by Nadav Shragai
-- unless something happens to reverse the narrative, the Palestinian gambit comprises another step in their yearslong campaign to chip away at the status quo on the Temple Mount
Palestinians
in Jerusalem achieved the victory they had been longing for on Friday:
Muslim worshippers crowding into the Golden Gate area of the Temple
Mount, which has been under a closure order since 2003 because of Hamas
activity there.
The police, who accepted the reality in
order to avoid widespread, violent clashes, did carry out dozens of
arrests, but unless something happens to reverse the narrative, the
Palestinian gambit comprises another step in their yearslong campaign to
chip away at the status quo on the Temple Mount, mostly for the benefit
of the Palestinians and to the detriment of the Jews. Two new mosques
have been built at Solomon's Stables and at the site of the ancient
Al-Aqsa mosque; restrictions on when and where Jews are allowed to visit
the Mount; and almost no enforcement of planning and construction and
antiquities laws for years. Now they have focused on the Golden Gate.
The latest calculated move was initiated by the waqf council in its new, more radical makeup,
which now includes Sheikh Ikrama Sabri, a former mufti of Jerusalem and
now a Muslim Brotherhood member and an ally of Turkish President Recep
Tayyip Erdoğan and Sheikh Raed Salah, leader of the outlawed Northern
Branch of the Islamic Movement. Other than Sabri, the new expanded
council includes a number of officials from the Fatah movement and the
Palestinian Authority.
This is a bad turn of events for Israel.
The Jordanians have installed opponents of Israeli hegemony on the
Temple Mount on the waqf council, the Jordanian administrative body that
oversees the Temple Mount and its mosques. There is one goal behind
this: to make it clear to the U.S. and Israel that they will not agree
to their status on the Mount, which is anchored in agreements with
Israel, being reduced. What frightened the Jordanians and prompted them
to take this unusual step were reports that U.S. President Donald
Trump's peace plan, which also touches on the status of Jerusalem, calls
for pan-Islamic management of the Temple Mount in which additional Arab
countries – including Saudi Arabia – would participate. Saudi Arabia
already controls the holiest two places in Islam, the cities of Mecca
and Medina.
The target for the Jordanians' message is
the area around the Golden Gate, which has already been the site of
conflict. The police put an end to illegal Muslim burials outside the
gate, and there were also tussles with the Israel Antiquities Authority
about what would happen to the ancient wooden beams near the Golden
Gate, some of which date back to the First and Second Temple periods,
which were removed from the roof of Al-Aqsa mosque after it was leveled
by an earthquake in 1927. These beams had been lying near the Golden
Gate for years, vulnerable to the elements.
Jerusalem got the message but it seems as
if it's too late. The new waqf council and Hamas are spreading lies
about Israel planning to build a synagogue at the Golden Gate. They are
determined to annex the area to the Muslim prayer area of the Mount,
which is constantly being expanded. The first battle, which took place
on Friday, went to them. We can expect another round.
Nadav Shragai
Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/opinions/chipping-away-at-the-status-quo/?redirected=344397
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