Hamas resumed its threats to Israel on Thursday evening, saying it was "following events in Jerusalem, and warning Israel that the response would be harsh if there is any attack on Al-Aqsa."

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A Hamas spokesman said, "The Al-Aqsa Brigades and the leadership of the resistance are closely following what it taking place in Jerusalem and at Al-Aqsa Mosque. We are following the provocative and aggressive attempts by officials and leader and warning against any attack on Al-Aqsa, and salute those standing up for freedom in Jerusalem for their struggle and resistance to Al-Aqsa being sullied."

Hamas made its threatening statements after riots broke out at Damascus Gate earlier Thursday following a visit by leader of the far-right Otzma Yehudit party MK Itamar Ben-Gvir.

Police were deployed near Damascus Gate due to a demonstration that included a few dozen participants, some of whom were rioting. Three suspects were arrested for allegedly creating a public disturbance and taken in for questioning.

Ben-Gvir visited the tense location after a petition he filed with the High Court of Justice asking to overturn a decision by Israel Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai banning him from marching to Damascus Gate was overturned. The ruling said that there was too little time to discuss the petition.

Ben-Gvir spoke to the media upon arrival at the Old City, saying, "I am here to protest a decision by the failed Israel Police commissioner, which he issued without authority. This disrespect of now allowing a member of the Knesset to march in the Old City of Jerusalem must stop."

"This is capitulation to terrorism. The commissioner has capitulated and there is general helplessness – terrorists threaten and the government capitulates. This is our home and I haven't come here to clash with police," Ben-Gvir said.

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The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem called martyrdom a "badge of honor" bestowed upon the chosen of Allah in a recent interview.

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Speaking at an event in Ramallah in honor of the "martyrs" of the Gaza Strip and Jerusalem, Sheikh Muhammad Hussein said, "This badge of honor is praised and respected in this world, and those upon whom it was bestowed are honored in the hereafter as well. I am talking about the badge of honor of martyrdom, martyrdom for the sake of truth, for the sake of Allah, for the sake of rights, and for the sake of defending the homeland and honor from the attacks of attackers and the oppression of oppressors."

Martyrdom, said Hussein, was bestowed only upon the righteous.

"Therefore, Allah said [in the Quran] about them and about this badge of honor: 'Do not say about those who were killed for the sake of Allah that they are dead. Rather, they are alive, but you do not perceive,'" he said.

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"In another verse, [Allah] said, 'Think not of those who were killed for the sake of Allah as dead. Rather, they are alive with their Lord, and they are well-provided.' This is a life of honor in the hereafter and an enormous legacy in this world."

Hussein's speech was aired on Palestine TV on May 25, just days after his Friday sermon at the Al-Aqsa Mosque was interrupted by angry worshippers, who chanted: "Dogs of the PA, get out!" and accused him of being a spy.

Featured on JNS.org, this article was first published by MEMRI.org.

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The years of archaeological excavations Israel has conducted at the Temple Mount have yielded no proof that the Temple ever existed in Jerusalem, Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh said Monday evening in an interview to Al Jazeera.

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When asked about current tensions in Jerusalem, Shtayyeh said that Jerusalem was at the core of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

"Since 1967 and the occupation of the West Bank, Israel has carried out a series of excavations underneath Al-Aqsa Mosque which haven't proved any connection whatsoever to the hall [Temple] or anything similar," Shtayyeh claimed.

Shtayyeh went on to tell the interviewer that since 1967, Israel has been implementing a plan known as 'Jerusalem 2020,' which he claimed is designed to reduce the Palestinian population in the capital to some 19%.

"This has failed completely," he said. "Palestinians make up 40% of the population of Jerusalem. When it comes to Al-Aqsa, Israel seriously wants to divide the compound in terms of space and schedules."

When asked if he thought that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wanted an escalation in violence as a way of torpedoing the nascent Bennett-Lapid unity government, Shtayyeh said, "The US intervened on the Sheikh Jarrah matter and to keep the status quo in place. Jordan, Qatar, and other Arab states want the Palestinian arena in general and Al-Aqsa Mosque in particular to stay calm. The war in Gaza was a personal matter for Netanyahu and now he is linking Jerusalem to his personal interests because he wants to stay in power."

"Any escalation in is Netanyahu's interest," Shtayyeh said, adding that as far as the Palestinians were concerned, it made no difference whether Netanyahu, Naftali Bennett, or anyone else served as prime minister of Israel, because "without the establishment of a Palestinian state, the conflict will continue."

Shtayyeh spoke to Al Jazeera while on a visit to Qatar and after a meeting with Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani and said that the two had discussed Qatari aid to the Palestinians and ways of solidifying the restored calm in the Gaza Strip.

"The world is without question showing unprecedented support for the Palestinians. In a meeting, the director of Facebook told me that the hashtag 'Sheikh Jarrah' had been shared 76 million times," he said.

Shtayyeh also said that if Israel would allow Palestinian residents of east Jerusalem to participate in PA legislative elections, PA President Mahmoud Abbas would set a new date for them to be held. Shtayyeh said that the PA was pouring $140 million into the Gaza Strip each month, and had renewed the payment of salaries of 25,000 government workers in Gaza.

When asked about reconciliation attempts in Cairo, Shtayyeh said he hoped the rift between Fatah and Hamas would come to an end.

"The Palestinians need to work together and not decide on a war or on peace separately," he declared.

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Two events of religious and historical significance that very nearly took place over the last 24 hours point to a deeper layer in Jordan and Saudi Arabia's struggle for guardianship of Islamic holy places on Jerusalem's Temple Mount. Israel has now been dragged into this struggle against its will.

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Jordanian Crown Prince Hussein, King Abdullah's son, was about to enter the gates of the Temple Mount, Wednesday, to perpetuate Jordan's formal status as the Muslim world's guardian of the site. However, the visit was canceled at the last minute, supposedly due to a "disagreement over security arrangements." From the Jordanians' perspective, this public flag-raising was urgently necessary given the unrefuted reports another crown prince, from Riyadh, was engaged in negotiations with Israel on whether Bin Salman would meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. When it comes to talks with the Saudis, the Temple Mount is also a priority.

As an Islamic power that already controls Mecca and Medina, the two holiest sites in Islam, Saudi Arabia has shown increasing interest in gaining a significant foothold at the Al-Aqsa Mosque, Islam's third holiest site. Riyadh is looking to create a new status quo at the site and is willing to invest tens of billions of dollars in Jerusalem and the Temple Mount and agree to some form of normalization of ties with Israel to this end.

In return, Saudi Arabia wants a senior role, alongside Israel, in running the mount, instead of or alongside Jordan, among other things. Riyadh is poised to reap huge dividends from such a move. It will gain the status of a religious power that controls the three holiest sites in Islam as well as ensure the defeat of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Turkey, who has been unrelenting in his attempts to "liberate" the mount from Israel.

Jordan, for its part, is furious at the very notion Saudi Arabia could be given a role at the site. The Hashemite Dynasty lost its role as the keeper of Islam's holy sites in Mecca and Medina after World War I. Secondary guardianship over Islam's holy sites in Jerusalem was its consolation prize. This status was also reserved for Jordan within the framework of its ties with Israel following the 1967 Six-Day War.

Jordan continued to be involved in the religious management of the mount through the Jordanian Waqf. It earned recognition for its senior status on the mount through the framework of the peace treaty signed with Israel in 1994 and its active and opinionated involvement in a series of issues concerning the site, from the renovation of walls and joint exercises with Israeli rescue forces on the mount to a veto on Israeli plans for the area around the Temple Mount, including the replacement of the Mughrabi Bridge and the removal of construction debris from the "Little Western Wall."

When then-Saudi King Khaled dispatched emissaries in the 1980s to offer Prime Minister Menachem Begin a fortune for the development of a new Middle East in return for a Saudi flag being installed on the Temple Mount, Begin responded by kicking them out. Things have changed. Netanyahu and his officials are involved in talks on the possibility of affording Riyadh status on the site. This began when plans were being made for former US President Donald Trump's so-called "deal of the century" and continues to this very day.

Israel has become a kind of traffic cop on the mount. It tries, sometimes unsuccessfully, to look out for its own status as a sovereign, while at the same time, regulating the opposing interests of various Arab and Muslim figures.

For Jordan, which affords us a quiet eastern border and extensive bilateral economic and security ties, the mount isn't just a historical symbol but the anchor that guarantees the stability of the kingdom's rule; a rule against which radical Islamic forces often rise. And so, Israel finds itself straddling the divide, maneuvering in the inter-Islamic struggle between Amman and Riyadh, sometimes acting to please the Jordanians, at other times, looking to please the Saudis.

Until the time comes when another decision is required, and that day may be soon approaching, Jordan is still Israel's preferred partner on the Temple Mount. This remains the case even though Amman needs Israel no less and maybe even more than Israel needs Amman.

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In the beginning, there was the Prophet Muhammad's night journey in the sky and ascent into the heavens, and some say it was nothing more than a dream. But the dispute that is now rocking the Muslim world is not about whether that famous night journey occurred or was dreamt. The current debate, which is intertwined with political, religious, and nationalist motivations, has to do with the question of where Al-Aqsa ("the farthest") Mosque, from whence – according to Muslim tradition – Muhammad set off on his way into the heavens, is located.

Widespread Muslim belief backed by religious literature says that the angel Gabriel was revealed to Muhammad in Mecca, riding a winged beast named al-Buraq. Muhammad took the angel up on his invitation to ride it into the sky, but made an important stop at Al-Aqsa. Only after that did they rise into the sky together, where Muhammad received the commandment to pray that requires Muslims to worship five times a day and the direction of prayer – toward Mecca.

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Now, some 1,400 years after the Muslim belief that the Quranic Al-Aqsa sits on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem took root, an old debate from the early days of Islam has resurfaced: Where is Al-Aqsa? Is it in Jerusalem, as the vast majority of Muslims believe it to be? Or, as Saudi researcher Osama Yamani claims in the Saudi establishment paper Okaz, near Mecca on the Arabia Peninsula?

According to Yamani, the mosque Muhammad visited is actually located in Al-Ju'ranah in Saudi Arabia's Makkah Province.

Since his article was published, Arab social media has been aflutter. Yamani is accused of spreading "perverse nonsense that contradicts the Quran and Sunni Islam." A few claimed he is "sick" or "insane." Some, like the Turkish television station TRT, claim that his remarks were designed to serve the Zionist agenda and attempts by Jewish Middle East scholars to deny that Al-Aqsa is located in Jerusalem and Muhammad's miraculous night flight. Others say the article was published for political reasons – an attempts to pave the way for Saudi normalization with Israel.

The article infuriated several officials in the Palestinian Authority. Mohammad Habash, the PA's highest-ranking Sharia judge, thinks the article was designed to serve "enemies of the nation." Dr. Ali Abu Al-Awar, a Palestinian who wrote his doctorate at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Harvard, calls Osama Yamani a "highwayman."

'The Umayyads invented a story'

Yamani, it should be noted, is not the first to question the identification of Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem as the Quranic Al-Aqsa. The Egyptian intellectual Dr. Youssef Ziedan did so in 2015, as did Jordanian researcher Dr. Suleiman al-Tarawneh in 2017, and one Israeli researcher, Dr. Mordechai Kedar, who has been expounding the theory for 12 years. They all refer to ancient historians like Al-Waqidi (at the end of the eighth century CE) or Al-Azraqi (ninth century CE), both of whom wrote similar arguments over 1,000 years ago.

Kedar sums up this dissenting version: "Fifty years after the death of Muhammad in 682 CE, Abd Allah Ibn al-Zubayr, who was the bully of Mecca, revolted against the Umayyad Dynasty that ruled in Damascus. He closed the roads and prevented Damascus residents from making the Haj pilgrimage to Mecca. Having no other choice, the Umayyads chose Jerusalem as an alternative Haj destination, which is one of the five fundamental commandments of Islam. To entrench their choice of Jerusalem, they invented the story that the Al-Aqsa Mosque mentioned in the Quran wasn't in Ju'ranah, but in Jerusalem. They linked the story to the Quran myth about Muhammad's night flight to Al-Aqsa Mosque by inventing a number of hadiths that are essentially rewritten history."

According to Kedar, this led to the Sunni Muslim belief that Jerusalem is the third-holiest city in Islam.

"I didn't invent these arguments," Kedar says. "They were made 1,000 years ago by the great Ibn Taymiyyah and Al-Waqidi, who cannot be suspected of Judaism or Zionism. They looked for the truth and they knew about the industry of falsified hadiths that operated in the seventh and eighth centuries."

Unlike Kedar, Middle East scholar Professor Yitzhak Reiter, author of From Jerusalem, to Mecca and Back – The Islamic Consolidation of Jerusalem, and a former advisor to three prime ministers – Menachem Begin, Yitzhak Shamir, and Shimon Peres – is by no means "right-wing," but in terms of history, Reiter agrees with Kedar.

Reiter thinks that the debate around the question of where Al-Aqsa Mosque is located erupted now because of the normalization agreements between Israel and the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, and the improved ties between Jerusalem and Riyadh.

"This is a transparent attempt to reduce the weight of the Palestinian issue in relations between the Arab world and Israel," Reiter thinks. "In other words, this is part of an attempt to say that the holy places on the Arabian Peninsula – Mecca, Medina, and now many Al-Aqsa – are much more significant, and that Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem is less worthy of a place in the center of that normalization," he explains.

However, Reiter – like Kedar – notes that the argument in Israel about the holiness of Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa goes back to the dawn of Islam and that "In effect, we have sources like Al-Waqidi from the ninth century and others who argue that the original mosque is located in Ju'ranah in the Makkah Province."

Hadith as an early form of social media

Reiter stresses that Jerusalem became holy to Islam 60 years after Muhammad's death, when the Umayyad dynasty ruled the Land of Israel. They had no access to Islamic holy sites on the Arabian Peninsula after Al-Zybayr seized power there.

"Only then did the Umayyads start developing Jerusalem as a spiritual center. My interpretation is that they were very successful in the battle for hearts and minds. They had people write hadiths and traditions and disseminated them. In today's terms, we'd say that they controlled the media and social media by distributing and inculcating the hadiths, and the belief that Jerusalem is the third-holiest place to Islam and that Jerusalem is the first direction of prayer according to Muslim tradition.

"They also invented a tradition that Al-Aqsa Mosque was built 40 years after the Kaaba in Mecca by Abraham and Ismail. But the more important tradition they managed to instill attributes to Muhammad the decree that pilgrimage is permitted to three places – the holy mosque in Mecca, the Prophet's Mosque in Medina, and Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. That is the famous hadith about the three mosques, and it was invented in the Umayyad period to serve them," Reiter says.

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Q: Are there any remains of an ancient mosque in Ju'ranah?

Reiter: "None that we know of."

Q: Will this renewed argument challenge the importance of Al-Aqsa in Jerusalem?

"In my opinion, no. You can't challenge a 1,300-year-old belief. This is a political trend, and even if it has a historical basis, it's designed to weaken the Palestinian position."

One of the people who returned fire against the renewed reports questioning the identity of Al-Aqsa in Jerusalem is Middle East scholar Eran Tzidkiyahu of the Forum for Regional Thinking. Tzidkiyahu even wrote a long Facebook post on the subject in which he claimed "a degree of hypocrisy, when one narrative, the Muslim one, is examined using critical scientific criteria, while the narrative of the other side, the Jewish one, is accepted as truth that is not only historically correct, but also gives modern-day political rights. The cancellation of the Muslim historical-religious narrative arose in order to justify the cancellation of political rights."

Tzidkiyahu observes that "academic research takes the existence of God out of the equation and looks at historical events. According to research, no god ever promised or sanctified the city of Jerusalem, or Al-Quds, to any nation or religion. The research assumed that all the processes of sanctification and politicization were creating as the result of human, religious, political, and social processes."

"Therefore, even if Jerusalem later became holy, whether it was because of kings who identified with the House of David in the eighth century BCE, or because of a Muslim dynasty that aspired to lead the Islamic world in the seventh century CE, it doesn't cancel 1,400 or 2,700 years of holiness and religious and political centrality, not for Jews and not for Muslims," he says.

Q: Who protects these places?

Tzidkiyahu stresses that the greatest researchers of Islam delved into the question of Jerusalem's holiness to Islam, poring over books, ancient manuscripts, ancient sources in classic Arabic, Latin, Greek, and Persian, and integrating sources and comparing texts.

"They published endless articles and books on the subject, but not one of the serious researchers thought to translate these historical commentaries into political statements. They focused on research."

This week, Israel Hayom asked Kedar about the practical meaning of the claims he has been making for over a decade now being made by Muslim researchers. Does he really expect that a historical truth of varying accuracy will prompt Muslims to drop a 1,300-year-old belief and adopt the view that Al-Aqsa is near Mecca, not in Jerusalem? Might this not be a "home goal," with challenges about historical truths also turning toward Bible stories?

Kedar: "Your question is influenced by the distance between post-modernism and modernism. Post-modernism claims that there is no absolute truth. Anyone who accepts that view accepts Jerusalem's holiness to Islam as a fact. I, as a realist, am looking for the absolute truth. A narrative is a collection of stories that I believe and expect everyone else to respect. That is how religious-national narratives are constructed, but as a researcher, I want to get to the truth, and understand how stories are created, how a narrative is created. Understand whether they have a historical basis, and now that I understand that, I say again, the so-called truth about the sources of Jerusalem's holiness to Islam is clear to many people now, not just me."

Q: The Muslim faithful connect to Al-Aqsa in Jerusalem, even if the real Al-Aqsa isn't in Jerusalem, so what is the point of your arguments?

Kedar: "I research Islam, and people's motivation today to make up stories is no different from what motivated them 1,400 years ago. The story is a battle for power and control. Why do you think the Saudi king calls himself 'guardian of the holy sites' (Mecca and Medina)? The Saudi royal family comes from the Riyadh area. They made themselves into the guardians of the holy places to give their rule legitimacy. Now the Palestinians, particularly the Islamic Movement, have made Al-Aqsa their top priority in order to position Jerusalem as a central issue for the Muslim world. They more they succeed, the more the Saudis will claim that Al-Aqsa is located there."

Could the debate among Muslims about the location of Al-Aqsa spill over into violence and bloodshed? Reiter, Kedar, and Tzidkiyahu don't think so, but suggest that we wait and see whether the Saudi newspaper article signals a stance the Saudi royal family will adopt, or whether it was a shot in the dark. If that theory becomes more prevalent, Tzidkiyahu thinks, "there will be more potential for violence and bloodshed."  

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When the United Arab Emirates agreed to normalize relations with Israel, the Palestinians decried the move as a "betrayal" of both Jerusalem, where they hope to establish the capital of their future state, and the Al-Aqsa mosque compound, the city's holiest Muslim site.

But with Israel now courting wealthy Gulf tourists and establishing new air links to the major travel hubs of Dubai and Abu Dhabi, Palestinians in east Jerusalem could soon see a tourism boon after months in which the coronavirus transformed the Holy City into a ghost town.

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"There will be some benefits for the Palestinian sector of tourism, and this is what I'm hoping for," said Sami Abu-Dayyeh, a Palestinian businessman in east Jerusalem who owns four hotels and a tourism agency. "Forget about politics, we have to survive."

Palestinian leaders have sharply rejected the recent decisions by the UAE, Bahrain and Sudan to establish ties with Israel because they severely weakened a longstanding Arab consensus that recognition only be extended in return for Palestinian statehood.

In a striking development last week, a delegation of Israeli settlers visited the Emirates to discuss business opportunities.

But the prospect of expanded religious tourism could end up benefiting Israelis and Palestinians alike, as wealthy Gulf tourists and Muslim pilgrims from further afield take advantage of new air links and improved relations to visit Al-Aqsa and other holy sites. The Jerusalem Municipality is organizing conferences and seminars to help tourism operators market the city to Gulf travelers.

"I'm very excited because I think it opens us up to a new era of Muslim tourism that we never really had," said Jerusalem Deputy Mayor Fleur Hassan-Nahoum. "Even though we have peace with Jordan and Egypt, I've never really seen any Egyptian tourists or Jordanian tourists because the peace wasn't a warm peace."

Hassan-Nahoum, who recently visited the Emirates and is a co-founder of the UAE-Israel Business Council, said the municipality is reaching out to local Arab tour operators to ensure the benefits extend to all.

"You have mixed feelings," she said. "Some of them are a little bit suspicious, (but) most of them understand that this is going to be incredibly prosperous for them, because ultimately they're Arab speaking and so they have, I think, a unique advantage."

Abu-Dayyeh expects up to 28 flights a day arriving in Tel Aviv from Dubai and Abu Dhabi, global travel hubs for long-haul carriers Emirates and Etihad, making it easier for travelers from the Far East and South America to reach the Holy Land.

He's confident Palestinian operators will be able to compete. "We're on the ground here and we've been giving this service for many years, for hundreds of years," he said.

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Other Palestinians appear to be more skeptical. More than a dozen Palestinian shop owners in Jerusalem's Old City, which is largely shut down because of the coronavirus, declined to comment on the push for Gulf tourism, saying it was too politically sensitive.

There are also concerns that an Israeli push to promote tourism to Al-Aqsa could heighten tensions.

The hilltop esplanade in the Old City is the holiest site for Jews, who refer to it as the Temple Mount because it was the location of the two biblical temples in ancient times. It is also home to Al-Aqsa Mosque and the iconic Dome of the Rock shrine.

Last month a delegation of Emirati officials visited the site, entering through a gate normally used by Israelis and under an Israeli security escort. A small group of Palestinians heckled them. In August, Palestinian demonstrators burned a portrait of Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan near the Dome of the Rock.

Officials from the Waqf, the Jordanian religious body that oversees the mosque compound, declined to comment on Israel's efforts to promote Gulf tourism to the site, underscoring the political sensitivities.

Sheikh Ikrima Sabri, the imam who leads Friday prayers at Al-Aqsa, said any visits must be coordinated with the Waqf. The Palestinians have long feared that Israel intends to take over the site or partition it. The Israeli government says it is committed to the status quo.

"Any visitor from outside Palestine must coordinate with the Waqf," Sabri said. "But any visitor from the side of the occupation, we do not welcome or accept them."

He acknowledged that the visiting Emiratis may have been unaware of the complex arrangement and said the heckling was a "reaction" by individuals to them entering with Israeli security.

"If they come to do business with the occupation, they are free. But when they come to Al-Aqsa, they must come in coordination with the Islamic Waqf," he said.

Hassan-Nahoum, the deputy mayor, said authorities are currently seeking recommendations from security companies to ensure that Emirati and other pilgrims can visit the site safely.

"I don't think it's going to raise too many tensions," she said. "What I want is for the average Emirati tourist to have a pleasant experience of going and praying at Al-Aqsa for the first time."

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Al-Aqsa Mosque, the third-holiest site in Islam, is not located on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, Saudi lawyer and journalist Osama Yamani is claiming.

In an article in the Saudi news outlet Okaz, Yamani claims that the mosque is actually located in Al Ju'ranah, near Mecca in Saudi Arabia.

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Yamani writes that the confusion between the two sites stems from the fact that many history books state that Al-Aqsa is located in Jerusalem.

"Jerusalem is not Al-Aqsa, which is not cited in the missions that Allah gave Muhammad and the caliphs. Similarly, Jerusalem is a city, and Al-Aqsa is a mosque," he states.

Yamani adds that originally, Muslims did not face in the direction of Al-Aqsa while praying.

Yamani backs up his argument with historic facts, such as the fifth caliph from the Umayyad dynasty, Abd al-Malik, building the Dome of the Rock in the year 691 CE. Al-Malak built the dome nine years after Abd Allah Ibn al-Zubayr rebelled and prevented local residents from fulfilling the obligation to make the haj pilgrimage to Mecca.

"At that stage, he changed the direction of prayer toward Jerusalem," Yamani says, referring to al-Malik.

Yamani explains that "There are stories influenced by political considerations that served purposes of that time, and sometimes claims are made that they have nothing to do with faith or following religious dictates."

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