by Shlomo Cesana, Erez Linn, Israel Hayom Staff and News Agencies
Israeli officials outraged over "baseless" French proposal to station international observers on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem • Prime Minister's Office: Palestinians are the ones trying to change status quo, while Israel is committed to maintaining it.
The Temple Mount in Jerusalem
Photo credit: Reuters
 |
Israeli officials reacted harshly over the weekend to a French proposal to station international observers on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.
An official from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office called the proposal "baseless," while a Foreign Ministry official said the proposal would reward the Palestinians for their anti-Israel incitement.
Credit: GPO
Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan said, "Those who want to put international observers [on the Temple Mount] are rewarding the Palestinians for violence and weakening Israeli sovereignty."
Israel and the U.S. are working to thwart the French proposal, which is expected to be submitted to the U.N. Security Council for discussion. The French-proposed Security Council presidential statement, which would not be a binding resolution, calls for international observers to be stationed at holy sites in Jerusalem, including the Temple Mount.
While the statement would be merely declarative, Israel views it with grave concern, given the precedent it would set regarding Israeli sovereignty in Jerusalem.
A Prime Minister's Office statement said, "Netanyahu has ordered National Security Adviser Yossi Cohen and the Foreign Ministry to protest the biased and baseless wording of the French proposal. ... We expect condemnation of the Waqf's incompetence on the Temple Mount. It was the Palestinians who turned the Temple Mount into a terrorist warehouse, by bringing explosives devices there and throwing firecrackers. They are the ones who are trying to change the status quo, while Israel is committed to maintaining the status quo."
The statement went on to point out that under the status quo Jews are permitted to visit the Temple Mount. The PMO said that under the 1949 Armistice Agreement, there was an international commitment to the right of Jews to visit the Temple Mount, but this right was not fulfilled until Israel took control of the Old City during the Six-Day War in 1967.
"The arson at Joseph's Tomb [on Friday] shows what would happen to holy sites if they were not under Israeli control, just like what is happening in Palmyra [in Syria] and Iraq," the statement said.
At the start of Sunday's cabinet meeting, Netanyahu reiterated those words, saying, "Israel cannot accept the French draft resolution at the United Nations Security Council. It doesn’t mention Palestinian incitement; it doesn’t mention Palestinian terrorism; and it calls for the internationalization of the Temple Mount ... We've seen across the Middle East -- in Palmyra, in Iraq ... and elsewhere how the militant Muslims blast each other's mosques to the sky. We've just seen it at a Jewish holy site, Joseph's Tomb. Only Israel ... is the guarantor of the holy sites on the Temple Mount.
"The reason the status quo has been violated is not because we changed it. We didn't change anything. The orders of prayer, the visiting rights have not changed for the last 15 years. The only thing that's changed are Islamist hoodlums paid by the Islamist Movement in Israel and by Hamas, who are entering the mosque and try to put explosives there and from there emerge and attack Jewish visitors to the Temple Mount, and Christian visitors. That's the only change in the status quo. Israel will protect the holy sites, will guard the status quo. Israel is not the problem on the Temple Mount. Israel is the solution."
Foreign Ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon said, "As it relies on false charges by Palestinian leaders regarding changes to the status quo on the Temple Mount, the proposed French text is a prize for Palestinian-initiated terrorism."
Meanwhile, Netanyahu will travel to Berlin on Wednesday, where he will hold meetings with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry.
According to a diplomatic source, Netanyahu and Kerry had an "uneasy" phone call on Saturday night, during which Kerry declined a request by Netanyahu to make a public statement that Israel is not changing the status quo on the Temple Mount. Netanyahu was hoping for such a statement, which could have helped calm the charged atmosphere. Kerry and other U.S. government officials, however, are continuing make general statements about "both sides" and have called on Israelis government officials to "change their tone."
During the phone call, Netanyahu made clear to Kerry that Israel would not permit an international presence on the Temple Mount.
At a press conference on Friday, U.S. President Barack Obama said, "We condemn in the strongest possible terms violence directed against innocent people and believe that Israel has a right to maintain basic law and order, and protect its citizens from knife attacks and violence on the streets.
"We also believe that it's important for both Prime Minister Netanyahu and Israeli elected officials and President Abbas and other people in positions of power to try to tamp down rhetoric that may feed violence or anger or misunderstanding, and try to get all people in Israel and in the West Bank to recognize that this kind of random violence isn't going to result in anything other than more hardship and more insecurity.
"And I don't think that it's -- I don't think we can wait for all the issues that exist between Israelis and Palestinians to be settled in order for us to try to tamp down the violence right now. I think my views are well known that, over time, the only way that Israel is going to be truly secure and the only way that the Palestinians are going to be able to meet the aspirations of their people is if there are two states living side by side in peace and security."
Also on Friday, the new Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, spoke to reporters ahead of a special meeting of the Security Council on the recent upsurge of violence in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
"Israel will not agree to any international presence on the Temple Mount. ... Any such intervention would violate the decades long status quo," said Danon, adding that the status quo was the best way "to keep stability in the region."
Danon held up a diagram titled "How to Stab a Jew," saying it was the kind of thing being taught to Palestinian children. According to the Middle East Research Institute, the image Danon displayed was taken from social media.
At the Security Council meeting, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Samantha Power condemned the ongoing violence, saying there was growing frustration among Israelis and Palestinians as prospects for peace diminished.
"We continue to support Israel's right to defend its citizens," Power said. "As always, it is critical that every possible effort be taken to protect innocents, to de-escalate tensions, and to guard against unnecessary loss of life. We also have raised deep concern about increased Israeli settler violence against Palestinians and their property in the West Bank."
Statements by the 15-member council must be agreed unanimously. The meeting of the 15-member Security Council was not expected to produce any immediate action.
Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=28993
Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.
No comments:
Post a Comment