Jordan-Jerusalem deal puts Palestinians on edge

Ramallah: Palestinian officials, commentators and community leaders in occupied East Jerusalem have expressed serious concerns about the agreement the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) signed on Sunday with Jordan regarding the protection of Muslim and Christian holy sites in the city.

“Jordan had been fully responsible for all the holy sites of occupied East Jerusalem and we have no need to sign agreements to protect those holy sites,” said Dr Hassan Khraishah, the deputy head of the Palestinian Legislative Council.

“A bigger deal is being cooked behind the scenes,” he told Gulf News, adding that the agreement is a direct indication that the Palestinian leadership had given up its insistence on an Israeli colony freeze in the West Bank to resume the stalled peace negotiations.

“The Palestinian leadership had climbed up [a] tree with its conditions to resume the peace talks and now Jordan will bring the Palestinians back down,” he argued. “The political money [foreign aid] is meant to exert massive pressure on the Palestinian leadership to resume unconditional peace talks with Israel.”

The status of occupied Jerusalem is one of the most contentious issues in the long-running Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the Al Aqsa compound is the scene of frequent clashes between Palestinians and Israelis.

Israel, which occupied Arab east Jerusalem during the 1967 Six-Day War and later annexed it, claims both halves of the city to be its “eternal and undivided capital”, a move that has not been recognised by the international community.

But the Palestinians want the eastern sector as the capital of their promised state. It houses both the Dome of the Rock and Al Aqsa mosque — Islam’s third holiest shrines.

Fakhri Abu Diab, a political activist in occupied East Jerusalem said that all the mosques in the holy city including Al Aqsa Mosque Compound had been under direct Jordanian supervision since 1967.

“All the employees of the mosques in the holy city receive their salaries from Jordan and they are officially employed by Jordan,” he said.

“People in the street in occupied East Jerusalem are basically scared about the vague agreement with Jordan,” he stressed.

“The timing of the agreement under the current circumstances and after the visit of the US President Barak Obama to the region fuels the suspicions of residents of the holy city,” he said.

“Why did Jordan not protect Al Aqsa Mosque which had been under its full supervision for almost the past half century?” he asked. “What is going on with the holy sites of occupied East Jerusalem? We need to know. This is our right. We strongly fear the agreement would freeze the status quo or even deteriorate the situation in the holy city,” he told Gulf News.

Abu Diab said that PNA had not consulted with community leaders of the holy city and never briefed them on Palestinian intentions to sign such an agreement with Jordan.

“The PNA had always been absent in occupied East Jerusalem,” he stressed.

Dr Abdul Sattar Qasim, who heads the Political Science Department at Al Najah National University, said that Jordan had failed to protect occupied East Jerusalem since 1967.

“What will and could Jordan do about [occupied East] Jerusalem?” he asked. “The agreement was signed in a sudden way which surprised the already confused Palestinian public,” he told Gulf News.

“The agreement could be a step towards reconnecting the Palestinians with Jordan after the 1988 disengagement,” he said.

On July 31st 1988, the late King Hussain of Jordan announced disengagement between the West Bank and Jordan.

“Although it could be true that the agreement came following increased Israeli Judaisation campaigns, it is not related to peace negotiations,” a senior Jordanian palace officials said on condition of anonymity. “The main reason is to pave the way for Jordanian legal defence of Muslim holy sites in the region, particularly that Al Aqsa is under direct danger [of] Israel.”

The Palestinian ambassador to Jordan, Atta Allah Khairy, agreed.

“The Jordanian custodianship in occupied Jerusalem is very essential because any legal vacuum in the Holy City will be exploited by Israel,” he said, adding that “the king had been feeling that Israeli schemes in the city were growing.”

Jordan administers the Muslim holy sites in occupied Jerusalem through its Ministry of Awqaf and Religious Affairs. Abbas on Monday told reporters in Ramallah that the deal consolidates past agreements with Jordan, has nothing to do with Obama’s visit and is not related “at all with the negotiations”.

Direct talks between Israel and the Palestinians collapsed in autumn 2010 over an intractable spat over colony building.