Hamas warns Obama against Temple Mount visit
Trip to Jerusalem’s holiest site would be ‘a diplomatic catastrophe,’ Islamists declare; mufti sets three conditions for presidential tour
February 26, 2013, 9:29 pm
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Pope
Benedict XVI (C) walking with Muslim and Christian religious leaders
during a visit to the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem's Old City,
May 12, 2009 (photo credit: Atta Awissat/GPO/Flash90)
Responding to unconfirmed rumors
that US President Barack Obama intends to visit the Temple Mount in
Jerusalem during his trip to Israel next month, the Hamas terror group
warned the American leader against the idea on Tuesday, calling it “a
diplomatic catastrophe,” and local Muslim leaders set stiff conditions
for a presidential tour there.
A statement issued by Hamas called Obama’s
potential visit to the Al-Aqsa Mosque, located at the
southern perimeter of the Mount, “an imminent danger which the Al-Aqsa
Mosque and Jerusalem have never faced.”
Hamas stated that a visit by the American
president to the contested site under the auspices of “the Zionist
occupation” would be more dangerous than the relocation of any country’s
embassy to Jerusalem, considering the international preeminence of the
United States.
The Temple Mount, revered by Jews as the site
of the first and second temples and by Muslims as the point from which
Muhammad ascended to heaven, is administered by the Jerusalem Islamic
Waqf, a trust that has governed the site since the 12th century.
Ekrima Sabri, who used to administer the
Temple Mount as mufti of Jerusalem and currently heads the High Islamic
Council in Jerusalem, told The Times of Israel that Obama would be
allowed to visit the site only if he abided by three conditions.
According to a protocol drafted by the Waqf in
1967, official visitors may enter the Temple Mount through any of its
11 gates excluding the Mughrabi Gate, which is connected to the Western
Wall plaza by a bridge.
“The Israeli army stole the keys to that gate
from the Islamic Waqf, so entry through that gate gives the impression
that Israel has sovereignty over Al-Aqsa,” Sabri said.
“We insist on Muslim sovereignty over the Temple Mount,” he said.
Israel took control of Jerusalem’s Old City, including the Temple Mount, in the 1967 Six Day War.
The other conditions placed by the Waqf on
Obama’s visit are that no Israeli official accompany the president onto
the mount, and that the visit be of a sight-seeing rather than a
political nature.
Sabri said that in the past, visiting
officials — including French President Jacques Chirac, Pope John Paul II
and Pope Benedict XVI — abided by the Waqf’s regulations.
“If Obama does not abide by these rules, we
will refuse to accept him in Al-Aqsa,” Sabri concluded, adding that his
organization intended to send a petition to the American consul general
in Jerusalem next week outlining its conditions and protesting Israeli
attempts to “Judaize” Jerusalem.
The White House gave no indication that Obama actually planned to visit the Temple Mount.
A visit to the site by former Israeli prime
minister Ariel Sharon while he was opposition leader in September 2000
is widely regarded as the immediate precursor — Israel says it was a
pretext — for the outburst of the Second Intifada, marked by a strategic
onslaught of Palestinian terrorist attacks against Israel, and referred
to by Palestinians as the Al-Aqsa Intifada.
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