Reports from Jerusalem suggest that Israeli authorities are taking over one of Islam's holiest sites, the Al-Aqsa Mosque. If they do, experts say anything could happen, from war to terrorism to ending diplomatic ties.The statement issued after this week's meeting in Jordan was blunt about what might happen next.Israeli infringements on one of Islam's holiest sites, the Al-Aqsa Mosque in east Jerusalem, could lead to "a religious conflict with repercussions that will extend beyond the region and threaten regional and international peace and security," the foreign ministers of 10 countries belonging to the Arab League said after Wednesday's emergency meeting in Amman, Jordan. The statement was also signed by ministers from Indonesia, Pakistan, Turkey, and Malaysia.Jordan's foreign minister called the meeting because of mounting evidence that the Israeli government is surreptitiously changing a decades-old agreement meant to ensure intercommunal peace at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, an area of great religious significance to Muslims, Jews, and Christians."We warn that tampering with the status quo … could trigger a religious conflict that will reverberate beyond Palestine and Jordan into the whole Muslim world," Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi told the UK newspaper the Guardian before the meeting.
How many times have Muslim and Arab leaders threatened violence if Jews do something innocuous on the Temple Mount, like pray?
Too many times to count.
The "Al Aqsa is in Danger! meme is over a century old, warning that Israel plans to demolish the Al Aqsa Mosque or is changing the "status quo" that no one can quite define, and if they do whatever or keep doing whatever it will start a huge conflagration.
In 1990, rumors that the Temple Mount Faithful planned to lay a foundation stone on the Mount resulted in massive clashes. Middle Eastern media and regional governments warned that any attempt by Jewish groups to pray or alter the site's status would trigger regional war.
In 1996 ,when Israel opened an exit to the Western Wall Tunnel near the northern end of the Temple Mount compound, Arab leaders and international media published warnings that Israel was undermining the foundation of Al-Aqsa Mosque, causing riots.
In 2000 Ariel Sharon visited the Temple Mount accompanied by security personnel. Palestinian leadership and Arab press framed the visit as a deliberate attempt to violate the status quo and "desecrate" the site, utilizing the visit as a rallying cry to launch the Second Intifada.
In 2017 Israel installed metal detectors on the entrances, causing more riots and threats.
Hamas started a mini-war in 2021 supposedly to "defend Al Aqsa," shooting rockets into Israel.
But Arab media constantly covers visits by "extremist Jewish settlers" as dire threats. Jordan regularly issued warnings and threats. This is daily. This summit was nothing special.
Interestingly, in 2015, journalist Shlomo Eldar decided to take a visit to the Mount with Jews to see what the fuss was all about. He expected to see lots of repression of Arabs based on the media reports. He found something quite different:
I did not visit the Temple Mount for religious, political or ideological reasons. Rather, I came as a journalist wishing to know what the commotion is all about. I wanted to find out firsthand whether the Palestinian allegations that the Al-Aqsa Mosque is in danger are founded. ...The Waqf security guards are densely deployed at the Temple Mount compound, going to great lengths to make sure that only small groups of Jews get to visit the site compared to the thousands of tourists that are allowed to visit almost uninterruptedly. While keeping order and security at the Temple Mount and at Al-Aqsa Mosque is shared jointly by Israel and the Waqf, the tension awards the Palestinian almost total control of who is allowed into the Temple Mount and who isn’t. This, of course, stands in total contrast to the Palestinian allegations that Israel has changed the status quo and that Al-Aqsa is in danger.
A journalist checking Arab apocalyptic articles? Wow, what a concept!
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