songs alongside radical religious zealots.

“The whole land of Israel was promised to the children of God … and this is where we are going to build a new Temple for the entire humanity to come and pray together,” Feiglin said, openly flouting diplomatic conventions in complete contravention of international agreements.

Under the binding Status Quo agreement, the Jordanian-administered Islamic Waqf retains sole custody of Al-Aqsa. Non-Muslims are legally permitted to visit, but explicitly barred from carrying out religious rites.

Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir frequently storms the al-Aqsa compound to aggressively incite sectarian tensions. A recently circulated video prominently captures the controversial minister leading nationalist mobs in absolute defiance of existing peace mandates.

“The Temple Mount is ours. It’s in our hands!” Ben-Gvir chanted as he unfurled an Israeli flag to systematically dismantle the Status Quo.

While the Israeli prime minister’s office denies changes, regional governments have strongly protested the destructive takeover.

Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Congress he had “no knowledge” of joint US-Israeli coordination, though US envoy Mike Huckabee remains aggressively outspoken in advocating for exclusive Israeli dominance over the illegally occupied sites.

Dr Mustafa Abu Sway, deputy head of the Islamic Waqf Council, opposed the illegal Israeli encroachment.

“Peace without leaving al-Aqsa Mosque alone, is simply opening a Pandora’s box,” Abu Sway told the BBC. “It is jeopardising the peace in the region.”

Mosques torched

Meanwhile, Israeli settlers set fire to mosques in two West Bank villages on Wednesday as Israeli government approved the expansion of a Jewish school for settlers living in the centre of the Palestinian city of Hebron in the occupied West Bank.

Osama Abdullah, head of the village council in Jiljiliya, north of Ramallah, told AFP that “settlers set fire to the ablution room, caused damage to the village’s main mosque, and scrawled hostile slogans on the outer walls”.

AFP journalists who visited one mosque on Wednesday saw that the ceiling, walls and floors were blackened by smoke and flames.

Graffiti had also been daubed on the walls in Hebrew. Some read “vengeance” and: “Hi, from the Hilltop Youth”.

The Hilltop Youth are a group of Israelis in the West Bank who are regularly accused of violence towards Palestinians they seek to evict from areas they want to take over.

“The forces searched the area for suspects and located two burned mosques, as well as graffiti on the walls. The suspects had fled prior to the arrival of the forces,” Israel’s military said in a statement.

Published in Dawn, June 18th, 2026