Status woe: Temple Mount is an enduring thorn in Israel’s ties with Jordan

The swearing-in of the brand new Israeli authorities final June marked a recent chapter in Jerusalem’s relations with Jordan, which had frayed considerably throughout Benjamin Netanyahu’s tenure as prime minister.

Conferences between Jordan’s King Abdullah and senior Israeli ministers grew to become an everyday prevalence, after years of disconnect that have been maybe greatest exemplified by Amman’s refusal final yr to grant entry to its airspace for Netanyahu to journey to the UAE, in the end stopping the go to from going ahead.

However whereas a sure spirit of fine will appears to have been restored on the management stage, disagreements concerning the Temple Mount, the place Jordan maintains a custodial function, stay.

Recognizing that the dispute cuts deeper than fleeting private animus, the Biden administration proposed establishing a trilateral committee of Israeli, Jordanian, and American representatives that may settle disputes concerning the established order on the Temple Mount, and focus on methods to rebuild Israeli-Jordanian ties extra broadly. However Israel deemed the casual proposal pointless and rejected it, a former senior US official instructed The Occasions of Israel.

“You possibly can’t rebuild relations in a single day, and one other dispute over Al-Aqsa was inevitable, so we thought a joint committee could be a method to deal with points pertaining to the established order in order that the perimeters may get in entrance of issues,” the previous official mentioned.

The thought of the trilateral committee rose and fell final summer season, quickly after Could’s 11-day Gaza warfare, that erupted following heavy clashes between Palestinians and Israel Police on the Temple Mount, recognized by Muslims because the Noble Sanctuary. Then, as was the case over the previous month’s escalation on the web site and in earlier years, the Palestinians’ overarching narrative was that their rights to the location have been being threatened by Israeli authorities.

Illustrative: Israeli police arrest a Palestinian throughout clashes on the Temple Mount compound in Jerusalem’s Previous Metropolis on April 22, 2022. (Ahmad Gharabli/AFP)

“A few of this has to do with pretend information on Palestinian social media, however there even have been shifts to the established order which have gone unaddressed and have fueled the fireplace,” mentioned the previous US official.

The International Ministry declined to touch upon the report, however an official within the ministry denied {that a} formal US provide to kind such a committee had been made.  “Israel manages its relations with Jordan on the bilateral stage,” the official mentioned, rejecting the necessity for American interlocutors.

The State Division didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.

The unwritten ‘established order’

Israel has lengthy insisted that it maintains the established order on the Temple Mount, a coverage that was summarized famously by Netanyahu in 2015. “Muslims pray on the Temple Mount; non-Muslims go to the Temple Mount,” Netanyahu mentioned in a press release after assembly then-US secretary of state John Kerry, Jordan’s Abdullah, and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, for talks geared toward calming one more spherical of tensions sparked by clashes on the web site

Israel has continued to reaffirm that place — that Jews are forbidden from praying on the Mount — as lately as this week, however the actuality on the mount tells a barely completely different story. For at the least the previous a number of years, journalists have commonly documented cases of prayer carried out quietly by Jewish guests on their very own and in teams, as Israeli police and even officers from the Jordan-backed Islamic Waqf look on.

Whereas International Minister Yair Lapid dismissed claims of a shift in coverage throughout a briefing with Israeli reporters final week, Diaspora Affairs Minister Nachman Shai grew to become the primary Israeli minister to publicly acknowledge the change, which Palestinians say offers credence to their fears of an effort to step by step take away them from the location.

“There are lots of extra Jews going as much as the Temple Mount. There are actually those that are stopping and praying as they make their means via — one thing that was not allowed. There’s a sure escalation, a sure deterioration of the established order,” Shai instructed the Kan public broadcaster on Saturday.

For his half, Lapid famous in his Thursday briefing that Israel had decreased the variety of Jewish teams allowed to go to the compound from two to 1 over a day by day three-and-a-half-hour interval, whereas arguing {that a} rise in Jewish guests didn’t in itself represent a violation of the established order.

International Minister Yair Lapid (middle), Israeli Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai, and Head of Police, Jerusalem District, Doron Turgeman go to the Damascus Gate in Jerusalem’s Previous Metropolis, April 3, 2022. (Arie Leib Abrams/ Flash90)

Therein lies a part of the issue, because the delicate coverage is unwritten and to Palestinians encompasses a a lot bigger vary of points than it does to Israel — from the conduct and supervision of holiday makers to building and safety on the compound.

“Israel has a really slender understanding of the established order, specializing in Jewish prayer, which it says it doesn’t enable, whereas the Palestinians and the Jordanians have a wider understanding and really feel that Israel ignores it,” mentioned a diplomat accustomed to the matter.

Extra Jewish visits

Thus, to Palestinians, in addition to to their backers in Amman, a rise in Jewish guests is itself a established order violation.

Over 5 days of Passover final week, 4,625 Jews visited the Temple Mount, nearly double the determine from three years in the past, in response to the Temple Mount Heritage Basis, a Jewish group that encourages such excursions. In 2014, simply 650 Jews visited the location thought of the holiest place in Judaism. The location is the third holiest in Islam, whereas additionally being a central image of Palestinian nationalism.

Palestinian rioters throw a Molotov cocktail from inside Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount, April 20, 2022 (MFA Twitter screenshot, utilized in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Regulation)

Jordan additionally pointed to an growing presence of Israeli police within the compound and a deterioration of the Waqf’s authority. In public statements over the previous week, officers in Amman have referred to as for a return to a pre-2000 established order, when the Waqf had extra authority over the vetting of Jewish guests.

The Temple Mount was closed to Jewish guests that yr after then opposition chief and Likud chairman Ariel Sharon carried out a controversial September go to — a go to that Palestinians say sparked the Second Intifada. Israel, for its half, says Sharon’s walkabout was seized upon by the PA’s Yasser Arafat as a pretext to launch that onslaught of terrorism, deflecting president Clinton’s assignation of blame to Arafat for dooming his administration’s peacemaking efforts.

When the Mount reopened in 2003 to Jewish guests, Israel unilaterally shifted a lot of the authority over the entry of Jewish guests from the Waqf to the police.

“I’m unsure if it has to do extra with the Israelis considering it’s a non-issue or with the truth that the coalition is simply too fragile to indicate extra sympathy to the Jordanian understanding of the established order, nevertheless it hasn’t actually been addressed severely over the previous yr,” the diplomat accustomed to the matter mentioned.

Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount, as reported by Channel 12 information, July 17, 2021 (Channel 12 screenshot)

Final Thursday’s go to of Jewish teams sparked notably intense clashes as police sought to clear Muslims from the trail designated for non-Muslim guests.

“My concern is what occurs the day after Ramadan as a result of when you have fixed assaults on Jewish guests, you’ll have a de facto temporal division of the mount even when no person desires it,” mentioned Danny Seidemann, who heads the Terrestrial Jerusalem analysis institute.

“There will likely be instances when Muslims will likely be shoved apart and it’ll grow to be a ‘shared’ Jewish-Muslim web site, just like the Tomb of the Patriarchs,” he added, referring to the Hebron holy web site that additionally homes the Ibrahimi Mosque, which was sectioned off by Israel after the 1967 warfare.

“The Palestinians have a rising sense of risk and violation as a result of Israeli insurance policies will not be shrinking the battle however moderately shrinking ‘Palestinian house,’ these locations which might be their very own, and the place they really feel protected,” Seidemann added.

Lapid on Sunday insisted that Israel has “no plans to divide the Temple Mount between religions,” including that the newest clashes have been brought on by “terrorist organizations [seeking] to hijack the Al-Aqsa Mosque to be able to create an outbreak of violence in Jerusalem.”

Anger in Amman

Tensions with Amman started boiling over final week as Jordan summoned Israel’s high envoy within the nation for a public rebuke over police conduct throughout clashes on the web site. Jordan’s Prime Minister Bisher Al-Khasawneh went on to hail the Palestinians hurling stones on the “Zionist sympathizers defiling the Al-Aqsa Mosque.”

That infuriated Israel, which accused Jordan of taking part in a “double recreation” in its responses to unrest within the capital — haranguing Israel in public whereas talking extra moderately behind closed doorways.

Demonstrators increase Palestinian and Jordanian flags in addition to placards as they march within the streets of the Jordanian capital Amman on April 22, 2022, to indicate solidarity with Palestinians in Jerusalem. (AFP)

“They inform us that that is the way in which that they preserve these calling for Jordan to sever its ties with Israel at bay,” a senior Israeli diplomatic official mentioned final week, talking on situation of anonymity.

Greater than half of Jordan’s inhabitants is of Palestinian descent, and its 1994 peace treaty with Israel is closely unpopular, notably in periods of violence between Israelis and Palestinians.

“I’m ready to simply accept this double recreation as much as a sure level,” the Israeli diplomatic official mentioned, including that Jordan had gone too far prior to now week and that Jerusalem had handed alongside stern messages to Amman making clear its disapproval.

The US tries once more

In the meantime, the Biden administration has renewed efforts to mediate between Israel and Jordan, after the rejection of its joint committee proposal final summer season.

Performing Assistant Secretary of State for Close to Jap Affairs Yael Lempert and Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Israeli and Palestinian Affairs Hady Amr have been within the area since final Wednesday for conferences with Jordanian, Israeli, Palestinian, and Egyptian officers, geared toward restoring calm.

Another modest purpose set by the US is pushing Israel to make a refined however essential change to its rhetoric concerning the Temple Mount established order.

A younger boy carries a reproduction of the Dome of the Rock mosque and waves a Palestinian flag as demonstrators march within the streets of the Jordanian capital Amman on April 22, 2022, to indicate solidarity with Palestinians in Jerusalem. (AFP)

Whereas Lapid and another Israeli officers have burdened their dedication to the established order, the extra frequent speaking level has included a dedication to defending the “freedom of worship” of all three main religions in Jerusalem.

Whereas seemingly trivial, the purpose is interpreted by many Palestinians within the context of the Temple Mount and seen as a part of a gradual Israeli effort to legitimize Jewish prayer on the compound.

The same phrase brought about a diplomatic fracas final July. Then, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett thanked police for “sustaining freedom of worship for Jews on the Mount.”

The assertion, which was put out in English and Hebrew, sparked fast uproar in Amman, Ramallah and Istanbul. A debate ensued over whether or not Bennett had merely misspoken or supposed to announce a serious shift in the established order, given his nationwide spiritual background. In the end, the prime minister dispatched an nameless official from his workplace to problem a press release insisting that regardless of his comment, Israel was dedicated to sustaining the long-held coverage beneath which Jews will not be allowed to hope on the holy web site.

President Isaac Herzog (L) and Jordanian King Abdullah II on the Al Husseiniya Palace in Amman, Jordan, March 30, 2022. (Haim Zach/GPO)

Cognizant of how discuss of “freedom of worship” will be interpreted by the assorted gamers at hand, US officers have sought to encourage Israel to keep away from utilizing the phrase in speaking factors and as a substitute focus solely on affirming their dedication to the established order at Jerusalem’s holy websites, the diplomat accustomed to the matter mentioned.

The hassle appeared to have made headway as Lapid held one other briefing on Sunday, this time with members of the international press on the scenario in Jerusalem, utilizing the chance to make use of the identical phrase utilized by Netanyahu seven years in the past.

“Muslims pray on the Temple Mount. Non-Muslims go to,” the international minister mentioned, with no added line about Israel’s dedication to defending “freedom of worship.”