Jordan Times
Friday, February 20, 2004
RCJA calls for Israeli compliance with UN resolutions
AMMAN/GAZA (Petra) — The Royal Committee for Jerusalem Affairs (RCJA) on Wednesday called for Arab and international measures to ensure Israel's compliance with UN resolutions on the Palestinian issue, Jerusalem and the Middle East conflict.In a statement, RCJA Secretary General Abdullah Kanaan urged the Arab League, the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, world countries and bodies concerned with enforcing international law to respond to what he called “Israel's insistence on defying the world community's will and decisions.”
In related development, the Palestinian National Authority sent a letter to awqaf and Islamic affairs' ministries in Arab and Muslim countries, calling for urgent action to save Al Aqsa Mosque, the third holiest shrine in Islam.
Undersecretary of the PNA Awqaf Minister Sheikh Yousef Salamah charged that Jewish extremists have been planning for years to demolish the shrine, noting that Israeli authorities are barring worshippers from entering the mosque.
Agency reports that the collapse of part of a stone embankment adjacent to Jerusalem's Maghariba (Western) Wall during a rare snowstorm earlier this week, added fuel to the Muslim-Jewish feud over the compound, holy to both sides.
The wall itself and the shrine, which Muslims call Al Haram Al Sharif, were undamaged, Reuters reported on Sunday.
Israelis were quoted by the agency as claiming that construction by Arabs was making the area unstable, but the awqaf directorate blamed Israeli building work nearby for the problem.
Awqaf Director Adnan Husseini told Reuters that Israeli renovations of the “Western Wall” for some time was probably the cause of the problem.