Palestinian Authority warns against ‘dangerous’ plan to strip Jordan of Al-Aqsa custodianship

The Palestinian Authority has warned against plans to strip Jordan of its historic custodianship of Al-Aqsa Mosque, hours after Middle East Eye reported that the US and Israel were actively pursuing a new arrangement for the revered Muslim site that would closely align with Israeli interests. 

In a statement on Tuesday, the Palestinian Authority’s Jerusalem governorate said the reported plan sought to impose Israeli sovereignty over the Islamic site and fundamentally alter the longstanding status quo.

“The Hashemite custodianship of the Islamic and Christian holy sites in Jerusalem is an internationally recognised historical, legal and political authority,” the governorate said in a statement.

“It serves as a fundamental safeguard for protecting the Al-Aqsa Mosque complex and preserving its Arab and Islamic identity,” it added.

On Monday, MEE reported that the US and Israel were seeking a new arrangement for the mosque complex, which would terminate the 102-year authority of the Jordanian-backed Islamic Waqf.

According to the plan, the Al-Aqsa Mosque complex would be transformed into a “multi-faith centre”, allowing Jews “equal access” to the site and formally permitting large-group Jewish prayer.

Israel would also have a major say over the appointment of imams, preachers and senior mosque officials, and would also be involved in signing off on the content mentioned in Friday sermons.

Two US officials told MEE that Washington had drafted a paper on how they envisaged the mosque’s future. The officials said the Trump administration would like to see Al-Aqsa Mosque stripped of its Muslim identity, with the site turned into a landmark tourist attraction that hosts all three Abrahamic religions.

The governorate said that such proposals, if implemented, would represent “a dangerous escalation” aimed at forcibly erasing the mosque’s exclusively Islamic character.

‘Serious repercussions’

Jordan’s ruling family traces its custodianship over Muslim and Christian holy sites in Jerusalem back to 1924, when Palestine was under British Mandate rule.

Its role as custodian was later recognised in its 1994 peace treaty with Israel, which acknowledged Amman’s “special role” in Jerusalem’s Islamic holy sites.

But for years, Jordanian officials and Palestinian leaders have warned that the arrangement has been steadily eroded by successive Israeli governments and emboldened far-right groups seeking greater Jewish control over the complex.

Israeli police raids inside the mosque complex, increasing visits by ultranationalist Jewish activists and repeated calls by Israeli ministers for Jewish prayer rights at the site have fuelled accusations that Israel is incrementally changing the status quo.

US and Israel ‘actively working’ to strip Jordan of Al-Aqsa custodianship, sources say

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Waqf officials have also repeatedly told MEE that other than imposing strict restrictions on Palestinian worshippers, Israel had made it difficult for the Waqf to carry out necessary maintenance works and repairs.

Jordan’s King Abdullah II has repeatedly warned against attempts to alter the status quo, and whilst addressing the United Nations General Assembly last year, said any assault on the city’s holy sites would “ignite the feelings of more than a billion Muslims around the world”.

Despite this, on Tuesday, Israel’s civil administration, which carries out Israeli orders in the occupied West Bank, announced that it was seizing control of the tomb of the Prophet Samuel (Nabi Samuel) in the occupied West Bank, an important religious landmark run by the Islamic Waqf.

In its statement, the Jerusalem governorate called on the UN, the body’s Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, and the Arab League to immediately intervene and prevent any attempts to undermine the status quo in occupied Jerusalem.

It said any attempts to undermine Jordan’s custodianship or alter the identity of Al-Aqsa Mosque would have “serious repercussions for security and stability in the region”.