The Violent Status Quo's Origin in Jerusalem

We all know about the post-1967 "status quo" that applies to the Temple Mount.

To a great extent, its conceptualization was based on an existing framework that had been adopted by the Ottoman Empire.

How did the concept develop in Jerusalem? What were its historical roots?

A short summary of the original status quo (here, too):

The concept of the “status quo”1 was introduced in 1852, when the Ottoman Sultan Abdul Mejid, in a futile attempt to avoid a war, issued a decree freezing the rights of worship and possession of the religious communities in the Holy Places of Christendom. The decree terminated the bloody rivalry between the Greek Orthodox patriarchate and the Roman Catholic church for predominance in the Christian sanctuaries and recognized the paramount rights of the Greek Orthodox church in the Holy Places affirmed since 1757. In 1853, the sultan issued another decree, which transferred the power of jurisdiction over the sanctuaries from the local officials in Palestine to the Sublime Porte. Subsequently, Article 62 of the Treaty of Berlin (1878) proclaimed the inviolability of the decree of 1852 and declared it the “Status Quo of the Holy Places.” The successive governments of Palestine, the British Mandate, and the State of Israel further maintained the regulations as set forth by the status quo of 1852.

The British employed the term on the November 1928 White Paper. I have ealt with it and, for example, see here.  The Cust Report is also useful.

What is overlooked, though, is that the status quo, while seeking to fix in place a reality that should not change, was necessitated and gained through acts of force and violence to change a reality and then benefit from that behavior.

What had been the Christian practice amongst the various sects and their churches and other institutions was altered in 1757, a turning point as that Maudy Monday when a number of sanctuaries previoulsy maintainbed by the Franciscans were taken over by the Greek Orthodox in quite a violent confrontation. On April 2, 1757 (the eve of Palm Sunday), Greek clergy attacked the Franciscans at the Holy Sepulchre and ransacked and smashed much of the Latin treasure. A lamp, a gift of Emperor Charles VI, was badly damaged in the assault.

A Franciscan historical account gives an even more dramatic description: after the Franciscans had completed their Palm Sunday procession, the Greeks overturned their altar, broke silver lamps, tore down velvet and brocade hangings, destroyed Latin property and assaulted Catholics

Here:

At the beginning of 1757, French ambassador, the count of Vergennes obtained a new firman from Othman III, confirming the Latins as exclusive owners of the sanctuaries which Louis XIV had rendered to them in 1690. The pretentions of the Greeks had been declared without foundation, and the Pasha of Damascus, had ordered the severe punishment of the three oriental monks who had beaten our Brother sacristan at Holy Sepulcher. So, here on Palm Sunday, after the Franciscans had retired after their usual procession, the Greeks tipped over our altar adorned before the Most Holy Sepulcher, broke all the silver lamps, tore all the velvet and brocade tapistries which the Franciscans had put in place for the feast. They destroyed everything that belonged to the Latins, striking the Catholics they met and sought to end the lives of the religious. The governor was alerted too late, and deterred by a Greek, his secretary put off to the next day, his visit to the site. However it was too late for the Greeks to deceive him, so he sent the troops to allow the Franciscans to enter Holy Savior, and he declared an act legally and authentically acknowledging the Greeks’ vandalism. However, in the interim while he waited for the punishment, one of the three oriental monks who should have been chastised by virtue of the firman cited above, returned from Constantinople where he had purchased the favor of the Grand-Vizier for the sum of Five hundred million dollars (Turkish money). He is followed a few days later by a Turkish officer carrying a new firman which gave the Greeks the Basilica of Saint Helena in Bethlehem, the seven arcades of the Madeleine (in the Bailica of the Holy Sepulcher), the most holy Sepulcher of Our Lord, and that of the Blessed Virgin!!! M. de Vergennes wanted to protest against such a despicable conduct. The Grand-Vizier Regyb-Pasha was content to answer with insolence: “These sites belong to my master the Sultan. He can give them to whomever he pleases, and while they were in the hands of the French until now, His Highness wants from now on that they should belong to the Greeks.” All the catholic ambassadors present in Constantinople wanted to go before the Turkish government as a group, but all were of the opinion such action had to wait for the death of the Grand Vizier. That would happen a few years later, (1762), but the Catholic influence had already forgotten the Franciscans and the Sanctuaries of the Holy Land, as they were approaching the French revolution.

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