Analysis of: ‘The saddest day for Muslim worshippers in Jerusalem’: al-Aqsa mosque closed at Eid
The Guardian | March 20, 2026
TL;DR
Israel's unprecedented Eid closure of al-Aqsa mosque weaponizes 'security' to deepen colonial control over Palestinian religious and economic life. This reveals how imperialist wars abroad enable intensified dispossession at home—security becomes the ideology of occupation.
Analytical Focus:Historical Context Contradictions Interconnections
The unprecedented closure of al-Aqsa mosque during Eid represents a qualitative shift in Israel's colonial management of Palestinian religious and economic life. While framed as a 'security measure' connected to the US-Israeli war on Iran, this action follows a pattern Palestinians immediately recognize: external conflicts becoming pretexts for intensified internal dispossession. The closure isn't merely about denying prayer—it encompasses forced business shutdowns, mass arrests of worshippers and religious staff, and the economic strangulation of Old City merchants. Material conditions reveal the integrated nature of colonial control: religious restriction, economic deprivation, and military enforcement operate as unified mechanisms of domination. The article exposes a fundamental contradiction between security-as-justification and security-as-outcome. Israeli authorities claim the closure prevents instability, yet the Arab League, Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, and African Union Commission warn it 'portends an escalation of violence and tension.' The contradiction lies deeper still: occupation regimes require perpetual insecurity to justify their existence, meaning genuine security would undermine the rationale for continued control. Palestinians like Hazen Bulbul articulate this clearly—what appears as emergency response is actually precedent-setting, designed to normalize expanded restrictions. The Gaza sections reveal the human cost of these interconnected dynamics. The 'sorrow and joy' of Eid amid bombardment shows how war's violence extends beyond immediate casualties into the systematic destruction of social reproduction itself. Families attempting to recreate traditions 'many children have never known' highlights how colonial violence targets not just bodies but cultural continuity. The reopening of Rafah crossing 'for the first time since Israel and the US launched strikes on Iran' demonstrates how regional imperial conflicts directly control Palestinian access to survival itself. This is not incidental—it is the material basis of colonial power, where external wars provide both cover and infrastructure for internal subjugation.
Class Dynamics
Actors: Israeli state/military apparatus, Palestinian workers and merchants, Palestinian religious leadership, Israeli settlers, International diplomatic bodies (Arab League, OIC, African Union), US imperial power, Displaced Palestinian families in Gaza
Beneficiaries: Israeli settler-colonial project gaining expanded control over holy sites, Israeli security state apparatus with enhanced enforcement powers, US regional hegemony using Israel as proxy, Those profiting from war economy and military contracts
Harmed Parties: Palestinian worshippers denied religious practice, Old City merchants facing 'acute economic hardship', Gaza families experiencing bombardment, displacement, and hunger, Palestinian religious and cultural institutions, Regional populations facing escalation risks
The article reveals a hierarchical colonial structure where the Israeli state exercises absolute territorial control backed by US imperial power. Palestinian civil society—merchants, worshippers, religious leaders—possesses no formal mechanisms to resist closure orders. International bodies issue condemnations but lack enforcement capacity, exposing the hollowness of 'international law' when confronting imperial interests. Sheikh Sabri's fatwa urging prayer 'at the closest possible point' represents the constrained resistance available: symbolic assertion of rights within conditions of total military domination.
Material Conditions
Economic Factors: Forced closure of Palestinian businesses in Old City, Destruction of Gaza's economic infrastructure, Control over Rafah crossing regulating humanitarian access, Tourism and pilgrimage economy disruption, War economy sustaining military operations
Colonial occupation structures all production relations: Palestinian merchants cannot open shops without permission; farmers cannot access land; workers cannot move freely. The closure reveals how political domination and economic extraction are inseparable—restricting religious access simultaneously destroys livelihoods. In Gaza, social reproduction itself becomes impossible as families cannot access food, shelter remains precarious, and children grow up without cultural traditions. The mode of production under occupation is characterized by systematic dispossession rather than exploitation of labor.
Resources at Stake: Control over al-Aqsa/Temple Mount complex (religious, political, and tourism significance), Old City commercial real estate and economic activity, Gaza territory and reconstruction opportunities, Regional energy and trade routes connected to Iran conflict, Symbolic capital of Jerusalem's holy sites
Historical Context
Precedents: 1967 occupation of East Jerusalem establishing current 'status quo', Post-October 7, 2023 escalation of restrictions Palestinians identify, Historical pattern of external conflicts enabling internal dispossession, Settler-colonial movements worldwide using 'security' to expand territorial control, Destruction of indigenous religious practices as colonial methodology
This closure represents an intensification within the neoliberal-imperial phase of capitalism, where security discourse justifies both domestic repression and external intervention. The pattern mirrors colonial history globally: external wars provide cover for accelerated dispossession. What Palestinians call 'escalating interference since 7 October' reflects how crisis moments become opportunities for qualitative shifts in colonial control. The 'status quo' invoked by international bodies was itself a product of 1967 conquest—demonstrating how yesterday's violations become today's 'norms' to be defended. The current phase may establish new baselines for restriction that persist beyond the immediate Iran conflict.
Contradictions
Primary: Security justification produces insecurity: closure ostensibly prevents violence but international bodies warn it 'portends escalation'—occupation requires perpetual crisis to justify itself, making genuine security antithetical to colonial logic.
Secondary: Material deprivation vs. cultural resilience: Gaza families recreate traditions amid starvation, showing how resistance persists despite overwhelming force, International law rhetoric vs. enforcement vacuum: condemnations proliferate while violations deepen, exposing law as ideology without material force against imperial power, Ceasefire existence vs. continued bombardment: 'relative safety' still includes evacuation orders and airstrikes, revealing ceasefire as managed violence rather than peace
These contradictions cannot resolve within the existing framework. The security-insecurity spiral will likely intensify, with each closure establishing precedent for the next. International condemnation without enforcement will continue delegitimizing global institutions. The fundamental contradiction—settler-colonialism's need for both Palestinian dispossession and Palestinian labor/presence—drives toward either complete ethnic cleansing or eventual liberation. Palestinian resistance, whether symbolic prayers outside gates or armed struggle in Gaza, represents the living contradiction refusing resolution on colonial terms.
Global Interconnections
The article explicitly links local religious restriction to the 'US-Israeli war on Iran,' revealing how Palestinian subjugation serves as both instrument and consequence of broader imperial strategy. US backing enables Israeli actions that no independent state could sustain against unified regional opposition—the 'joint statement' from Arab League, OIC, and African Union represents majority-world condemnation that remains impotent against US power. This dynamic exemplifies core-periphery relations in the current imperial order: peripheral states may object but cannot act; core imperial powers operate above international law. The Gaza sections illuminate how imperial war directly controls Palestinian survival. Rafah's closure during Iran strikes demonstrates that access to food, medicine, and family reunification depends on imperial military calculations, not humanitarian need. This is not 'collateral damage' but structural: peripheral populations serve as pressure points in great-power competition. The 'humanitarian crisis grinding on, overshadowed by wider war' reveals the hierarchy of imperial attention—Palestinian lives matter only as they relate to regional strategic interests. This connects to broader patterns of climate crisis, debt domination, and resource extraction where majority-world populations bear costs of minority-world accumulation.
Conclusion
Al-Aqsa's closure crystallizes a fundamental dynamic: security ideology serves colonial dispossession, and imperial wars enable intensified local repression. For those engaged in solidarity work, this moment demands recognizing connections between anti-war organizing and Palestinian liberation—the same imperial apparatus bombing Iran controls Palestinian access to prayer and food. The persistence of Palestinian resistance, from Sheikh Sabri's fatwa to families baking Eid pastries in Gaza's ruins, demonstrates that colonial violence cannot fully suppress collective life. Yet symbolic resilience alone cannot overcome material domination. The contradictions exposed here—between security rhetoric and actual violence, between international law and imperial impunity—can only be resolved through transforming the material conditions that produce them. This requires building movements capable of challenging not just individual Israeli policies but the US imperial backing that makes them possible.
Suggested Reading
- The Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon (1961) Fanon's analysis of colonial violence, particularly how colonizers use 'security' discourse to justify systematic dehumanization, directly illuminates Israel's framing of the closure and the psychological dimensions of resistance.
- Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism by V.I. Lenin (1917) Lenin's framework helps understand how the US-Israel alliance operates as an imperial formation, with regional wars serving capital's need for territorial control and market access.
- The Divide: A Brief Guide to Global Inequality by Jason Hickel (2017) Hickel's accessible analysis of how global inequality is actively produced through imperial mechanisms contextualizes Palestinian dispossession within broader patterns of core-periphery extraction.