MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
In most Muslim countries, Ramadan ends tonight, and the feast of Eid begins tomorrow. Usually a time of community and joy, this year's celebrations are marred by the war in Iran. In Israel, authorities are prohibiting worshippers at the Al-Aqsa Mosque. That's the third holiest site in Islam. The reason, they say, is a wartime safety limit on public gatherings. Other major religious sites in Jerusalem's Old City are facing restrictions too. But as NPR's Carrie Kahn reports, Palestinians are worried the Al-Aqsa closure is the latest move to undermine Muslim control of the holy site.
SAMI EZZAT: (Non-English language spoken).
CARRIE KAHN, BYLINE: Sami Ezzat is in the back of his small bakery in the Muslim quarter in Jerusalem's Old City with his cousin and a friend. The men are preparing the sweet Eid cookies maamoul.
EZZAT: (Non-English language spoken).
KAHN: "It's saffron and turmeric that gives the dough its vibrant yellow color," he says, as he fills a small amount with blended dates and nuts. The affable 56-year-old took over the small shop from his dad, who opened it more than 60 years ago. But Ezzat says he's never experienced a Ramadan as tough as this one.
EZZAT: (Non-English language spoken).
KAHN: "This year, we don't have Ramadan. They canceled it for us," he says. "It's hard to find the happiness this year." Since Al-Aqsa Mosque was closed at the start of the war with Iran nearly three weeks ago, he says business has dropped almost 80%. Usually, worshippers from all over Israel and the occupied West Bank come daily to pray and gather with family and friends on the expansive compound.
(SOUNDBITE OF METAL CART RATTLING)
KAHN: But now it's eerily empty. The rattling of an elderly man's metal cart bounces off the quarter's high stone walls as he finds few shops open.
SHEIKH OMAR AL-KISWANI: (Non-English language spoken).
KAHN: "This is painful for every Muslim to see the Old City empty of its people," says Sheikh Omar al-Kiswani, the director of the Al-Aqsa Mosque. He says no worshippers are allowed in. Just 29 people. That's just staff members and himself.
AL-KISWANI: (Non-English language spoken).
KAHN: "We have the right to open our mosque," he says, "but the Israelis use the excuse of the war to say it's not safe for us to gather." Palestinians have widely condemned the closure, saying it's just the latest move to undermine the decades-long status quo agreement of Muslims' control over Al-Aqsa.
UNIDENTIFIED GUARD: (Non-English language spoken).
KAHN: Nearby in the Jewish quarter of the Old City, a guard counts off worshippers allowed into the compound of the Western Wall, one of Judaism's holiest prayer sites. Authorities let 50 people at a time, since they say the compound has a fortified bunker to shelter from incoming missiles. The Western Wall's head rabbi, Shmuel Rabinowitz, says he believes the restrictions will ease soon since Israel is winning the war.
SHMUEL RABINOWITZ: (Non-English language spoken).
KAHN: "For now, though," he says, "we're asking everyone to pray a little faster so others can get in." As Ramadan ends tonight, Mustafa Abu Sway, the deputy head of the Islamic authority that manages Al-Aqsa Mosque, says there is much sadness. The 68-year-old Islamic scholar says he's always celebrated Ramadan at Al-Aqsa since he was a boy. He says this is the first time it has been closed since the 1967 war, when Israel seized East Jerusalem from Jordan. To him, Israel's security concerns ring hollow. There are plenty of subterranean tunnels in the compound that have survived millennia, he says. People can shelter there.
MUSTAFA ABU SWAY: Yes, it might entail a certain risk, but what else? Just simply stay inside and get more and more depressed?
KAHN: Before we end our interview, sirens go off, ringing throughout East Jerusalem.
(SOUNDBITE OF SIRENS)
KAHN: Fragments from that intercepted missile fell in the Old City in the compound of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, one of Christianity's holiest sites, which too is closed to all worshippers. Carrie Kahn, NPR News, Jerusalem. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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