When Israeli soldiers screwed up in Jerusalem

May 29, 2012 08:57

Israeli soldiers violated the status quo on the esplanade of the mosques in east Jerusalem by raising Israel's flag, the head of the Islamic Waqf organisation that oversees the compound charged.

"More than 180 soldiers from a special Israeli army unit on Monday raised a large Israeli flag opposite the mosque of the Rock, which is a grave provocation," Sheikh Azzam al-Khatib told AFP.

The sprawling esplanade containing the Al-Aqsa mosque and the adjacent Dome of the Rock in the historic Old City is the third-holiest site in Islam after Saudi Arabia's Mecca and Medina.

It is also the holiest site for Jews, who refer to it as the Temple Mount because it was the location of the Second Temple, destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD.

Sheikh Khatib said the soldiers entered the esplanade during a visit approved and organised by Israeli police. He said he had made a complaint both to the Israeli police and to the Jordanian authorities. Jordan, which has a 1994 peace treaty with Israel, is the custodian of Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem.

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