Jihad Nasser Qawas, a Palestinian-Jerusalem activist who disrupts Jewish visits to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem and is known as a murabit, was arrested last Friday at the entrance to the Lions’ Gate as he was preparing to enter Al-Aqsa Mosque. According to an estimate by the Islamic Waqf, more than 70,000 worshippers were present at the Temple Mount on Friday.
Qawas, a member of Jerusalem’s Afro-Palestinian community, is regarded by the Israeli security forces as an agitator at the Temple Mount. Among Palestinians in East Jerusalem, however, he is known as one of the record holders for administrative exclusion orders from the compound.
Who Is Jihad Qawas, the Temple Mount Ban Record Holder?
For most Palestinian residents of the Muslim Quarter in Jerusalem’s Old City, Bab al-Nazir, also known as the Inspector’s Gate, is simply another routine entrance to the Temple Mount compound. For 32-year-old Jihad Nasser Qawas, the gate is the starting point for a continuing series of confrontations.
Qawas, who was born in 1994 and grew up only meters from the compound’s gates, holds an unofficial title that is widely recognized on the streets of East Jerusalem: “the record holder for bans and preventive arrests from Al-Aqsa Mosque.”
Qawas is not an armed terrorist and has not carried out terrorist attacks, but his activities are regarded as serious. He is a political and religious field activist defined as a murabit, or defender of the faith. In recent years, his main activity has been organizing and leading groups of murabitun – Muslim gatherings intended to maintain a continuous presence on the Temple Mount, obstruct Jewish visits and preserve what participants view as the site’s exclusively Muslim identity. This activity has made him a central target of the Israel Police and the Israel Security Agency.
Over the years, Qawas has been arrested and detained dozens of times. Enforcement measures against him have included an almost uninterrupted chain of administrative exclusion orders, ranging from several weeks ahead of Jewish holidays to lengthy bans lasting four to six months at a time. When caught violating these orders or becoming involved in physical confrontations, he has been prosecuted in the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court for disturbing the peace, unlawful assembly and assaulting police officers.
He has served countless short detention periods, been placed under house arrest outside the Old City, and received fines and suspended prison sentences. Administrative orders have also prevented him from leaving the country, due to concerns that he could denounce Israel abroad and raise funds for murabitun activity.
Qawas inherited his opposition to the Jewish presence in East Jerusalem, and particularly on the Temple Mount, at home. His father, Nasser Qawas, is a senior Fatah figure in the Old City who previously served as director of the Palestinian Prisoners Club in Jerusalem and as Fatah’s secretary in the city. His father has also been arrested and imprisoned numerous times, including after leading the breach of the Bab al-Rahma, or Gate of Mercy, compound in 2019.
In Palestinian media and on social networks, Jihad Qawas is treated as a popular hero and a symbol of sumud, or steadfastness. Photographs and videos showing him praying outside the compound’s gates during periods of exclusion, or smiling at cameras while being led away in handcuffs, regularly receive thousands of shares and serve as a prominent propaganda tool against Israeli sovereignty in East Jerusalem and the Jewish presence on the Temple Mount.
