Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Jordan Will Return Ambassador to Israel As Tensions Ease on Temple Mount

Jordan will return its ambassador to Israel, three months after withdrawing him over tensions on the Temple Mount.

Jordanian government spokesman Mohammad al–Momani told Reuters his country would return Amb. Walid Obeidat to Tel Aviv after noting that Israel had worked since November to ease tensions and to lift restrictions on Muslim worshippers.

“We noticed in the last period a significant improvement in Haram al-Sharif with numbers of worshipers reaching unprecedented levels,” Momani told Reuters. Haram al-Sharif is also known as the Temple Mount, and is where the Al Aksa Mosque is located.

The Temple Mount site was closed to Muslim worshipers in the wake of an assassination attempt by a Palestinian terrorist against Temple Mount activist Yehuda Glick.

The site is overseen by the Jordanian Wakf, the Muslim religious administration charged with managing the Temple Mount site. Jews generally are not permitted by the Wakf to pray or bring any ritual objects to the Temple Mount when they visit.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.