Jordan protests Israeli ‘violations’ at Al-Aqsa

By Laith Joneidi

AMMAN (AA) – Jordan said Sunday it has protested Israeli violations at East Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa complex as hundreds of Jewish settlers forced their way into the flashpoint site.

In a statement, government spokeswoman Jumana Ghunaimat said the Jordanian Embassy in Tel Aviv has lodged a formal diplomatic protest with the Israeli Foreign Ministry over Israeli violations at Al-Aqsa compound.

“Such condemned and rejected practices…violate the sanctity of this holy site and provoke the sentiments of worshippers and Muslims all over the world,” she said in the statement cited by the official Petra news agency.

Ghunaimat said the Israeli practices at Al-Aqsa “were in violation of Israel’s obligations as an occupying force under international law”, going on to call on Tel Aviv to “immediately halt” the practice.

Earlier Sunday, more than 1,000 Israeli settlers forced their way into the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound under the protection of Israeli police.

Speaking to Anadolu Agency, Firas al-Dibis, an official with Jerusalem’s Jordan-run Religious Endowments Authority, said Israeli police stormed the compound before the settlers and carried out protective sweeps and search.

The move came days after Knesset (Israel’s parliament) passed a controversial law that recognizes Israel as the “nation-state of the Jewish people”.

For Muslims, the Al-Aqsa represents the world's third holiest site. Jews, for their part, refer to the area as the “Temple Mount”, claiming it was the site of two Jewish temples in ancient times.

Israel occupied East Jerusalem during the 1967 Arab-Israeli War. It annexed the entire city in 1980, claiming it as the capital of the Jewish state -- a move never recognized by the international community.