As the Jewish month of Elul begins, the Palestinian Authority warns that Jews blowing the shofar at the Al-Aqsa compound is not a ritual but a sovereignty move to “Judaize” the site.
The Jerusalem District of the Palestinian Authority (PA) issued a fiery warning Monday, denouncing the blowing of the shofar at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound as a threat to the mosque’s “Islamic identity” and a tool to advance Israeli sovereignty over the contested holy site.
In an official statement, PA officials argued the shofar is “not merely a religious ritual” but rather “a dangerous instrument through which Israel seeks to alter the historical and legal status of Al-Aqsa.”
The PA accused so-called “extremist Temple Mount organizations” of conducting the ritual with the protection of Israeli police, calling it “a direct attack on the Islamic character of the mosque and a blatant violation of international law.”
The statement cited the symbolic role of the shofar in Jewish history, pointing to Rabbi Shlomo Goren’s shofar blast after the liberation of Jerusalem’s Old City in 1967, claiming Israel is now attempting to repeat that symbolism to project control over the site.
According to the PA, the renewed shofar-blowing is part of a larger Israeli plan to divide the Temple Mount by time and space between Jews and Muslims, and eventually to “Judaize the site and build the Temple.”
The warning highlights how even a single religious sound—the ancient shofar—has become a flashpoint in the struggle over sovereignty, identity, and control of Jerusalem’s holiest site.
