Amman, Chairman of the Arab ministerial committee in charge of international action to address illegal Israeli policies and measures in occupied Jerusalem Ayman Safadi has made phone calls to member states’ foreign ministers to discuss the recent dangerous developments after an Israeli minister stormed the al-Aqsa Mosque/ al-Haram al-Sharif last Tuesday under the protection of the Israeli occupation forces.
Members of the committee, which also includes the United Arab Emirates, Algeria, Saudi Arabia, Palestine, Qatar, Egypt, Morocco, and the Secretary General of the Arab League, said that the Israeli minister’s storming of the al-Aqsa Mosque and the violation of its sanctity is a provocative move that “we strongly condemn,”
They described the move as an unacceptable violation of international law and the historical and legal status quo in Jerusalem and its sanctities, and a dangerous escalation that requires the international community, including the United Nations Security Council, to immediately take action to stop it through effective steps that would obligate Israel, the occupying power, to stop its aggressions against the Palestinian people and its violations of international law and international humanitarian law, and halt any provocative steps in Al-Quds Al-Sharif (Jerusalem) that would provoke the feelings of millions of Muslims around the world and threaten security and stability in the region.
Members of the committee stressed that the blessed al-Aqsa Mosque/ al-Haram al-Sharif, with its entire area of 144 dunums, is an exclusive place of worship for Muslims, and that the Jordanian-run Waqf (endowments) and al-Aqsa Affairs Administration has the exclusive jurisdiction to run all the affairs of the holy site and organize entry to and exit from the compound.
They also affirmed the right of the State of Palestine to sovereignty over the occupied city of East Jerusalem, and that Israel, the occupying power, has no right or sovereignty over the occupied city of Jerusalem and its Islamic and Christian holy sites.
They also underscored the importance of continuing Arab efforts to “protect the al-Aqsa Mosque and the Islamic and Christian holy sites in the occupied city of Jerusalem, the capital of the State of Palestine, and to support the steadfastness of the Palestinian Jerusalemites in the face of aggressive Israeli policies and practices aimed at controlling the city, altering its original Arab character and identity, changing the existing historical and legal status quo, and imposing a temporal and spatial division of the al-Aqsa Mosque/ al-Haram al-Sharif.
Moreover, the committee affirmed its support for the Hashemite Custodianship over Islamic and Christian holy sites in Jerusalem and its role in protecting its Arab, Islamic and Christian identity.
Members of the committee underscored the need to activate efforts aimed at achieving a comprehensive, just and lasting peace on the basis of international law and relevant United Nations resolutions and the two-state solution, which guarantees the establishment of an independent Palestinian state on the 4 June 1967 lines with East Jerusalem as its capital, and halting all illegal Israeli measures that undermine this solution.
They hailed the positions of brotherly and friendly countries that rejected and condemned the provocative and aggressive Israeli storming of the blessed al-Aqsa Mosque.
Source: Jordan News Agency