Laith al-Juneidi

AMMAN

Jordan on Monday condemned an Israeli Supreme Court decision to consider a request by an extremist Jewish group to allow Jewish prayer in East Jerusalem’s flashpoint Al-Aqsa Mosque complex.

“This idea has already been ruled out,” Jordanian Minister of Religious Endowments Abdul Nasser Abu al-Basal was quoted as saying by Jordan’s Petra News Agency.

“The courts of the [Israeli] occupation have no jurisdiction or authority over Al-Aqsa,” he added.

Abu al-Basal made the remarks after Israel’s Supreme Court announced it would “look into” a request by an extremist Jewish group to overturn a longstanding ban on Jewish prayer inside the mosque compound.

Since 2003, the Israeli authorities have allowed Jewish settlers to enter Al-Aqsa in increasing numbers. Nevertheless, they remain forbidden from performing prayers or religious rituals inside the site.

In 2000, a visit to Al-Aqsa by controversial Israeli politician Ariel Sharon sparked a years-long popular uprising against the Israeli occupation in which thousands of Palestinians lost their lives.

Abu al-Basal, for his part, warned of the consequences of any decision by the Israeli authorities that would “harm the site’s Islamic character… and provoke the feelings of Muslims worldwide”.

The 1994 Wadi Araba Agreement (a peace treaty between Jordan and Israel) mandated Jordan’s Religious Endowments Authority with overseeing all Muslim and Christian holy sites in Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem.

For Muslims, the Al-Aqsa represents the world's third holiest site after Mecca and Medina. Jews, for their part, refer to the area as the "Temple Mount", claiming it was the site of two Jewish temples in ancient times.

Israel occupied East Jerusalem -- in which the Al-Aqsa is located -- during the 1967 Arab-Israeli War, annexing the entire city 13 years later in a move never recognized by the international community.