Early October 2016, Misbah Abu Sbeih left his wife and five children at home and drove to an Israeli police station in occupied East Jerusalem. The thirty-nine-year-old Jerusalemite was scheduled to hand himself over to serve a four-month term for, allegedly, “trying to hit an Israeli soldier.”

Misbah was familiar with Israeli prisons, having been held there before on political charges, including an attempt to sneak into and pray at Al-Aqsa Mosque. Al-Aqsa Mosque is part of a large compound known as Haram al-Sharif, which includes the famed Dome of the Rock and other Palestinian Muslim sites, revered by Muslims across the globe.

Al-Aqsa is believed to be the second mosque ever built, the first being Masjid al-Haram in Mecca. The Quran mentions it as the place from which Prophet Mohammed ascended to heaven, journeying from Mecca to Jerusalem. For Palestinians, Muslims, and Christians alike, the mosque took on a new meaning following the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian city of al-Quds (Jerusalem) in 1967.