Meet the "Custodian"

By YISRAEL MEDAD

 

How do you understand ''Custodianship''?  What is a "custodian"?
And I hope that PM Binyamin Netanyahu is not being fooled in this connection.
We have been informed that Jordanian lawmakers are angry.  Why?  They claim our Knesset plans to end Jordanian guardianship in Jerusalem.

Amman, Feb 16 (Petra) -- Jordanian lawmakers...said the move, if taken, is a breach of the Jordanian-Israeli peace treaty.  The MPs called on the government to take quick and immediate action to respond to such move which they said it violates Jordanian national sovereignty and is tantamount to a breach of the peace treaty signed between Jordan and Israel.
 
The Lower House of Parliament''s Palestine Committee said the Knesset''s proposal aims at legitimizing recurring storming of the Al-Aqsa Mosque and other Muslim and Christian sanctities in Jerusalem and Palestine.  If Israel goes ahead with such plans, the committee said in a statement, the government is required to shut down the Israeli embassy in Amman, expel the ambassador and close the Jordanian embassy in Tel Aviv...

Are these parliamentarians rational?
First, the Knesset is doing no such thing.  There''s a motion for plenum discussion on the loss of Temple Mount sovereignty to .. Jordan, actually.
Second, let''s remember what is written in the 1994 Israel-Jordan Peace Treaty''ss Article 9:

 
PLACES OF HISTORICAL AND RELIGIOUS SIGNIFICANCE
 
Each party will provide freedom of access to places of religious and historical significance.
 
In this regard, in accordance with the Washington Declaration, Israel respects the present special role of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan in Muslim Holy shrines in Jerusalem. When negotiations on the permanent status will take place, Israel will give high priority to the Jordanian historic role in these shrines.
 
The Parties will act together to promote interfaith relations among the three monotheistic religions, with the aim of working towards religious understanding, moral commitment, freedom of religious worship, and tolerance and peace.

Jordan''s Prime Minister, Abdullah Ensour, basically agrees.  He said that the government would not take action for a planned motion by the Israeli lawmakers'' efforts to cancel Jordan’s role as custodian of the holy sites in Jerusalem, as “no official decision is made yet”.
And Jordan has no "sovereignty" over the city or parts thereof.
Although he 

"understands the sentiments of the deputies who demanded a firm stand by the government as the Knesset members’ move is provocative", he nevertheless declared Too many statements about issues like these would render Jordan’s stand “meaningless”, [but] In case the Knesset endorsed such a motion, this would be a breach to the 1994 peace treaty between Jordan and Israel, which is an “abiding agreement”.

And why?  Because this would be an attempt

to deny Jordan’s custodianship over the holy sites in East Jerusalem, as stipulated in Article 9 of the peace deal.

That may sound ''rational'' to you but to me that statement means that Jordan desires to be custodian over all holy sites - Muslim, Christian and ... Jewish.  That is how it views "custodianship" and its "historical role".
Let’s quote, exactly, from the text of that treaty, again:

special role of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan in Muslim Holy shrines
 
My reading comprehension skills indicate that the meaning there is “in” not “over” and “Muslim” only and certainly not “all”.

Furthermore, let''s not skip over responsibilities and obligations of that treaty:

religious understanding...freedom of religious worship, and tolerance and peace.

Those Jordanian parliamentarians are no shining example of understanding, toleration and freedom.
Even the Palestinian Authority and Hamas are getting involved.  As this paper noted, they 

warned Sunday of Israeli “plans” to impose Israeli sovereignty on the Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.  PA Minister for Religious Affairs Mahmoud al-Habbash said that there would be no sovereignty over the Aqsa Mosque and Islamic and Christian holy sites other than Palestinian sovereignty. “This is the full right of the Arab, including Muslims and Christians,” he said.

In a connected development, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Sunday the Palestinian Authority would not agree to share sovereignty over the Temple Mount in Jerusalem in the course of a peace deal with Israel, but would allow freedom of worship for Jews in the Western Wall Plaza.
That is the Abbas’ version of “can I sell you the Brooklyn Bridge?”.
No Jews will be on the Temple Mount in that arrangement but I can assure you that even Jews praying at the Western Wall, under the sovereignty of the Palestinian authority, just will not happen.  The rocks that are thrown inside the Temple Mount today will coming over the Western Wall down on the heads of all below, including the Women of the Wall.
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UPDATE
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