Hawzah News Agency –Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh and The Islamic-Christian Commission for Supporting Jerusalem and the Holy Places today condemned Israeli plans to curtail and undermine the powers of the Islamic Waqf (endowment) Department and the custodianship of Jordan on Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque and other holy places in the occupied city.

Speaking at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting held in Jericho, PM Shtayyeh condemned the Israeli obstruction of the Waqf’s restoration and maintenance work at Al-Aqsa Mosque, stressing that Israel wants to assume control over Islam’s third holiest site by revoking the powers of the Islamic Waqf, which is in charge of the affairs of walled Al-Aqsa Mosque compound and its 144 dunum area, and by allowing Jewish fanatics to break into it and violate its sanctity.

The Islamic-Christian Commission echoed the fears of the Prime Minister and said in a statement that the Israeli obstruction of the work of the Islamic Waqf Department has reached an unacceptable level, and seriously threatens the powers of the Waqf as the party with exclusive responsibility for the management, restoration, and maintenance of Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, which derives its legal, political and religious legitimacy from Jordan’s Hashemite custodianship of Islamic and Christian holy sites in Jerusalem.

It stressed that the obstruction of the restoration work inside the mosque compound and the continuous attacks against the employees of the Reconstruction Committee by the Israeli police, in addition to the rise in the daily intrusions of the Mosque by Jewish fanatics who violate the sanctity of the Muslim holy place constitute a clear and dangerous indication of the intentions of the Israeli establishment in changing the historical, legal and religious status quo of Al-Aqsa Mosque on the road to diving it for Muslim and Jewish worship in time and space.

The commission said the continuation of these practices provoke the feelings of Muslims and may have serious repercussions the Israeli occupation will bear the responsibility for.

It called on the Arab and Islamic worlds to deal seriously with the dangers facing Al-Aqsa Mosque and to act on all levels to save and protect it from the dangers facing it.