Amman: The Arab League Council, meeting at the level of permanent representatives, reaffirmed its support for Jordan’s historic Hashemite custodianship over Islamic and Christian holy sites in Jerusalem. The council underscored Jordan’s role in preserving the city’s Arab, Islamic, and Christian identity and maintaining the historical and legal status quo.
According to Jordan News Agency, in a resolution issued during its extraordinary session, convened at the request of Palestine and with the backing of member states, the council emphasized that Jordan’s Jerusalem Awqaf and Al-Aqsa Mosque Affairs Administration is the sole legitimate authority responsible for managing Al-Aqsa Mosque, maintaining it, and regulating access. The resolution also highlighted the roles of the Jerusalem Committee and the Bayt Mal Al-Quds Agency.
The council reiterated that the entire 144-dunum (14.4-hectare) area of Al-Aqsa Mosque, also known as Al-Haram Al-Sharif, is a sacred site exclusively for Muslim worship.
The meeting called for establishing an open-ended working group comprising Jordan, Egypt, Palestine, Qatar, and the Arab League Secretariat to explore ways to implement Article 17 of the recent emergency Arab summit declaration in Cairo. This article calls for the creation of a fund to support more than 40,000 orphaned children in Gaza in cooperation with the United Nations.
Additionally, the council urged support for providing prosthetic limbs to thousands of victims of Israel’s military assault on Gaza, following Jordan’s “Restoring Hope” initiative to assist amputees in the besieged enclave.
The resolution condemned Israel’s ongoing bombardment of Palestinian civilians, labeling the attacks as war crimes, genocide, and ethnic cleansing. The council demanded that the international community uphold legal obligations to protect Palestinian civilians and implement United Nations resolutions calling for their safety.
It also called for practical mechanisms to enforce the UN General Assembly’s resolution and the UN Secretary-General’s report, which outlined viable options for civilian protection.
The council warned that Israel’s continued violations of the ceasefire marked by relentless military aggression against Palestinians for 17 consecutive months, including during Ramadan, constitute a blatant violation of human rights and religious sanctities, inflaming global public opinion.
Denouncing Israel’s response to the Arab summit’s call for peace and stability, the council accused Tel Aviv of sabotaging any chance for a comprehensive and just settlement by escalating its attacks on Palestinian civilians. It reiterated its rejection of any attempts to displace Palestinians internally or externally, annex parts of the West Bank under any pretext, or alter Palestine’s demographic and geographic integrity, labeling such actions as crimes against humanity.
The council urged the United States, as a guarantor of the ceasefire agreement brokered by Egypt, Qatar, and the U.S., to pressure Israel to halt its violations and implement all phases of the truce. This includes Israel’s immediate withdrawal from all areas of Gaza, lifting the blockade, and ensuring the unrestricted, immediate, and sufficient flow of humanitarian aid across the territory.
The resolution also called for implementing decisions from the Arab and Islamic summits to break the siege on Gaza by facilitating the entry of international humanitarian aid convoys and organizations.
It stressed that mass displacement, destruction, collective punishment, and starvation constitute acts of genocide under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and the 1948 Genocide Convention.
Furthermore, the council urged the Arab Ambassadors’ Council in New York to continue efforts to suspend Israel’s participation in UN meetings under Articles 5 and 6 of the UN Charter. Arab League missions in various capitals and international organizations, as well as Algeria and Somalia both current Arab members of the UN Security Council were tasked with coordinating diplomatic efforts to implement the resolution.