King Abdullah: Israel Harms Jerusalem

By JTA August 17, 2012

Israeli policy in Jerusalem is harming the city’s holy sites, Jordan’s King Abdullah said.

Jordan’s state-run Petra news agency on Thursday quoted the king as telling clergymen from Jerusalem in Amman that “Israel’s acts of radicalization harm the holy places” in Jerusalem. “The coerced emigration of Arab Christians and Arab Muslim from the Holy City is unacceptable.”

Jordan, he reportedly said, would “continue to defend the holy places and check the Israeli unilateral moves which aim to change the city’s identity.”

Jordan ruled East Jerusalem, in which two mosques important to Islam sit on the Temple Mount, from 1948 until 1967. After the Six Day War, Israel annexed East Jerusalem.

The king also said that he would act to “consolidate a firmer and more efective Islamic stance in light of these infringements,” the Petra report added.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

The coming year promises to be filled with more complex and historic developments. We are entering an era where independent, fact-based Jewish journalism will be more important than ever. We need to be ready for whatever 2025 will bring, and with your help, we can be.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO