Amid heightened tensions over the Temple Mount, Israel and Jordan show that cooler heads can prevail.
Amman, Jordan–Chaotic scenes erupted in Jordan on Tuesday following an arrangement between Amman and Israel to relieve tensions surrounding the Temple Mount/Al-Aqsa Mosque. A fiery debate took place at the Jordanian parliament, thousands of university students chanted for an “al-Aqsa victory,” and the main road along the shared border between Jordan, Israel and the West Bank was locked down for a couple of hours.
The turmoil began on July 14, when three Muslim men from the northern Israeli city of Umm el-Fahm shot dead two Arab-Israeli police officers near al-Aqsa. In response, Israeli security forces, at the behest of the government, installed metal detectors at the entrances to the compound in Jerusalem’s Old City. The move was slammed by Islamic authorities as an Israeli power grab aimed at changing the religious “status quo” governing relations between Muslims, Jews and Christians at the holy site.
A major backlash, spanning the Arab-Islamic world, ensued, with Muslim leaders calling on worshippers not to visit the complex, but rather demonstrate nearby. Protests also broke out throughout the Middle East, including in Jordan—the custodian of Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem—where thousands of people took to the streets of Amman.
“When I first heard about the solidarity march with al-Aqsa, I ran quickly to be part of it from the beginning,” Noor Abu Alrob, a Jordanian student at al-Hashmiya University told The Media Line. “Arabs should understand that we must stand up for our demands, be united and win for al-Aqsa.” He added that the school administration supported and helped to organize the marches.
Tensions quickly boiled over in Jerusalem and the West Bank, too, with five Palestinians killed in clashes with Israeli security forces. Soon after, three Israelis were brutally stabbed to death by a Palestinian assailant in the West Bank community of Halamish. Then, on Sunday, a major diplomatic crisis broke out. Sixteen-year-old Jordanian Mohammad Jawawdeh, a furniture mover, attacked an employee at the Israeli embassy in Amman. In response, the Israeli deputy security officer—known as “Ziv”—opened fire, killing Jawawdeh and a Jordanian doctor, Bashar Kamel Hamarneh, the owner of the building who was present at the time.
Speaking to The Media Line, Amer Al-Sartawi, a spokesperson for the Jordanian Directorate of General Security, revealed that an extensive, cross-departmental special investigation was launched into the incident. “On July 23, an agreement was reached to supply bedroom furniture for an apartment inhabited by an Israeli embassy employee,” Al-Sartawi confirmed, adding that the fight—which quickly escalated—broke out because of a delay in the delivery of the goods. “The worker attacked the Israeli diplomat,” he explained, “causing him injuries. The diplomatic officer shot the worker and the owner of the building, who was standing next to the teen. Both were transferred to the nearest hospital but died of injuries.”
In the aftermath of the event, Jordan refused to allow “Ziv” to leave the country. Intensive shuttle diplomacy between Israel and Jordan followed, with an apparent compromise finally struck Monday evening. In exchange for allowing Israeli embassy officials in Amman to return home, the Netanyahu government would remove the metal detectors from outside the Temple Mount (known to Muslims as the Haram al-Sharif). While the embassy staff have indeed since returned to Israel, and the metal detectors removed, both sides are denying that any formal agreement was reached.
Nevertheless, a spokesperson for the Palestinian Ministry of Waqf and Religious Affairs, Khaled Al-Zawawed, told The Media Line that he welcomes any efforts to restore calm. “Nobody informed us of any Jordanian-Israeli deal, we only saw reports through the media. But we appreciate it. All we want is to have the exact same situation before the day of July 14.”
But not all are pleased. Farah Abdullah, 21, an engineering student at Jordan’s al-Hashimeya University expressed outrage to The Media Line. “What happened is not right. Jordan does not hesitate with its own people, why did they release the Israeli diplomat?” Similar sentiments were conveyed during a Jordanian parliament session on Tuesday, with some government members leaving the hall altogether in protest of King Abdullah’s decision to return the Israelis.
The head of the parliament, Atef Al-Tarawneh, said the incident was still shrouded in mystery and thus called on King Abdullah “to submit a detailed report including the results of the investigation within delay or procrastination.” Tarawneh, on behalf of his colleagues, stressed that Abdullah must put a stop to “Israeli arrogance” and the “desecration of our sanctities” not only in Jordan, but also in the Palestinian territories.