Jordan slams Israel for Al-Aqsa Mosque restrictions

Al-Aqsa Mosque

Jordan’s foreign minister slammed Israeli restrictions on Muslim access to Al-Aqsa Mosque on March 11th, according to Reuters.

In a joint press conference with Vatican foreign minister, Archbishop Paul Gallagher, Jordan’s Ayman Safadi said that such restrictions during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan were pushing the situation in Jerusalem towards “explosion.”

Safadi stated that his country rejected Israel’s move to limit access to worshipers, which it based on security concerns amid its ongoing war in Gaza, warning that “desecrating the sanctity of Al-Aqsa Mosque is playing with fire.”

After recent calls from hard-right Israeli Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir for tougher restrictions for Muslim worshipers, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said admittance numbers would be similar to last year’s.

The third holiest shrine in Islam, Al-Aqsa is also the site of the Jewish Temple Mount and has been a longstanding flashpoint for clashes between followers of the faiths in Jerusalem. Safadi’s comments echo the Palestinian view that restricting access for Muslim worshipers is an attack on religious freedom.

A 1924 decision by the Supreme Muslim Council, the highest body in charge of Muslim community affairs in Mandatory Palestine, custodianship of Al-Aqsa fell to Jordan’s then-king, Hussain Bin Ali, grandfather of King Abdullah II.

Upon the 1994 Israel-Jordan peace treaty, Jordan was internationally recognised as custodian to all Christian and Muslim hold sites in Jerusalem. While restricting access to Al-Aqsa for Muslims, Israel purportedly allows far-right Jewish worshipers to act with impunity in the compound, according to Middle East Monitor.

Safadi also claimed that Israel risked wider violence in the occupied West bank, citing measures to accelerate Jewish settlement building on Arab land amid “terror attacks” by armed settlers on Palestinians.

“The West Bank is boiling,” he added.

READ: US slaps sanctions on Israeli settlers in West Bank

The Israeli-occupied West Bank has seen around 400 Palestinians killed in clashes with security forces or Jewish settlers since the outbreak of the Israel-Gaza war, on October 7th, 2023.

“Ramadan comes with Gaza bombed by Israel and women unable to find food for their children and five months that have passed with the world failing to preserve human dignity,” Safadi stated.

On October 7th, Palestinian Hamas militants attacked southern Israel and killed around 1,200 people, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures. Israel’s retaliatory bombardment and invasion of Gaza has killed over 31, 341 people, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry’s estimates.

READ: Borrell attacks Israel: Starvation as a “war arm”

While the UN warns of an impending famine in the besieged enclave, with reports citing at least 27 people to have already died from starvation, Israel denies responsibility for widespread hunger or targeting civilians.

Reuters / Middle East Monitor / AFP

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