A quarter of a century on the Wadi Araba .. Israel escalates its violations of the Jordanian tutelage over Jerusalem

Mahmoud al-Sharaan-Amman

“The key to peace,” the signatories of the Jordanian-Israeli peace treaty to the occupied city of Jerusalem in October 1994, but the city and its sanctities, which the treaty provided for under Jordanian supervision, knew chapters that did not stop violations, and continues to this day.

Israeli assaults on Jerusalem and its Islamic and Christian holy sites have varied from settlements, to continued intrusions by settlers, the closure of Al-Aqsa Mosque and the prohibition of prayers there, and excavations under the Temple Mount to plans to divide it temporally and spatially.

Peace Agreement
Article 9 of the Jordan-Israel Peace Treaty, known as Wadi Araba, on places of historical and religious significance, has three main points:

• First, each party will grant the other party access to places of religious and historical significance.
Second: In this regard, and in line with the Washington Declaration, Israel respects the current special role of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan in the Islamic holy places in Jerusalem. When final status negotiations are held, Israel will give high priority to the historic Jordanian role in these places.
Third, the two parties will work together to promote dialogue among the three monotheistic religions with the aim of building religious understanding, moral commitment, freedom of worship, tolerance and peace.

Increasing targeting
However, the official and popular Jordanian authorities continuously monitor violations by the Israeli side of its treaty obligations in relation to Jerusalem.

Two years after it was signed, Israel committed the second Al-Aqsa massacre, following the outbreak of a Palestinian intifada on September 25, 1996, after the Israeli occupation opened a tunnel under the Al-Aqsa Mosque, in which 63 Palestinians were killed.

Four years later, the second Palestinian intifada (uprising) erupted from the center of the Al-Aqsa Mosque after its storming of former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. By the beginning of the third millennium, the occupying power sought to intensify its plans to divide the Al-Aqsa Mosque between Muslims and Jews.

The Jordanian role
The Jordanian Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Holy Sites is responsible for the file of Jerusalem, Islamic and Christian holy sites.

The Jordanian role in Al-Aqsa and sanctities is represented in four main areas: administration, care and reconstruction of Al-Aqsa Mosque, responsibility for the documentation, management and maintenance of Islamic endowments in Jerusalem, the legal judiciary in Jerusalem as a whole, and the organization of the work of the Arab Churches and the Orthodox Church in Jerusalem.

Recently, Jordanian and Palestinian fears have arisen of the withdrawal of Jordanian tutelage over Islamic and Christian holy sites for the benefit of Arab parties.

Regarding the Israeli violations against Al-Aqsa Mosque, Jordanian Minister of Awqaf Abdul Nasser Abul-Basal says that the ministry is monitoring the continuous attacks against Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Holy City.

Al - Aqsa Fatwa
Abu Al-Basal, during his talk with Al-Jazeera Net, calls for reconsidering the previous fatwa that prohibits visiting Jerusalem in light of the occupation, especially that the circumstances of the previous fatwa changed, and today the occupation exploits the vacuum of Al-Aqsa Mosque of worshipers and visitors to change the reality there through intrusions and temporal division. And spatial.

The minister added that visiting the Al-Aqsa Mosque and not emptying it of worshipers and visitors is a way to reduce the occupation of the mosque, and thus miss the opportunity on the occupation, stressing the need to support the steadfastness of Jerusalemites and work to strengthen them economically and socially at all levels and not leave them alone in the face of the occupation.

According to Minister Abul Basal, the Department of Islamic Endowments is the sole guardian of the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Islamic and Christian holy sites in Jerusalem legally, legally and historically.

It shows that Jerusalemites and the Palestinian authorities have supported the Hashemite tutelage over the Al Aqsa Mosque over the years, most recently in 2013 when Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas supported it.

Withdrawal of guardianship
Regarding the attempts of some parties to undermine the Hashemite guardianship over the holy sites, he asserts that no Islamic party can take this tutelage from Jordan because it is a historical and actual reality, and because it is a legitimate and legal reference from the religious and political points of view.

The minister warns that the custodianship of the sanctuaries will devolve to the non-management of Islamic endowments so as not to happen what does not thank the consequences of religious conflict over the Al-Aqsa Mosque, which is what endowments work by rejecting the spatial and temporal division of the mosque.

However, Jordanian parliamentarian and expert on Jerusalem affairs Saud Abu Mahfouz said that there is a series of retreats to the Ministry of Awqaf that enabled Zionist extremists to escalate abuses and achieve new gains, bypassing public prayers inside the Al-Aqsa Mosque to practice their Talmudic rituals and myths.

Agreement 2015
On October 24, 2015, Jordan and Israel signed a sub-agreement on the US-sponsored Al-Aqsa Mosque, which included the following declared clauses:

1. Israel shall respect the special role of Jordan as set forth in the Peace Agreement between the Parties and the historic role of King Abdullah II.

2. Israel will continue to implement its consistent policy of religious worship in the Al-Aqsa Mosque, including the fundamental fact that "Muslims are the ones praying" and that "non-Muslims are visiting".
3 - Israel refuses to divide the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and rejects any attempt to say otherwise.
4. Israel welcomes the increased coordination between the Israeli authorities and the waqf administration, including “ensuring that visitors and worshipers show discipline and respect the sanctity of the place in accordance with their respective responsibilities”.
5. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's approval of Jordan's proposal to "provide" 24-hour video coverage of all sites inside the Al-Aqsa Mosque, providing a "comprehensive and transparent" record of what is happening, which may discourage anyone who attempts to distort the sanctity of the place.

The most dangerous juncture
A report by the Jerusalem International Foundation revealed that 2010 is "the most dangerous turning point for the Jews to start building huge Jewish monuments in the vicinity of Al-Aqsa." The Al-Kharab Synagogue, the largest in the Old City, opened a few meters from the mosque.

"The massive aggression against Jerusalem has the broad title of control over the land, demographic replacement and the religious and cultural Judaization of the city," said Ziad Bahis, a Jerusalem expert.

He adds to the island Net that the project of Judaization of Al-Aqsa is based on an active mass of Zionist extremists, termed the so-called "groups of the Temple", and saw a gradual rise in parliamentary influence from two deputies in 2003 to 17 deputies in the current Knesset, and the lack of government weight to be owned today 14 ministers in the current caretaker government led by Benjamin Netanyahu.

"With its rise, it adopted the project of temporal and spatial division as a phased project that fits with the reality that I found, but it still looks forward to the complete replacement of the structure in the place of Al-Aqsa," according to Bahis.

The decline of the Jordanian role
He speaks with caution about the decline formed by the "Wadi Araba" agreement in the definition of the Jordanian role, as it separates it on two fronts: First, it stipulated that "Israel will give high priority to the Jordanian historical role in the holy places", and in any final agreement, the agreement made the occupation entity in a position The inherent who decides the roles.

The second regression, according to Bahis, was to reduce those four areas to the Holy Places only, after they included the four points.

Regarding the attempts to withdraw the mandate of the holy sites in Jerusalem from Jordan, he believes that the Jordanian role in Jerusalem and the holy sites is not a grant from anyone until it is withdrawn.

He continued that "attempts to replace it is merely harmful maneuvers, if the facts of the occupation of Jerusalem historically has made the Jordanian role in the holy sites as a fait accompli, any other role will not enjoy this privacy, and will be conditioned on Zionist approval, and therefore any proposal to replace the Jordanian role Turkish role Or Saudi or others will strengthen the Israeli grip on holy sites. "

Amid the Israeli attempts to change the reality in Jerusalem, Jordan continues to press to prevent any prejudice to the situation in the city and its holy sites, but this official Jordanian action, supported by the Palestinians and Palestinians, is now facing attempts by Arab parties to enter the file of Jerusalem, amid silence interpreted by observers as an expression of "satisfaction". "Israeli.