Jordan says Israel’s mosque restrictions risk ‘explosion’
Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said yesterday that restrictions imposed by Israel on worshippers’ access to Jerusalem’s Al Aqsa Mosque compound during the fasting month was pushing the situation towards an “explosion”.
In remarks on state media, Safadi said his country, which overviews the holy site, rejected Israel’s announced move to limit access during Ramadan, citing security needs with war raging in Gaza.
‘Playing with fire’
“We warn that desecrating the sanctity of Al Aqsa Mosque is playing with fire,” Safadi said in a joint news conference with the Vatican’s foreign minister Archbishop Paul Gallagher.
The compound, the third holiest shrine in Islam, is also the site of the most sacred place for Jews who know it as Temple Mount. It has been a long-standing flashpoint for trouble.
Jordan echoes the Palestinian view that such restrictions on Muslim worshippers, already facing war and hunger in Gaza, were an attack on freedom of worship.
After hard-right Israeli Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir said recently he wanted tougher restrictions, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the numbers admitted would be similar to last year.
‘Changing status quo’
“Not allowing worshippers to perform their religious duties and rituals this month and restricting freedom to enter the Aqsa mosque, pushes towards an explosive situation,” Safadi added.
Israel was also risking wider violence in the Israeli occupied West Bank by what Safadi said were unilateral Israeli measures to change the status quo, citing accelerated Jewish settlement building on Arab land and “terror attacks by armed settlers on Palestinian villagers.”
“The West Bank is boiling,” he added.