Some people used to talk annually about the longest Judaization season of the year in Al-Aqsa Mosque, which is the season of consecutive religious holidays that extends from the beginning of the Hebrew New Year until the end of the Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot).
But this year we are not talking about this season in terms of the annual danger or the usual annual season of attacks on the mosque. Rather, these days we are talking about an existential danger that threatens the entity, existence and being of Al-Aqsa Mosque as a whole, especially in light of its coincidence with the passing of a full year since the launch of the fierce war waged by Israel against the Palestinian people in the wake of Operation “Noah’s Flood,” which was launched on the last day of the same season, on the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles last year.
Among the religious holiday seasons that settlers in Jerusalem celebrate every year, and Al-Aqsa Mosque is a major center for them, this season is considered the longest in terms of the number of days, and for extremist temple groups it is equivalent to the holy month of Ramadan for Muslims in terms of time and importance, as this season extends for 22 days filled with a group of religious holidays and occasions that mostly revolve around the idea of the temple, which settler groups in Israel believe is supposed to be in the same location as Al-Aqsa Mosque.
This season begins with what is called the “Jewish New Year”, which according to the religious beliefs of these extremist groups is supposed to witness special rituals, the most important of which is the blowing of the trumpet in the land of Al-Aqsa Mosque, heralding the beginning of the new Hebrew year.
This year, the holiday falls on October 3 and 4. In the past three years, the trumpet was blown in Al-Aqsa Mosque, which was done secretly and without announcement in 2021 and 2022. The trumpet was blown publicly last year, documented on video, for the first time since the occupation of Al-Aqsa Mosque 57 years ago. This year is expected to witness heavy incursions into the mosque, in addition to the trumpet being blown again in Al-Aqsa Mosque, perhaps under official Israeli government sponsorship this time, and it may be attended and participated by some Israeli officials.
Al-Aqsa Mosque is no longer only threatened by the usual season of attacks, but is now facing an existential threat that threatens its entire existence.
With the Jewish New Year, the so-called “Days of Repentance” begin, which last for about ten days until October 12. During these days, settlers are keen to storm the mosque in large numbers, wearing special white clothes called “repentance clothes,” and perform special prayers called “priestly blessings.” Last year witnessed a major escalation in these prayers without waiting for a reaction.
Therefore, this year will certainly witness the implementation of public religious rituals inside the mosque, and on a much larger scale than last year, especially since the first anniversary of the Gregorian calendar of the events of October 7 will fall during these days. Therefore, it is not unlikely that extremist temple groups, under the auspices of the Israeli government, will try to exploit the anniversary to assert their presence in Al-Aqsa Mosque with much greater force than before.
With the end of the so-called “Days of Repentance” comes the Day of Atonement, the most important and largest Jewish holiday of the year. According to religious texts, this day is supposed to be the only day throughout the year when the Chief Rabbi can enter the “Holy of Holies” area, which religious groups in Israel believe is the rock inside the Dome of the Rock building, for a special prayer.
This is not usually done because the Third Temple has not been built, according to these groups, in addition to the fact that the Chief Rabbinate of Israel does not approve of the principle of Jews entering Al-Aqsa Mosque, due to the absence of the condition of religious purity. These extremist groups replace it with large-scale raids on Al-Aqsa Mosque on that day. This is expected to happen this year on Yom Kippur, which falls on October 13.
It is also customary for these extremist groups to try to bring a special animal sacrifice into Al-Aqsa Mosque on this holiday. For your information, bringing animal sacrifices is the only religious ritual that extremist temple groups have not been able to perform to this day inside Al-Aqsa Mosque. Therefore, it is not unlikely that they will try to conduct an experiment, for example, on Yom Kippur this year; to see the extent of the possibility of implementing this ritual in its most important season, which is Passover, which falls in the spring.
This is the longest and most important season for the Temple congregations, adding to the challenges facing Al-Aqsa.
Four days after the end of Yom Kippur, the Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot) begins, which last year witnessed the launch of Operation “Noah’s Flood” on its last day. This year, the holiday extends from October 17 to October 23, immediately followed by the last day called “Simchat Torah” (i.e., the sealing of the Torah).
These days, Al-Aqsa Mosque is usually subjected to a violent wave of incursions accompanied by religious rituals, and the introduction of the fruits of the throne, which are considered “vegetable offerings.” However, this year is considered to be of special importance as it is the first Hebrew anniversary – according to the Hebrew calendar – of Operation “Al-Aqsa Flood,” noting that these groups use the Hebrew calendar for their occasions.
Therefore, the first Hebrew anniversary of Operation “Noah’s Flood,” which will fall on October 24, is of great importance to these groups, and to the religious Zionist movement that controls the Israeli government. It is logical to assume that the extremist Temple groups will try to dedicate this day as a day of revenge for what happened at 6:30 in the morning of the same day last year, when the Palestinian resistance invaded the Gaza Strip and entered the towns and settlements around Gaza.
Here, we should look deeply at the video published by the extremist Moshe Feiglin, a member of the Knesset from the extremist “Identity” party, a few weeks ago, in which he explained the vision of the extreme right in Israel for the current conflict, which is based on the fact that the only place where Israel can achieve a strategic victory that will erase the shame of October 7 is exclusively at Al-Aqsa Mosque, as the Israeli army is moving from failure to failure on the northern and southern fronts, which makes the attempt to declare victory at Al-Aqsa Mosque a compensation for the sons of these groups for the current failure.
In this context, we recall the video published by the “Sons of Mount Moreh” group a few days ago, in which they filmed the Al-Aqsa Mosque burning with the phrase “soon, in these days.” This gesture carries extremely dangerous meanings for the Al-Aqsa Mosque. For those who do not know, this group, founded by the extremist David Ben Moreh, is considered a youth arm of extremist Kahanist organizations, as this group considers its members to be students of Rabbi “Elisha Wolfson” in the so-called “Temple Mount Religious School” that has its official headquarters in the Al-Aqsa Mosque. He is the one who appeared in a famous video announcing an imminent “miracle” in the Al-Aqsa Mosque.
This rabbi, in turn, is considered a disciple of the extremist Baruch Marzel, the former secretary of the terrorist Kach party and the right-hand man of the extremist Rabbi Meir Kahane, and of Rabbi Yehuda Etzion, founder of the Hayy wa Qayyum movement and one of the rabbis who were involved in the attempt to blow up the Dome of the Rock in the 1980s, had this attempt not been discovered by the guards of Al-Aqsa Mosque.
Exploiting the anniversary of Operation Flood of Al-Aqsa to pass political and religious messages deepens the danger of Judaization
These facts indicate that these groups could be preparing an unprecedented attack on Al-Aqsa Mosque in secret, taking advantage of the catastrophic conditions the mosque is going through. We should not forget here that a number of members of these groups are now members of the occupation police responsible for Al-Aqsa Mosque, as extremist Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir brought them into the police force as soon as he assumed his position in the Ministry of National Security.
The bottom line: Al-Aqsa Mosque is currently experiencing an existential battle in every sense of the word, and the upcoming season carries very dangerous implications for the religious Zionist movement and the extreme right-wing movements in Israel and abroad alike. These groups now see that the ground is now prepared to blow up the entire region according to their religious salvation vision of the coming of the Messiah, and they see that the ground is prepared in Al-Aqsa Mosque to implement their project on the ground, taking advantage of the unprecedented Arab and Islamic state of official and popular impotence with regard to protecting the mosque.
Therefore, the firm popular deterrence of the occupation and its settlers by all means has become an urgent necessity that falls on the shoulders of the people of Jerusalem first, as they are the guardian eyes and the first line of defense for the mosque, and on the residents of the Green Line areas as well, as they are the second force in terms of the ability to reach the Al-Aqsa Mosque and defend it with all its might.AAliyah, and the residents of the West Bank as the natural incubator of Jerusalem and its people.
This does not exempt everyone who is able to reach the mosque from anywhere in the world from their responsibility to defend the mosque, reaching all Arabs and Muslims everywhere, who should put real pressure on their governments, obligating them to take action at all levels and at various levels to actually protect the mosque, not just denounce and warn.
The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of Al Jazeera Network.