Americans for Justice in Palestine Action (AJP Action) strongly condemns extremist Israeli minister Itamar Ben-Gvir’s latest provocation in the Old City of Jerusalem and at Al-Aqsa, alongside the Israeli government’s ongoing escalations. Ben-Gvir’s storming of the Al-Aqsa compound alongside extremist settler incursions and nationalist marches through Palestinian neighborhoods is a deliberate act of aggression meant to inflame tensions across occupied Palestine and throughout the region.

Today, Israeli authorities restricted Palestinian Muslim access around Al-Aqsa and the Old City while thousands of ultranationalist Israelis marched through occupied East Jerusalem under heavy police protection. Palestinian residents and shopkeepers were forced off the streets as marchers chanted racist slogans, including “Death to Arabs” and “May your villages burn.” At the same time, Ben-Gvir entered the Al-Aqsa compound and openly asserted Israeli control over one of the holiest sites in Islam.

As we commemorate 78 years of the Nakba tomorrow, these actions are yet another reminder that the Nakba is not merely a historical event confined to the past. It continues through the forced displacement of Palestinians, the seizure and expansion of Palestinian land, attacks on holy sites, the entrenchment of apartheid systems, and the constant attempt to erase Palestinian presence, identity, and belonging from Jerusalem and all of historic Palestine.

Al-Aqsa is the third-holiest site in Islam and one of the most enduring symbols of Palestinian heritage, identity, and existence. Repeated attacks on the sanctity of Al-Aqsa, combined with the humiliation and restriction of Palestinian worshippers, are part of a broader strategy to maintain domination through constant provocation, fear, and instability.

The United States must stop enabling this dangerous trajectory. A foreign policy that continues to provide unconditional military, diplomatic, and political support to the Israeli government while it attacks religious freedoms and escalates tensions at sacred sites is not contributing to peace or stability. It is fueling the very instability it claims to oppose.

We reject the normalization of these assaults on Palestinian life, worship, and dignity. We reject the idea that extremist violence and collective humiliation should be accepted as routine. And we call on people around the world to raise their voices against these escalating attacks on Palestinians, on Jerusalem, and on the sanctity of Al-Aqsa itself.