WAFA: All 144 dunams of Al-Aqsa are Islamic Waqf
Headline: "The Jerusalem District warns of the implications of a new Israeli law determining that interference in religious acts in public places is a crime"
"The Jerusalem District warned of the serious dangers of the new Israeli bill that was approved yesterday, Wednesday, [Dec. 17, 2025,] in a preliminary reading at the Israeli Parliament, which determines that ‘interference in religious acts in public places' is a crime. It emphasized that implementation of this law on the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque courtyards as a public space constitutes a direct and severe threat to the historical and legal status quo of the Al-Aqsa Mosque as an Islamic place of worship only that belongs solely to the Muslims...
In its statement the district emphasized that the danger of this law lies in the possibility of exploiting it to establish a new reality in the Al-Aqsa Mosque plazas, so that it will be forbidden for the Al-Aqsa Mosque guards or any other entity to fulfill their duty and prevent non-Islamic religious ritual acts in its plazas, under the pretext that these are ‘religious acts protected by law' in a ‘public space' – which effectively paves the way for imposing a division according to times and areas (see note below -Ed.), changing the identity of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and blurring its Islamic character...
It emphasized that the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque, with all its 144 dunams (i.e., 144,000 sq. meters), is solely an Islamic waqf (i.e., an inalienable religious endowment in Islamic law; see note below), which should not be subjected to any internal Israeli legislation, or be considered a public place subject to ‘public space' laws...
The district also noted that if the law comes into effect, it could be used to prevent any intervention by the Al-Aqsa Mosque guards or the Islamic Endowments Department in Jerusalem, including preventing invasions or public Talmudic (i.e., Jewish) rituals in the plazas, which could open the door to a dangerous escalation and deliberate provocations by extremist groups."
[WAFA, official PA news agency, Dec. 18, 2025]