Status quo at Jerusalem's holiest site under threat as Israeli nationalists flout rules

"The whole land of Israel was promised to the children of God… and this is where we are going to build a new Temple for the entire humanity to come and pray together."

Those were the potentially incendiary words of Moshe Feiglin, a right-wing nationalist Israeli politician, who spoke to me as he came down from the al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem, where he had been praying and singing religious songs with a group of around 20 other religious Jews.

Feiglin spoke openly and clearly, almost as if his argument was neither controversial nor contested.

But what he was saying and doing was in complete contravention of a sensitive agreement that seeks to maintain the peace at one of the most holy and emotionally charged places on Earth.

For Moshe Feiglin and others like him, it is simple. They want to build a huge new Jewish temple on the very site which, for the last 1,400 years, has been one of the most sacred places in Islam - al-Aqsa.

The compound - also known to Muslims as al-Haram al-Sharif (Noble Sanctuary), and to Jews as the Temple Mount - is one of the most recognisable and visually impressive sites in the Middle East.

The gold-covered Dome of the Rock dominates the 35-acre site and can be seen for miles around. Al-Aqsa is mentioned in the Quran, and it is from where Muslims believe the Prophet Muhammad ascended to Heaven. It is also a site reserved exclusively for Muslim prayer – but is that about to change?

The site is also the most important place in Judaism. Below the compound, alongside its supporting Western Wall, Jews pray and mourn the destruction by the Romans of the Jewish Temple on the platform above, almost 2,000 years ago.