Channels

King Abdullah II of Jordan with Netanyahu

Jordan to complain to UN about Israeli actions in Jerusalem

Statement follows announcement that Jordan is recalling ambassador to Israel over country's 'violations', protesting against 'increasing and unprecedented Israeli escalation' in Al Aqsa Mosque.

Jordan will lodge a formal complaint with the UN Security Council over Israeli actions in Jerusalem and its holy sites, a government spokesman said on Wednesday. The news came amid a terror attack in the capital left one Israeli dead.

 

 

Israel last week closed for a day the compound housing the Al-Aqsa mosque, Islam's third holiest site, amid increasing Israeli-Palestinian violence around it. The move infuriated Jordanian King Abdullah, who is custodian of the sacred compound that also houses the Dome of the Rock mosque.

 

Border Gaurd forces outside of Temple Mount (Photo: EPA)
Border Gaurd forces outside of Temple Mount (Photo: EPA)

 

The Jordanian prime minister had instructed Jordan's delegation at the United Nations to "lodge an official complaint to the Security Council", Mohammad Al-Momani, government spokesman, told Reuters by telephone.

 

In an act of protest against what it described as such Israeli "violations", Jordan also recalled its ambassador to Israel, the Jordanian state news agency reported.

 

The decision was taken "in protest at the increasing and unprecedented Israeli escalation in the Noble Sanctuary, and the repeated Israeli violations of Jerusalem", the news agency said.

 

Jordan and Israel signed peace agreement in 1994.

 

The Noble Sanctuary is the Islamic term used to describe the compound housing Al Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock - the third holiest site in Islam. The site is known to Jews as the Temple Mount and is the holiest site in Judaism.

 

The annoucements came after a van rammed into a group of pedestrians waiting for Jerusalem's Light Rail earlier Wednesday, killing one person and wounding a number of others. The suspected terrorist was identified as a Hamas operative from East Jerusalem.

 

Earlier in the day, the Temple Mount compound was closed shortly after Palestinians clashed with security forces, throwing rocks and launching fireworks, as a large group of right-wing activists waited at the entrance to the holy site. One Palestinian was wounded in the clashes.

 

The site was reopened shortly after, highlighting its volatile nature, as tensions between Jews, Arabs and security forces rise.

 

Last week, Rabbi Yehuda Glick, a prominent right-wing activist, was shot at point blank range outside the Menachem Begin Heritage Center in Jerusalem on Wednesday night.

 

The flashpoint al-Aqsa mosque and adjacent neighborhoods have seen months of violence, with the mosque compound a rallying point for Palestinian resistance to perceived Jewish attempts to take control of it.

 

 


פרסום ראשון: 11.05.14, 15:34
 new comment
Warning:
This will delete your current comment