Monday, August 15, 2016

Jordan's Monarch Mocks Israel-Jordan Peace Treaty

From a long interview with Jordan's King Abdullah II:-


Q14: Your Majesty, the Israeli violations against Jerusalem and its holy sites are ongoing. Jordan, under your leadership, is carrying on with its efforts to defend the holy city. What measures can be taken to address these violations?

King Abdullah: We are dealing with repeated violations and transgressions by Israel and extremist groups and their blatant attempts to change the status quo in Jerusalem, including its landmarks, heritage and historical identity, as well as attempts to violate the rights of the Arab residents, make their lives difficult and force them to leave, in addition to tampering with Islamic and Christian holy sites.

We will persist in undertaking our religious and historical responsibilities towards Al Aqsa Mosque/Al Haram Al Sharif, which faces repeated violations by extremist groups. As the Custodian of Islamic and Christian holy sites in Jerusalem, I will continue my efforts to protect these places and stand up against all violations of their sanctity or attempts for temporal and spatial division of Al Aqsa Mosque/Al Haram Al Sharif.

Our responsibility towards Islamic holy sites in Jerusalem is a top priority for our foreign policy. We utilise all our capabilities to protect Al Aqsa Mosque which includes the entire indivisible Al Haram Al Sharif in Jerusalem. We have successfully led efforts to adopt this definition at the UN and UNESCO. Moreover, we maintain all available political and legal options to stand against violations and protect holy sites.


The King engages in activity which is in violation of Article 9 of  the peace treaty his father signed with Israel in 1994:


ARTICLE 9
PLACES OF HISTORICAL AND RELIGIOUS SIGNIFICANCE
Each party will provide freedom of access to places of religious and historical significance.In this regard, in accordance with the Washington Declaration, Israel respects the present special role of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan in Muslim Holy shrines in Jerusalem. When negotiations on the permanent status will take place, Israel will give high priority to the Jordanian historic role in these shrines.The Parties will act together to promote interfaith relations among the three monotheistic religions, with the aim of working towards religious understanding, moral commitment, freedom of religious worship, and tolerance and peace.
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UPDATE I

If the King is "the Custodian of Islamic and Christian holy sites in Jerusalem", so why is he interfering with the primary Jewish holy site?

And note what is written in the Quran:




UPDATE II

From March:-


Local authorities in Córdoba have dealt a blow to the Catholic church’s claim of legal ownership of the Spanish city’s mosque-cathedral, declaring that “religious consecration is not the way to acquire property”.
The report, written by the city council’s secretary general, Valeriano Lavela, marks a significant intervention in a long-running row over the building, which lies on the site of a Visigothic Christian church built in the early 9th century and was given to the local bishop by Fernando III in 1236 when the city fell to Christian forces.
...the council’s report says the building does not belong to the church nor to any other organisation or individual. Lavela writes that the church’s acquisition has no legal basis and cannot confer ownership. This, he adds, is not just because the site has since 1984 been a Unesco world heritage site “of exceptional universal value” and therefore cannot be owned by anyone.   
Citing Roman law, Lavela argues that the site’s true owners “are each and every citizen of the world from whatever epoch and regardless of people, nation, culture or race”.While mass is held in the building, the local bishop has banned Muslims from praying there. In 2010 fighting broke out when a group of Muslim visitors knelt to pray.

UPDATE III

Israel will not let Mecca and Medina rules apply on the Temple Mount, Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman Avi Dichter said on Monday, referring to the two holy cities in Saudi Arabia where entrance is prohibited to non-Muslims.

“The idea that what was done in Saudi Arabia – where two cities holy to Islam, Mecca and Medina, are sites where only Muslims have the right to enter – will be done on the Temple Mount is a distorted idea that we will not let happen,” Dichter said. “We will respect the sanctity of al-Aksa Mosque in Jerusalem, and will stand up for our rights on the Temple Mount.”

Dichter noted that there is an attempt under way to conflate the Aksa Mosque with the entire Temple Mount compound.

“Recently there has been a growing tendency calling for the ‘defense’ of al-Aksa,” he said. “This defense has grown a great deal, and from the mosque on the southern part of the Temple Mount they are now talking about the whole area of the Temple Mount. Israel will not let this happen.”


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