The announcement of a ceasefire between the United States and Iran has led to the reopening of holy sites to worshippers in occupied East Jerusalem and the removal of a number of movement barriers in the occupied West Bank.On Friday, April 9, more than 100,000 Muslim worshippers streamed into the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound for the first Friday prayers since before the war started on February 28. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, shuttered throughout Holy Week, also reopened in time for Holy Fire Saturday – held the day before Easter is celebrated by Orthodox denominations. After weeks of empty streets, children performed music in the Palestinian Scouts’ procession through the Christian Quarter.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of listBut the celebrations also came with an overwhelming Israeli security presence, and police violently arresting Palestinian Christian scouts during the processions. Palestinian Authority officials said Israeli forces removed Palestinian flag patches from scouts’ uniforms.Even the April 9 reopening of Al-Aqsa after 40 days of closure was tempered by growing settler incursions, including on April 7 and April 12, when Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir stormed the compound under police protection, performing Jewish religious rituals.Ben-Gvir declared from the site that “today, you feel like the master of the house here,” as he celebrated the increased normalisation of Jewish prayer on the site, despite the official ban on it. The next day, settlers stormed the Al-Aqsa compound again. Jordan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned the incidents as violations of the site’s status quo. Jordan officially holds custodiansh …
