The Israeli Government frowns when Israelis legally purchase Arab properties. However, it seems to be all right when a Muslim state does so. “Jordan secretly buying land accessing Temple Mount,” by Aaron Klein for WND:
JERUSALEM — Jordan has been quietly purchasing real estate surrounding the Temple Mount in Jerusalem in the hope of gaining more control over the area accessing the holy site, according to Palestinian and Israeli officials.
Israel’s Maariv daily newspaper reported a member of the Jordanian royal family has been leading efforts to purchase properties near the Temple Mount — Judaism’s holiest site — as part of the kingdom’s plan to solidify its already strong presence there.
The Maariv story was first reported by WND four months ago in an exclusive report revealing Jordan has used shell companies during the past year to purchase several apartments and shops located at key peripheral sections of the Temple Mount.
Israeli and Palestinian officials told WND Jordan also set up a commission to use the shell companies to petition mostly Arab landowners adjacent to eastern sections of the Temple Mount to sell their properties. They said profits from sales at any purchased shops would be reinvested to buy more real estate near the Mount and in eastern Jerusalem neighborhoods.
The Jordanian shell companies at times have presented themselves as acting on behalf of the Waqf, the Muslim custodians of the Temple Mount, WND has learned.
The Olmert Government continues to give every indication that Israel is willing to let foreign and sometimes hostile entities create “facts on the ground” which question Israel’s sovereignty. This is not new:
In February, WND first reported Prime Minister Ehud Olmert granted permission to Jordan to construct a large minaret at a site on the Temple Mount where Jewish groups here had petitioned to build a synagogue. According to Israeli diplomatic sources, an announcement on the minaret has been stalled.
A top leader of the Waqf told WND Olmert’s granting of permission to build the minaret in the synagogue’s place “confirms 100 percent the Haram al-Sharif (Temple Mount) belongs to Muslims.”
“This proves Jewish conspiracies for a synagogue will never succeed and solidifies our presence here. It will make Muslims worldwide more secure that the Jews will never take over the Haram al-Sharif,” the Waqf official said.
And Olmert and Co. will see to that.
Jordan previously controlled eastern Jerusalem and the Temple Mount from 1948 until Israel liberated the territory in the 1967 Six-Day War. During the period of Jordanian control,Jews were barred from the Western Wall and Temple Mount, Judaism’s holiest sites, and hundreds of synagogues were destroyed. Jordan constructed a road to the Intercontinental Hotel that stretched across the Mount of Olives, bulldozing hundreds of Jewish gravestones.
The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan: true defenders of Holy Places. Typical of an Islamic state. Typical of the complicity of the Olmert Government.
I am surprised that Jordan actually has to pay for the properties. I would have thought that Olmert would give them away for free.
Crossposted from The American Israeli Patriot.