Ramallah -

In the year 1840, the head of the Ottoman Consultative Council, Muhammad Sharif, issued a firma resembling a military order, and sent it to the then Governor of Jerusalem, Ahmed Agha Duzdar, stating that “the square adjacent to the Moroccan Quarter and the Al-Buraq Wall are all Islamic endowment property.”

This document, known as the "Duzdar Document", is considered one of the most important Ottoman documents preserved in the records of the Islamic endowments in the city of Jerusalem, which confirms that the Ottomans did not allow any change to the status quo in Al-Aqsa Mosque, especially in the Al-Buraq Wall area and the opposite square, which is part of the so-called. Abu Madyan Endowment.


Denial of Jewish connection

"Duzdar" was among a group of documents and ownership papers presented by the Supreme National Committee for Jerusalem (a framework affiliated with the Palestinian presidency) during a conference it held in Ramallah on Wednesday, some of which were revealed for the first time.

This document deals with part of the properties used by the Ottoman Empire and regulated what has become known as the "current status of the arrangement of the holy places", which was approved by the Ottoman Sultan Abdul Majeed I (1852) during his treaty with European powers, and confirmed the complete Islam of Al-Aqsa Mosque.

"It is fully understood that no modifications can be made to the current situation in the holy places," the text of Article 62 of the document stated.

During the research on which the Supreme Committee of Jerusalem was based, with the participation of Palestinian, Arab and Turkish experts and academics, and in coordination with the Hashemite Fund for the Reconstruction of the Blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, documents ranging from 1840 until the decision of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in 2016, denying All of them have a religious connection to the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Al-Buraq Wall, and consider it a pure Islamic heritage.

Adviser to the Palestinian Presidency for Jerusalem Affairs Ahmed Al-Ruwaidi during the conference to release Al-Aqsa property documents (Al-Jazeera)

Confirmation of ownership of Al-Aqsa

Adviser to the Presidential Office for Jerusalem Affairs, Lawyer Ahmed Al-Ruwaidi, says that experts have collected all documents related to the legal status of Al-Aqsa Mosque from all its locations, some of which were revealed for the first time during the research.

The legal importance of these documents is doubled, according to Al-Ruwaidi in his speech to Al-Jazeera Net, in the shadow of the battle over the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque and the occupation's attempt to impose a new fait accompli under the title of temporal and spatial division.

During the search and compilation of documents, all private papers and correspondences from the Ottoman period and during the British Mandate period were reviewed, including the secret correspondence between the High Commissioner (Britain’s representative in Palestine during the Mandate) and the London government, international charters at the United Nations, and the archive of Sharia courts in Jerusalem .

According to Al-Ruwaidi, these documents prove the legal Palestinian ownership of the entire Al-Aqsa Mosque and its “area of ​​144 dunams and 900 meters,” which makes it a scientific material to encourage researchers and those interested to activate the legal and historical dimension, and not be satisfied with the religious aspect in dealing with the issue of Jerusalem.

Lawyer Muhammad Hadi: The documents of the Ottoman ownership and its aftermath are legal documents on which to prove the ownership of the Palestinians before the occupation (Al-Jazeera)

legal bonds

These documents constitute legal documents that can be built upon judicially, says lawyer Muhammad Hadi, who has followed dozens of judicial files to prove property ownership in Jerusalem through his work as a legal advisor to the Palestinian Ministry of Justice.

Hadi told Al Jazeera Net, that the legal basis that can be relied on is that the documents related to real estate ownership start from the Ottoman "kushan" or "Tabu" (a property document), and every jurisdiction that followed the period of the Ottomans had these properties as a basis for it.

And the lawyer continued, "In the event of any defect in the succession and continuity of ownerships, we return to the Ottoman archive, which constitutes a reliable and reliable legal basis, whether in cases related to proving ownership before the occupation authorities or in international cases as a basic reference for establishing Palestinian rights."

But are these documents sufficient to resolve legal cases?

Hadi answers, "In the first place, it is supportive, and if the sequence of what came after it is proven, it is more than enough."

And not only at the level of proving the property of individuals, these documents are a legal basis in collective cases as well and in the event that complaints are submitted to international courts.


Inside and outside the fence

Among the documents dealt with by the conference, a set of records of the Jerusalem Sharia Court and the Jordanian Islamic Endowments Department, which manages all the holy sites in the occupied city of Jerusalem.

Some of these documents confirmed that the name “Al-Aqsa Mosque” was a term used to refer to everything on which the old wall of Jerusalem revolved.

In addition to other documents confirming that certain places outside the wall, such as the “Bab al-Muthara” (or the Gate of Purification) is also an extension of what is termed the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

The Director-General of the Islamic Endowments Department at Al-Aqsa Mosque, Azzam Al-Khatib, says that these documents confirm that the entire Al-Aqsa Mosque is an Islamic endowment, in addition to 85% of the Old City as an Islamic and Christian endowment, stressing to Al-Jazeera Net that "property documents are fixed and no one can infringe on Islamic property." in Al-Aqsa Mosque or Jerusalem, or change the status quo.