Jul
01
2015
Following appeared in the Jordan Times Newspaper
By Daoud Kuttab
Despite the lack of a political horizon in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, one area that appears to witness a de-escalation of tensions might be Al Aqsa Mosque.
According to a just-released comprehensive report by the Brussels-based International Crisis Group, Jordan and Israel are close to an agreement that can re-establish the modalities at Islam’s third holiest site as those that existed on the eve of the second Intifada.
For Muslims, the 500-square-metre area that contains Al Aqsa Mosque, the golden Dome of the Rock, the Islamic Museum and large courtyards is considered a single religious site generally referred to as Al Haram Al Sharif, or Noble Sanctuary.
Israeli Jews refer to the same site as the Temple Mount. Authors of the crisis group report use the neutral term Holy Esplanade.
In their recommendation, the international researchers called on Muslim leaders to stop making the unsubstantiated claims that the Israeli archaeological digs aim at bringing down the Islamic mosque.
At the same time, the International Crisis Group agrees with the Jordanian authorities responsible for the mosque area that visiting Jews should not be allowed to pray. Since 1187, non-Muslims have been forbidden to pray on the premises of the mosque. Continue Reading »
Jul
01
2015
By Daoud Kuttab
The status of Islam’s third-holiest site, Al-Aqsa Mosque, has been the subject of many academic and research efforts, most of them with an ideological bias. Israeli Jews consider the site of utmost importance to them and most research associated with Israel reflects this view. Some right-wing Israelis often try to stir up other Jews about access to the compound that houses the mosque, emphasizing that the Jews who won the 1967 war still “don’t have unfettered access,†including the right to pray at the mosque.
Arab Muslims fear Israeli attempts to Judaize the site, or, at best, to impose a policy where the site is shared with Jews, similar to the arrangement at
Hebron’s Ibrahimi Mosque, where over the past 48 years prayer areas in parts of the mosque are shared by Jews and Muslims. For Muslims, the entire walled and guarded compound that includes Al-Aqsa Mosque — Masjid Omar, the Islamic Museum and the courtyards — is generally referred to as
Haram al-Sharif (Noble Sanctuary) and is regarded as one holy site.
The highly sensitive issue of Al-Aqsa compound was addressed by the International Crisis Group (ICG) in Brussels with an unprecedented in-depth study. To avoid any linguistic bias, the nongovernmental organization referred to the compound — known to Muslims as Haram al-Sharif and to Jews as Temple Mount — as the “Esplanade.”
When Israel occupied Jerusalem in June 1967, the issue of Jews entering the Esplanade area was indefinitely postponed as a result of a convenient ruling by the Chief Rabbinate on June 10, the last day of the Six-Day War. It ruled that because the location is holy to Jews, no religious Jew is allowed to set foot on any of the area that is referred to as the Temple Mount by Jews in order not to defile it. The statement said: “In view of the fact that the holiness of the area never ceases, it is forbidden to ascend the Temple Mount until the Temple is built.” Continue Reading »
