[Israel Decides that] Olive Picking in al-Haram al-Sharif Is Now a Crime for Palestinians... There are nearly 600 olive trees on the grounds of al-Aqsa Mosque, some of which are thousands of years old. The Islamic Waqf Department in Jerusalem, through the Zakat Committee, collects the olives from the trees, presses them, and distributes the oil to the poor in Jerusalem. No quantity of olives or the pressed oil from them is sold, despite a high demand for these olives from al-Aqsa Mosque, which the community considers blessed.

Mostafa Alkharouf/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

 November 1, 2026

Khalil Assali

“The olive tree is a symbol of steadfastness and is the identity of Jerusalem and Palestine,” said Saadi Mahmoud,1 a resident of Haret al-Sa‘diyya near al-Aqsa Mosque. Saadi used to help pick olives from the trees on the mosque grounds every year, and was even able to keep some of those olives, which he cherished as blessed.

Speaking to Jerusalem Story, he said that a police officer warned him not to approach the olive trees on the grounds of al-Aqsa Mosque or he would be arrested. He adds, “I am astonished by this Israeli audacity that has completely changed the reality in al-Aqsa Mosque over the past years to the point where the police have complete control over the entire compound!”

The Old City of Jerusalem and its walls were added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1981, and the organization’s List of World Heritage in Danger in 1982. These designations cover all religious sites within the Old City, including al-Aqsa Mosque. They also cover the nature within and around these spaces, including the olive trees on the spacious mosque grounds. There are nearly 600 olive trees on the grounds of al-Aqsa Mosque, some of which are thousands of years old.2 The Islamic Waqf Department in Jerusalem, through the Zakat Committee, collects the olives from the trees, presses them, and distributes the oil to the poor in Jerusalem.3 No quantity of olives or the pressed oil from them is sold, despite a high demand for these olives from al-Aqsa Mosque, which the community considers blessed.

Picking Olives at al-Aqsa Mosque Is Now a Crime

These trees are an Islamic waqf, and no one can sell or buy them or their oil, says Sheikh Mazen Ahram, a former employee of the Waqf Department who has a Sufi corner on the mosque grounds.4 He added that many Palestinian Jerusalemite families used to come to participate in the olive harvest and would be able to take some home for their personal use; however, this stopped, because Israeli authorities forbid it.

According to Waqf Department figures made available to Jerusalem Story, more than 500 families used to register to receive three liters of olive oil from al-Aqsa Mosque after the olive harvest.

More than 500 families used to register to receive three liters of olive oil from al-Aqsa Mosque.

But this year, the situation was completely different, even dire, as experienced by Hajj Saeed Abdulrahman from the Palestinian village of Tamra in the Galilee. Every year, he visits al-Aqsa Mosque and picks a small amount of olives from its trees to take back to his village, considering them blessed.

Hajj Saeed was shocked recently when more than 10 Israeli police officers attacked and arrested him, while he was picking olives on the mosque grounds, confiscated his bag of olives, and took him to a police station near Bab al-Silsila. There he was issued a fine of NIS 5,000 for allegedly picking olives from a public area without prior permission from the authorities. Furthermore, he says, he has been banned from the grounds simply for picking olives, something he has done for years.... READ MORE  https://www.jerusalemstory.com/en/blog/olive-picking-al-haram-al-sharif-now-crime-palestinians

 [AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES (or quotes or watch videos) IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine]   

"The White Dove" by artist Reem Arkan

"The White Dove" by artist Reem Arkan

 

Pal Arts

 https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1383426310438764&set=a.191541839627223

   AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES (or quotes) IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine, or at least fair and just laws and policies here, there- and everywhere]

Symbols of Palestine- Palestinian artist- Fedaa Boqaileh, 1948... "I dream of a gallery … one day , exact vision here… where people can smell the jasmine, hear the oud,share a coffee and sit to admire falasteen…"

Palestinian artist-  Fedaa Boqaileh, 1948

 juthur1948

I dream of a gallery … one day , exact vision here… where people can smell the jasmine, hear the oud,share a coffee and sit to admire falasteen…

And for a moment, they understand that home is more than a place, it is something carried, remembered, and lovingly recreated, somewhere dreamt…

Until that gallery exists, I’ll keep drawing it into being…-Fedaa

 

https://www.instagram.com/p/DbgwVFnizd4/ 

[AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES (or quotes) IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine, or at least fair and just laws and policies here, there- and everywhere]

Jordan is convening an emergency meeting of foreign ministers from the Arab and Islamic world over what it says is an “imminent” threat of an Israeli takeover of the most important Muslim site in Jerusalem, with the potential to “trigger a religious conflict”. The meeting on Wednesday – and the Jordanian warning – follow an escalating pattern of government-backed incursions by Jewish religious extremists on the compound around al-Aqsa mosque and Dome of the Rock, in violation of a status quo treaty overseen by Jordan’s Hashemite monarchy, by which only Muslims can pray at the site. On 23 July, more than 2,000 Israelis from the religious right – mostly settlers led by the national security minister, Itamar Ben Gvir – stormed the area...

On 23 July, more than 2,000 Israelis from the religious right stormed the area. Photograph: Ilia Yefimovich/AFP/Getty Images

Jordan

Jerusalem’s most important Muslim religious site facing ‘imminent’ threat of Israeli takeover, says Jordan

Country convenes emergency meeting of ministers from Arab and Islamic world, fearing such a move could ‘trigger a religious conflict’

Jordan is convening an emergency meeting of foreign ministers from the Arab and Islamic world over what it says is an “imminent” threat of an Israeli takeover of the most important Muslim site in Jerusalem, with the potential to “trigger a religious conflict”.

The meeting on Wednesday – and the Jordanian warning – follow an escalating pattern of government-backed incursions by Jewish religious extremists on the compound around al-Aqsa mosque and Dome of the Rock, in violation of a status quo treaty overseen by Jordan’s Hashemite monarchy, by which only Muslims can pray at the site.

On 23 July, more than 2,000 Israelis from the religious right – mostly settlers led by the national security minister, Itamar Ben Gvir – stormed the area, known to Jews as the Temple Mount. They prayed and performed rituals all around the compound in what Jordanian officials said was the worst violation in modern history.

Amman has also been alarmed at a recent recruitment drive for religious Jews for a special Temple Mount police unit, and is braced for more direct challenges to traditional Jordanian custodianship by extremist Israeli leaders in the major Jewish holidays in September. This year, those holidays will come amid an intense election campaign, in which the far-right coalition of the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, will be fighting for survival.

“This is a constant threat, a dangerous threat that we’re trying to counter in every tool that we have possible,” Jordan’s foreign minister, Ayman Safadi, told the Guardian. “We warn that tampering with the status quo … could trigger a religious conflict that will reverberate beyond Palestine and Jordan into the whole Muslim world.”

Safadi, who will host Wednesday’s emergency meeting, bringing together his counterparts from Arab League countries, as well as Turkey, Indonesia, Malaysia and Pakistan, said it was “something that the whole international community should be aware of. Jerusalem is a tinderbox.

“We’re trying to explain the danger. We’re protesting legally. We are trying to create awareness of the imminent danger in the continuation of those Israeli measures.”

Jordan’s custodianship of al-Aqsa compound dates back to Ottoman times, and the status quo encompassing the city’s religious sites was enshrined in the 1878 Treaty of Berlin. The Hashemite kingdom’s oversight in Jerusalem was expanded to cover Christian holy sites in the 20th century, and its custodianship was reaffirmed after the 1967 war, and in the 1994 Israeli-Jordanian peace treaty.

Infringement by Jewish extremists... READ MORE  https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/aug/04/jordan-convenes-emergency-meeting-israel-religious-conflict-jerusalem

[AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES (or quotes or watch videos) IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine ]

Israel is using the ongoing war to intensify multi-layered violations against Palestinians during Ramadan and Easter. Al-Aqsa stands empty. The Holy Sepulchre is sealed for the first time in history. Demolitions, settler attacks, and movement restrictions are surging.

Balasan Inititative for Human Rights

@BalasanR

 

Israel is using the ongoing war to intensify multi-layered violations against Palestinians during Ramadan and Easter. Al-Aqsa stands empty. 

 

The Holy Sepulchre is sealed for the first time in history. 

 

Demolitions, settler attacks, and movement restrictions are surging.

 

https://x.com/BalasanR/status/2034223934577504507 

The ongoing regional war has exposed a structural gap in civilian protection: From Gaza to the West Bank and within the Green Line, Palestinians remain exposed to bombardment and displacement without any effective shelter system. Read the full update: https://balasan.org/in-the-midst-o

https://balasan.org/in-the-midst-of-war-where-do-palestinians-seek-refuge-civilian-protection-gaps-in-the-context-of-iran-israels-regional-war/

[AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES (or quotes) IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine, or at least fair and just laws and policies]

"Within My Soul" by artist Heba Hamad.

"Within My Soul" by artist Heba Hamad.  

Pal Arts

Picnics & Palestine

 "One of my favorite memories as a child in Palestine was when my mother (AY) used to make her scrumptious meat pies for us to eat, picnic style, on the grounds of #AlAqsa compound in #AlQuds (#Jerusalem)...She used to get very early in the day, prepare the dough and take it with her to Al Quds (the old city) ahead of us...

 

Once inside the old city, she would buy her fresh ingredients of ground lamb meat, onions, parsley, and spices and take them to the old bakery in the area that she frequented and trusted.

 

Once at the bakery, she would make triangle shaped meat pies (ikraas), which she stuffed with her magic mixture of mouth watering ingredients and give them to the baker to bake in his oven, making sure that they were baked to her exacting standards of golden perfection...

 

Afterwards, she would take the piping hot pies, mouth watering aroma wafting through the air, place them in a large tray, covering them with a blanket to keep them nice and warm, and meet up with us at the ground of Al Aqsa, whereby we would have our picnic under the shade of the ancient trees...

 

She used to make extra pies so that when strangers happened on us, drawn by that intoxicating aroma, she could share with them...

 

Till this day, the fragrance of fresh baked bread evokes memories of my beloved late mother, may Allah have mercy on her soul, and those magical moments spent with her in the holy grounds of Masjid Al Aqsa!"  

 

Mike Hanini Odetalla

 

Palestine... circa 1920

 

Jerusalem THE CAPITAL OF PALESTINE

My letter to the Washington Post RE Jewish activists want to pray on Jerusalem's Temple Mount, raising alarm in Muslim world

Dome of the Rock- Jerusalem

RE: Jewish activists want to pray on Jerusalem's Temple Mount, raising alarm in Muslim world 
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/jewish-activists-set-sights-on-jerusalems-temple-mount-raising-alarm-in-muslim-world/2013/12/02/d0561dc4-4e00-11e3-97f6-ed8e3053083b_story.html?hpid=z1

Dear Editor,

All the world should be alarmed: Any one who values history or architecture, or art and beauty, or justice- or peace - or civilization itself.

A more revealing illustration for your story would have been a photo of the very beautiful Dome of the Rock so that your readers would understand that this historic building is the symbol of Jerusalem not only for Muslims but for all the world.

And perhaps you could have written a more telling title conveying the fact that Jewish activists have already destroyed many Palestinian homes and communities all through out the Holy Land... and for the past sixty years Jewish activists have been inspired by both prayer and by politics to oppress, impoverish and forcibly displace the native, non-Jewish population of the Holy Land.

A glance at Israel's ongoing violations of international law and the Palestinians' basic human rights would have been relevant. Another pertinent aspect to include in your story would have been an investigative peek into the financial incentives created by Israel for Jewish activists.... as well as all the many ways Israel has been actively sabotaging negotiations for a Palestinian state. 

Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab

NOTES
Last week, the United Nations warned that a blockade on the Gaza Strip imposed by Israel and Egypt was making Gaza ‘uninhabitable’.

AREA C: Israeli forces on Monday demolished four houses and eight agricultural structures in the southern Jordan Valley, leaving at least 50 Palestinians homeless

Hussein Ibish: Freedom and equality are at the core of the Palestinians’ struggle

Christmas message from Bethlehem Mayor Vera Baboun of Palestine..." Today, our little town has become even smaller due to the continued expansion of Israeli settlements, but the message of Jesus Christ remains in our hearts, overcoming with hope the despair of decades of living under a foreign occupation and being deprived of our rights."

In protest of the Prawer-Begin Plan, which if implemented, will result in the forced displacement of tens of thousands of Bedouin in the Negev desert, Bedouin and other activists organized a ‘day of rage.’

Israel's plan to forcibly resettle Negev Bedouins prompts global protests

Our Compass: Nelson Mandela by Salam Fayyad of Palestine

UNRWA digitizes Palestinian refugee experience, documenting the mass displacement of Palestinians from 1948 to the present day.

New York Times: Photographs Tell a History of Palestinians Unmoored

THE ECONOMIST: "Nobody knows whether the gamble with Iran will pay off. But it is already clear that the risks are low, the prize is potentially vast—and the alternative is dire."

International Emmys Award for Best Documentary to "5 Broken Cameras" in which a Palestinian farmer examines upheaval in a West Bank village.

Arab Idol Assaf in appeal for UN Palestinian agency

A Palestinian human rights group urges tougher EU measures on Israeli settler violence

ATFP Hopes Iran Deal Will Enhance Middle East Stability and Security ATFP provides an independent voice for Palestinian-Americans and their supporters and advances human rights and peace. It categorically and unequivocally condemns all violence against civilians, no matter the cause and who the victims or perpetrators may be.

Voicing solidarity with Palestinian cause, UN officials stress importance of resumed peace talks

The Office of International Religious Freedom ( http://www.state.gov/j/drl/irf/)   Given the U.S. commitment to religious freedom, and to the international covenants that guarantee it as the inalienable right of every human being, the United States seeks to:

Promote freedom of religion and conscience throughout the world as a fundamental human right and as a source of stability for all countries

Why Muslims should love secularism: Though secularism is widely misunderstood as anti-religious and iconoclastic, all it means is the neutrality of the state on religious affairs ...  "Muslims must recognize secularism as the only real path to religious freedom, rather than confusing it with an attack against religion." Hussein Ibish

Bible scholars: Zionists have 'weaponized' scripture: "One bad (theological) interpreter is worse than 100 terrorists..."

Israeli soldiers destroy 60 olive trees near Bethlehem... IT ADDS UP: Since 1967, 800,000 Palestinian olive trees have been uprooted by Israelis in the occupied West Bank

NGO: Israel okays 829 new settler homes in West Bank

Destruction and Appropriation of Palestinian Heritage .... Palestine & UNESCO Protecting heritage and reasserting sovereignty : The first installment of a two-part policy brief from Al-Shabaka, the Palestinian Policy Network.

UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon: JFK left indelible imprint on me

Israelis and Palestinians must refrain from undermining renewed talks... Settlement plans threaten renewed hopes for Israeli-Palestinian peace, UN envoy warns

It is widely accepted that under international law, the Jewish settlements in the territories occupied by Israel in 1967 are illegal. Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the protection of civilian persons... "The occupying power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own population into the territories it occupies." BBC News

Poll: Oslo brought 'political normalization' but no benefits "83.3 percent of the respondents believe that settlement construction increased “unprecedentedly” in the Palestinian territory as a result of the Oslo Accord."

Israel's policy of erasure : A path to peace between Israelis and Palestinians requires not simply dealing with settlements but with the whole complex of displacement, suffocation and erasure.

"Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home - so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world. Yet they are the world of the individual person; the neighborhood he lives in; the school or college he attends; the factory, farm, or office where he works. Such are the places where every man, woman, and child seeks equal justice, equal opportunity, equal dignity without discrimination. Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere. Without concerted citizen action to uphold them close to home, we shall look in vain for progress in the larger world." Eleanor Roosevelt

UNITED NATIONS 2013: The nations of the world call on Israel to comply with its obligations under international law, the 2004 advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice concerning the apartheid wall and all UN resolutions.

2013: Palestine refugees’ properties and their revenues ...Recalling its resolutions 194 (III) of 11 December 1948 and 36/146 C of 16 December 1981 and all its subsequent resolutions on the question

"The direct threat to Israeli and Palestinian existence — and, in fact, to the existence of all peoples in the region — is the absence of peace in Palestine." Ahmad Y. Majdoubeh in The Jordan Times

Palestinian Refugees (1948-NOW) refused their right to return... and their right to live in peace free from religious bigotry and injustice.

Christians are being driven out of regions around the world where they are a minority

Palestinian villages subject to Israeli mock raids not told they are exercises: Israeli military rejects complaints by Israeli human rights group Yesh Din over 'training' arrests of Arabs and raids on homes

Washington Post 2013: Israeli hard-liners eye West Bank

Israeli Settler Violence Map

'It is where religious freedom is most dishonored or repressed that the forces of violent religious extremism are likely to thrive.' Katrina Lantos Swett, vice chairwoman of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom: JFK's call for religious freedom can transform...

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights: Article 1

• All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

The Golden Rule... Do unto others as you would have them do unto you

Live by the Golden Rule

Dear President Obama... Let Freedom Ring

194

Globalizing Martin Luther King, Jr.


This Week in Palestine: In Palestine we have no physical control over our borders, and therefore have no say in how anyone could be treated at any given moment in time. But what we do have control of is the Palestine we write about, describe, and photograph in the folds of this issue’s pages.

At ATFP Gala, White House Reaffirms Commitment to Palestinian State, Opposition to Settlements and Settler Violence

"The only way to honor our tragic histories is to create a future for our children free of man-made tragedy. This means making peace fully, completely and without reservation, between Israel and Palestine." ATFP's Ziad Asali: To honor a tragic history, we must work for peace

Pomegranates in season along the path!

The Arab Peace Initiative

1. Requests Israel to reconsider its policies and declare that a just peace is its strategic option as well.

2. Further calls upon Israel to affirm:

I- Full Israeli withdrawal from all the territories occupied since 1967, including the Syrian Golan Heights, to the June 4, 1967 lines as well as the remaining occupied Lebanese territories in the south of Lebanon.

II- Achievement of a just solution to the Palestinian refugee problem to be agreed upon in accordance with U.N. General Assembly Resolution 194.

III- The acceptance of the establishment of a sovereign independent Palestinian state on the Palestinian territories occupied since June 4, 1967 in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, with East Jerusalem as its capital.

3. Consequently, the Arab countries affirm the following:

I- Consider the Arab-Israeli conflict ended, and enter into a peace agreement with Israel, and provide security for all the states of the region.

II- Establish normal relations with Israel in the context of this comprehensive peace.

Jordan's King Abdullah II explains that extremism has "grown fat" off of the longstanding conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.

The Charter for Compassion is a call to restore the Golden Rule to the center of religious, moral and civic life. The path to a just economy and a peaceful world requires listening, understanding and treating all others as we wish to be treated ourselves.

Freedom for Palestine - OneWorld

 

 

***

Dome of the Rock tile detail
During the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent the exterior of the Dome of the Rock was covered with tiles. The work took seven years. Haj Amin Al-Husseini, appointed Grand Mufti by the British, along with Yaqub al-Ghusayn implemented the restoration of Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.
In 1955, an extensive program of renovation was begun by the government of Jordan, with funds supplied by the Arab governments and Turkey. The work included replacement of large numbers of tiles dating back to the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent, which had become dislodged by heavy rain. In 1965, as part of this restoration, the dome was covered with a durable aluminum bronze alloy made in Italy, that replaced the lead exterior.^[11] The restoration was completed in August 1964. In 1993, the golden dome covering was refurbished following a donation of $8.2 million by King Hussein of Jordan who sold one of his houses in London to fund the 80 kilograms of gold required.

 

Dome of the Rock interior (1914): The interior of the dome is lavishly decorated with mosaic, faience and marble, much of which was added several centuries after its completion. It also contains Qur'anic inscriptions. Sura Ya-Seen is inscribed across the top of the tile work and was commissioned in the 16th century by Suleiman the Magnificent. Al-Isra is inscribed above this.