Arab and Islamic countries on Wednesday condemned Israeli actions at Al Aqsa Mosque in East Jerusalem and said only Jordan can be in charge of the site, after a meeting in Amman that boosted Jordan's position as its custodian.
Israel is seeking to alter Al Aqsa's “historic and legal status quo and impose temporal and spatial division”, the countries said in a communique after their foreign ministers met in the Jordanian capital.
They cited incursions by “extremist settlers”, restrictions on Muslim worship, and excavations under the mosque compound, as well as hindrance of its administration, accompanied by “provocative practices and inflammatory statements”.
Al Aqsa is “a place of worship exclusively for Muslims” with Jordanian religious departments being “the sole legal authority with exclusive jurisdiction to administer all affairs of Al Aqsa”, the communique said.
The meeting was attended by representatives of the 10 countries on a committee established by the Arab League in 2017 that is “tasked with co-ordinating international efforts to confront illegal Israeli policies and measures in occupied Jerusalem”, particularly at Al Aqsa. It is chaired by Jordan, with Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Tunisia, Algeria, Somalia, Iraq, Palestine and Morocco as the other members.
The foreign ministers of Indonesia, Pakistan, Turkey and Malaysia attended Wednesday's meeting.
Israeli violations at the mosque are “pushing the region towards the explosion of a religious conflict”, the Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Al Safadi told the meeting. He said that such danger “cannot be contained' if it materialises.
Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan said Jordan has had a "historic role" in protecting the holy sites in Jerusalem. Saudi Arabia, he said, condemns the "continued violations" at Al Aqsa. In reference to the settler incursions, he said Riyadh rejects the use of freedom of worship to justify a "new political and occupation" reality in Jerusalem.
Jordan and the other Arab League members regard Al Aqsa as a purely Muslim place of worship. However, Israeli Jews have been increasingly forcing their way into the site since the Gaza war broke out in October 2023, to pray and perform religious rites.
Restrictions on Palestinian worshippers entering the site have also increased. Last month, Israeli police built what Jordan described as an illegal canopy inside Al Aqsa grounds, to shelter the settlers when they come in. Israeli demolitions of Palestinian buildings in East Jerusalem and on its outskirts have also increased.
Jordan's Foreign Ministry said the meeting on Wednesday was held to “focus on the latest developments in occupied Jerusalem” and to “formulate a unified position in response to the escalating Israeli measures targeting the city's identity and its religious sanctities”.
The complex is administered by an Islamic trust funded and controlled by Jordan in a security arrangement with Israel after they signed the peace treaty in 1994. Under the arrangement, Jews are not allowed to pray in the Al Aqsa compound but can do so at the nearby Western Wall.
Amman's custodianship of the compound is at the centre of its foreign policy in support of the Palestinians and is a major domestic plank for King Abdullah in a country where a large proportion of the population are of Palestinian origin. The grounds on which Al Aqsa was built is considered holy by Muslims, Jews and Christians, and is a focal point of Israeli-Palestinian tensions.
Jordan's claim to the right to administer Al Aqsa is based on the custodianship awarded in the 1920s by Palestinian religious leaders to Sharif Hussein bin Ali, a great-grandfather of King Abdullah, who led efforts to raise money in the Middle East and beyond to renovate the mosque. He died in 1931 and is buried in the grounds of Al Aqsa.
