The Role of Jordan in Jerusalem
Jerusalem is a highly contested city in today’s world, and has held a crucial spot within the global mind for millennium. In the modern era, the city is a flash point for tensions between Israel and the Palestinian state, as Israel holds that Jerusalem is its capital, while the Palestinians hope to have East Jerusalem as the internationally recognized capital of their nation state one day. These tensions are exasperated by actions like when President Trump mocked the American Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem itself in 2018.The debate over the status of Jerusalem is further complicated by the fact that there is a third country that has authority over parts of Jerusalem, which is Jordan and the Hashemite Royal family.
King Hussein of Jordan
From 1947 until 1967 Jordan controlled the Territory of the West Bank. There was no independent Palestinian state, and many Jordanians hoped to incorporate the territory fully into Jordan, as the West Bank doubled the population of the state, and held many economic possibilities. In addition, the Hashemite family, which had become the rulers of Jordan after the British mandate ended, was the custodian of the Muslim holy sites within Jerusalem. The Hashemite family traced its lineage back to the Prophet Muhammad, and used this as legitimacy to attempt to control all of the Arab world, but especially the holiest places. For a while this meant that the Hashemites attempted to control Mecca and Medina, but as rival Arab leaders/states rose up, King Hussein of Jordan was left with control of just Jerusalem. In the 1967 war, Jordan lost possession of the West Bank territory but that did not mean that King Hussein lost his spiritual authority. In 1950 Jordan established the Ministry of Awqif and Islamic affairs, which had the main task of supervising the caretakers of both the Islamic holy sites in Jerusalem, and the Christian sites that feared that the new Jewish state would encroach on their traditional lands and rights to worship. The Waqif primarily controls the Al-Aqsa mosque, but also supervises various other shrines of importance throughout the Jerusalem area.
Though Jordan has authority over certain important religious sites, there is very little desire among Jordanians or the Palestinians of West Bank for Jordan to reclaim the territory it lost in 1967, or for Jordan to be considered the homeland of the Palestinian people. Jordan instead serves as a major supporter of the Palestinian people and their right to a homeland, while acting as a sincere custodian of some of the holiest places in the world.
Nice post about the Jerusalem Waqf and Jordanian control of the Haram (they have control over all of the sights there, including the Dome of the Rock).
ReplyDeleteRemember to use high-resolution images; the image of King Hussein is rather grainy.