Tensions between Jews and Muslims reached a fever point in Jerusalem this weekend, as throngs of people descended on the city to celebrate religious holidays, The Associated Press reported.
Thousands of Jewish worshippers were seen gathering at the Western Wall for prayers marking Passover. Nearby, hundreds of Muslims, mostly Palestinians, gathered at the Al-Aqsa Mosque for Ramadan services. The two locations, which according to Smithsonian are officially just 300 feet away from each other, have crucial significance for both religions. The Western Wall is the holiest site where Jews can pray, and the Al-Aqsa Mosque is among the most important bastions of Islam.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
While religious tensions in Jerusalem have been ongoing for thousands of years, violence has been boiling over in recent days. This past week, social media videos showed Palestinians and Israelis fighting, BBC News reported. One video appeared to show Israeli police beating Palestinians who had barricaded themselves inside Al-Aqsa, while another seemed to show Palestinians throwing fireworks at Israelis.
The tensions reached a head when Israeli police stormed Al-Aqsa this past Wednesday and arrested protesters they said were illegally trying to stay in the mosque overnight, CBS News reported. In response, rockets were fired into Israel from the Gaza Strip, controlled by the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
BBC News noted that officials "have been warning about the risk of a new round of violence in this sacred spot at a highly sensitive time."
-
5 museum-grade cartoons about Trump's Smithsonian purgeCartoons Artists take on institutional rebranding, exhibit interpretation, and more
-
Settling the West Bank: a death knell for a Palestine state?In the Spotlight The reality on the ground is that the annexation of the West Bank is all but a done deal
-
Codeword: August 23, 2025The Week's daily codeword puzzle
-
Southern Baptists endorse gay marriage banSpeed Read The largest US Protestant denomination voted to ban same-sex marriage and pornography at their national meeting
-
Prevost elected first US pope, becomes Leo XIVspeed read Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost is a Chicago native who spent decades living in Peru
-
Pope Francis dies at 88Speed Read 'How much contempt is stirred up at times toward the vulnerable, the marginalized and migrants,' Pope Francis wrote in his final living message
-
Pope returns to Vatican after long hospital staySpeed Read Pope Francis entered the hospital on Feb. 14 and battled double pneumonia
-
Texas megachurch founder charged with sex crimesSpeed Read Robert Morris, former spiritual adviser to President Donald Trump, is accused of sexually abusing a child
-
Pope Francis suffers setback with respiratory episodesSpeed Read The 88-year-old pope continues to battle pneumonia
-
US Christianity's long decline has halted, Pew findsSpeed Read 62% of Americans call themselves Christian, a population that has been 'relatively stable' for the past five years
-
Pope Francis hospitalized with 'complex' illnessSpeed Read The Vatican says their leader has a respiratory infection, raising new concerns about his health
