Jordan Times
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Kingdom condemns Israeli
provocations around Al Aqsa
JT and Agencies
Jordan on Monday condemned the restoration of the Hurva synagogue near Al Aqsa
Mosque and recent Israeli incursions into the mosque, the Jordan News Agency,
Petra, reported.
Minister of State for Media Affairs and Communications and Government
Spokesperson Nabil Sharif underlined that Jerusalem is a "red line" for Jordan,
reiterating the Kingdom's rejection of Israeli measures to alter the identity of
Jerusalem, particularly its holy sites.
Sharif stressed that these measures violate international law, under which all
territories Israel seized in 1967 are considered occupied lands. He added that
the Israeli measures, such as settlement activities, do not serve efforts to
launch the peace process.
He highlighted that the Old City of Jerusalem was included in the list of World
Heritage Sites upon a Jordanian request in 1981, stressing that any changes in
this area in particular are considered a violation of international law.
Also Monday, Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh reiterated Jordan’s rejection of all
unilateral Israeli measures in the Palestinian territories that jeopardise
efforts to achieve peace and stability in the region, Petra reported.
During a meeting with visiting Cypriot Foreign Minister Markos Kyprianou, Judeh
condemned the recent Israeli decision to build more settlements in occupied East
Jerusalem as well as all its measures to change the identity of the city and
threaten its holy places, calling for an immediate end to such provocative
measures.
Israeli police on Monday maintained restrictions on access to Al Aqsa Mosque
compound - Islam’s third holiest site - for the fourth day running amid tensions
in Jerusalem, Agence France-Presse reported.
Authorities fear renewed clashes could follow the formal reopening of a landmark
synagogue in Jerusalem’s walled Old City, in mainly Arab East Jerusalem.
“Considering the risk of trouble, we maintain the state of alert and
restrictions on access to the Temple Mount,” said police spokesman Micky
Rosenfeld.
Since Friday, men under the age of 50 are barred from entering the compound, as
are non-Muslims.
The compound housing Al Aqsa and the Dome of the Rock is Islam’s third holiest
site after Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia. Jews call the site the Temple Mount
and consider it to be Judaism’s holiest site.
Police clashed with protesters at the compound on March 5 and again last Friday.
Tensions have spiralled following Israel’s announcement that it will build 1,600
new homes for Jewish settlers in mostly Arab East Jerusalem, which Palestinians
consider to be the capital of their future state.
Palestinians decided to hold a two-hour strike in Jerusalem on Monday.
The decision to rebuild the 1694 synagogue further fuelled tensions. The
synagogue was first destroyed by Ottoman authorities 21 years after it was
built. The site lay empty for many years, during which it acquired the name “Hurva”,
Hebrew for ruin.
It was rebuilt in 1864, then blown to pieces in 1948 as troops of the newly
established state of Israel battled Jordanian soldiers for control of the city.
Israel has also extended a lockdown on the occupied West Bank that started on
Friday.
In Amman, on Monday, the Islamist movement called for widespread demonstrations
to protest Israel’s “hostile and provocative” measures against Al Aqsa.
At a press conference yesterday, overall leader of the Muslim Brotherhood Hamam
Saeed called for millions of Muslims across the world to rally behind the holy
site in a “day of anger”.
“When Israel began its aggressive policy to gain control over Muslim holy sites
across Palestine, there was no action from the Arab and Muslim worlds. Now it is
a different game, this is Al Aqsa Mosque, we cannot be silent about it,” said
Saeed.
He called for an urgent meeting of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference to
discuss and respond to Israel’s actions.
“If the conference does not hold its meetings within the coming few days, then
we do not see any need for its existence,” said Saeed, noting that the Islamist
movement plans to hold a rally at the headquarters of the professional
associations today.
He also vilified the Palestinian National Authority for its lack of response to
measures by the Israeli government.
“It is a shame that the Palestinian Authority calls for a two-hour strike across
the Palestinian territories. Al Aqsa Mosque deserves more,” he added.
Settlement row
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected on Monday any curbs on Jewish
settlement in and around Jerusalem, defying Washington in Israel’s deepening
crisis with US President Barack Obama’s administration, Reuters reported.
“For the past 40 years, no Israeli government ever limited construction in the
neighbourhoods of Jerusalem,” he said in a speech in parliament, citing areas in
the West Bank that Israel occupied in a 1967 war and annexed to the city.
The United States has condemned Israel’s plan to build 1,600 new homes for Jews
in Ramat Shlomo, a religious settlement within the Israeli-designated borders of
Jerusalem, whose future status is at the heart of the Middle East conflict.
Israel’s announcement of the project during a visit last week by US Vice
President Joe Biden embarrassed the White House. US Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton, in unusually blunt remarks, called it an insult.
The Palestinians, who had just agreed to begin indirect peace talks under US
mediation, said they would not go ahead unless the plan was scrapped. Israel has
said construction at the site would not begin for several years.
In parliament, Netanyahu, who heads a coalition that includes pro-settler
parties, including his own, said there was nearly total consensus in Israel that
annexed areas of Jerusalem would be part of Israel in any future peace deal.
He made the comments - signalling to Washington he believed he had political
backing at home to withstand pressure over Jerusalem - after Israeli media said
Clinton had demanded the decision to build in Ramat Shlomo be reversed.
Netanyahu imposed a limited moratorium on new housing starts in West Bank
settlements in November but excluded Jerusalem from the 10-month partial freeze
that Palestinians termed inadequate and the Obama administration welcomed at the
time.
On Sunday, Netanyahu tried to play down what his envoy to Washington was
reported to have described as a “crisis of historic proportions”, voicing regret
at a Cabinet meeting for the timing of the Ramat Shlomo project’s announcement.
The rift with Washington has raised concern in Israel that security cooperation
with the United States in the face of a possible nuclear-armed Iran might be
compromised.
In the West Bank city of Ramallah, Nabil Abu Rudeina, an aide to Palestinian
President Mahmoud Abbas, responded to Netanyahu’s comments at the parliamentary
session by pledging again not to return to peace talks until settlement was
halted.
Abbas had voiced that demand in resisting US calls to revive negotiations
suspended since December 2008 but agreed last week to indirect talks after
receiving backing from the Arab League and the Palestine Liberation Organisation.
Obama’s Middle East envoy, George Mitchell, was expected to return to the region
later this week to try to get negotiations underway.
In the West Bank, Israeli troops injured at least seven Palestinians during a
rock-throwing protest against the Ramat Shlomo project and Israel’s consecration
of the Hurva synagogue in the Jewish quarter inside Jerusalem’s walled Old City,
a tinderbox site in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Palestinians said the soldiers had fired live rounds at the demonstrators but
the Israeli military denied this, saying crowd-dispersal measures had been
employed.
Tensions between Palestinians and Israel, which has occupied the West Bank since
1967, have escalated in recent weeks following an Israeli government decision to
include West Bank religious sites in a Jewish national heritage plan.
Citing biblical and historical links, Israel sees all of Jerusalem as its
capital, a claim that is not recognised internationally. Palestinians want East
Jerusalem to be the capital of a future state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Some 500,000 Jews live in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, which was also
occupied by Israel in 1967. There are about 2.5 million Palestinians in the same
areas.
(Mohammad Ben Hussein contributed to this story)