PA rejects ‘prior coordination’ with Israel before entering Al-Aqsa compound

The Palestinian Authority has rejected that “prior coordination” with Israel must be carried out before entering Al-Aqsa Mosque, a foreign ministry official said on Wednesday. Ambassador Ahmed Al-Deek, a political adviser to the foreign minister, made his comment in response to Israel’s justification for preventing the Jordanian ambassador to the occupation state from entering the Noble Sanctuary on Tuesday.

“The Israeli spokesperson’s remarks on the security forces’ responsibility to enforce the law at Al-Aqsa are a flagrant violation of the historical, political and legal status quo at the holy site,” said Al-Deek. “The lack of prior coordination argument that was offered to justify the incident is also an attempt to alter to the legal status of Al-Aqsa Mosque.”

The PA official reiterated that the Jordan-run Jerusalem Awqaf and Al-Aqsa Affairs Department is the sole authority supervising the site’s affairs and managing entrance to the site. “As with any other mosque in the world,” he added, “Muslims do not need prior permission to enter Al-Aqsa Mosque.”

Al-Deek pointed out that the Israeli justification reflects the apartheid state’s insistence on targeting Christian and Islamic holy sites, mainly Al-Aqsa Mosque. Israel wants to impose a temporal and spatial division of Islam’s third holiest site to allow illegal Jewish settlers to pray in the Noble Sanctuary.

READ: Egypt, Jordan, PA call on Israel to stop its ‘illegal and unilateral’ measures