Sought by Many, ‘Status Quo’ at Jerusalem’s Temple Mount Is Marked Only by Constant Shifts

As the annual Ramadan rioting at Jerusalem’s Temple Mount nears a crescendo, world leaders are cautioning against violating the “status quo” there — even though the state of affairs on the holy site is far from static. While today the area was calm, it is likely to reignite in two days. Friday, the Muslim Sabbath, is the last one of Ramadan, followed by the Eid el Fitr feast that marks the end of the holy month.According to reports in Israel today, the month-long violence is leading the kingdom of Jordan to demand changes to the rules that have long existed on the Temple Mount. Hamas has used Ramadan’s heightened religious awareness to urge believers to defend the mount — Haram al Sharif in Arabic — against alleged Jewish plots to violate the mosques’ sanctity. The Israeli police tried to maintain calm, leading to clashes. Aiming to tamp down passions, Washington is attempting an old remedy. In a phone conversation Monday with the Hashemite king, Abdullah II of Jordan, President Biden “underscored the need to preserve the historic status quo at the Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount,” according to a White House statement.Mr. Biden also spoke about the status quo in an earlier call with Prime Minister Bennett. So did Europeans, the United Nations, and Arab leaders. Israelis insist they’re adhering to the status quo, while Hamas’s officials never utter those two Latin words. “The only ones, the only ones, breaking the status quo on the Temple Mount are the Palestinian terror groups inflaming the holy sites,” Israel’s ambassador at the United Nations, Gilad Erdan, told the Security Council on Monday. Early this week, the Sun asked a UN spokesman, Farhan Haq, what exactly is the vaunted status quo. “We’ve mentioned this many times over the years, and it’s very clear, when these issues arise, what is being referred to,” Mr. Haq said. “I’ve seen this happen every now and again, and you’ll see what is meant by that.”So, just like pornography as defined by Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart, you’ll know the status quo when you see it.A European Union representative at the UN was a bit more precise when he told the Security Council Monday that Europe “calls for upholding the 1967 status quo.”After Jordan lost control over its west bank, including east Jerusalem, in 1967, Israel’s defense minister at the time, Moshe Dayan, called on King Hussein, then Jordan’s monarch, and proposed a set of rules to defend the right of worship for all religions and maintain a peaceful environment at the Mount.The king agreed to what is now known as the 1967 status quo: Dayan proposed that the Amman-appointed religious authority, the waqf, would administer the site and be responsible for the religious and civil arrangements there.Dayan also proposed that while Jews could visit the area that 2000 years ago housed the two Jewish temples, they would be banned from praying there. The Israeli police would solely be responsible for security and Israeli law would apply. To avoid nationalistic-based clashes, no flags would be waved on the holy mount. Those rules, however, have been eroded with each wave of Arab rioting. Israelis have given in to Arab demands, even as they were constantly condemned as violators of the Dayan-Hussein agreements. In September 2000, Ariel Sharon, then leader of the opposition and soon to be premier, strode onto the Temple Mount in a highly public assertion of sovereignty. He didn’t pray there, and therefore did not violate the status quo. Yet, the visit led to a months-long Arab wave of terror, and Sharon was widely accused of igniting what came to be called the Second Intifada. Afterward, and as rioting ensued with further visits by Israelis, Israel occasionally closed the area to Jewish visitors. Last week the government announced a complete ban on Jewish visits until the end of Ramadan. Meanwhile this month, Hamas flags have dominated the mosque areas in a major violation of the status quo agreement of 1967. Yet Israeli governments have long decided to ignore violations of the part of the 1967 agreement that excludes flags.Although the original pact gave the Israeli police sole responsibility for maintaining order, the cops are widely condemned for confronting rioters when they use the mosque area to stone Jewish worshippers at the Western Wall below. Now King Abdullah is reportedly using the latest flareup to change the 1967 agreements altogether. Calling for an Israeli-Jordanian meeting after Ramadan, Amman is pushing for a major increase in waqf guards on the mount, eroding the authority of the Israeli police. Further, according to one report, Jordan is also calling for an end to Israeli sovereignty over the mount. This casts into doubt the Hashemite king’s frequent calls over the years to maintain “the historical and legal status quo in Jerusalem.” What he actually calls for, following Hamas-instigated violence, are major changes to the 1967 agreements between Dayan and his father — that is, the “status quo.”

Sought by Many, ‘Status Quo’ at Jerusalem’s Temple Mount Is Marked Only by Constant Shifts

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