Just when the bromance was going full swing between the United Arab Emirates and Israel, just after Israel held an Independence Day reception at its Embassy in Abu Dhabi, just three days after the UAE Foreign Trade Minister Dr. Thani bin Ahmed al-Zeyoudi proudly announced at the World Economic Forum in Davos that trade between the United Arab Emirates and Israel had reached $2.5 billion in under two years of official ties, the UAE suddenly called on Israel to provide “full protection” at the Temple Mount, to avoid “provocative violations,” and also called on Israel to respect Jordan’s informal role as custodian of the site. A report on this quite unnecessary, and therefore insulting, scolding can be found here: “UAE condemns Israel for allowing ‘provocative violations’ at Temple Mount,” Times of Israel, May 30, 2022.
First, the facts. 2,600 Jews were allowed to visit the Mount on Jerusalem Day. Compare that to the tens of thousands of Muslims who routinely visit the Mount each day, and on special occasions 150,000 come to worship inside the Al-Aqsa Mosque and on the Compound. This past April, 250,000 people gathered for prayers at the Mosque to mark Laylat al-Qadr, or Night of Power. But if, on just one occasion, 2600 Jews, about 1% of the number of Arabs who came to the Temple Mount on Laylat-al-Qadr, show up, that is cause for Arabs to express alarm and outrage.
The Jewish visitors to the Temple Mount are at all times tightly controlled by the Israeli police. Jews are only allowed on the Mount for a few hours each day, and only from Sunday through Thursday. The Israeli police also make sure that Jewish visitors at the Mount do not pray, either aloud or by silently mouthing prayers (in recent years, enforcement of that latter prohibition has loosened). Nor are they allowed to bring prayer shawls, prayer books, and tefillin onto the Mount, and are allowed to walk only along the perimeter of the Al-Aqsa Compound, and kept away from the mosque itself. This did not satisfy several Arab states that ought to have known better; the most disappointing of these was the UAE.
The United Arab Emirates on Monday called on Israeli authorities to reduce friction at the Temple Mount, a day after a record number of Jews were allowed to visit the holy site on Jerusalem Day.
In a statement, the UAE foreign ministry called on Israel to provide “full protection” at the site, and urged respect for the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan’s informal role as custodian of Jerusalem’s holy sites.
The statement also called for an end to “provocative violations” at the Temple Mount, and urged “maximum restraint” from Israel to avoid further instability….
How dare Israel allow such a thing — failing to prevent that “small number” of Jews from saying prayers? 250,000 Muslims can pray on the Mount, but not a single Jew can do so without causing widespread fury. Is there a certain lack of….symmetry?
The Temple Mount — which also houses the Al-Aqsa Mosque — is administered by the Waqf, a religious trust run and funded by Jordan. The site is the holiest site for Jews, as the location of two biblical temples, while Al-Aqsa is the third holiest shrine in Islam, turning the area into a major flashpoint in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The UAE’s statement followed condemnation from Jordan, the Palestinian Authorities and Egypt on Sunday. Egypt warned in a statement that allowing a large number of Jews to visit the site leads to an escalation of tensions.
What leads to an “escalation of tensions” is just about anything the Arabs choose to be offended by. It could be the number of Jews visiting the Mount, it could be a handful of Jews silently mouthing a prayer or even – how dare they? – praying aloud. The mere presence of Jews on the Temple Mount is an offense to Arabs. At the holiest site in Judaism, Jews have no right to be there. Mahmoud Abbas has assured the world that it is a “Palestinian site.”
A spokesperson for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said Israel was “playing with fire” by allowing “settlers to desecrate holy sites.”
What did those “settlers,” really just Israelis, but for the PA all Israelis are “settlers” — a word that we have been brainwashed into finding sinister – actually do? How were they “desecrating” the Temple Mount? By saying a prayer? By possibly bowing down while inwardly saying a prayer? They didn’t go near the Al-Aqsa Mosque itself, much less enter it. Does their mere presence, their Jewish presence, “desecrate” the Al-Aqsa Compound for Muslims? For all too many Arabs and Muslims, the answer is yes.
Jordan’s foreign ministry denounced Israel for allowing Ben Gvir and other Jewish “extremists” to visit the holy site. “The Foreign Ministry spokesperson demanded of Israel that it cease all practices and violations of the al-Aqsa Mosque,” the ministry said in a statement.
The Jordanians also condemned the “provocative, escalatory” Flag March that began later on Sunday as part of Jerusalem Day, warning it could lead to an eruption of violence.
Under an increasingly frayed arrangement known as the status quo, Jews are generally allowed to visit the Temple Mount during limited hours, but not pray there or perform other acts of worship that can be seen as provocations by Muslims.
Just a day after the UAE had delivered its reproof about the Temple Mount,. all was clearly forgiven. Relations were back on track. On that day, the UAE and Israel announced a spectacular trade agreement, reported on here: “Israel Signs Free-Trade Agreement With UAE in First of Its Kind Deal with Arab State,” by Dov Lieber, Wall Street Journal, May 31, 2022:
Israel and the United Arab Emirates signed a first-of-its-kind comprehensive free-trade agreement between Israel and an Arab country, boosting business ties less than two years after they established formal diplomatic relations in a U.S.-brokered deal.
The agreement, signed Tuesday in Dubai by the Israeli economy minister and the Emirati minister of state for foreign trade, will cover 96% of bilateral trade, which amounts to about $1 billion. Officials said the agreement would help trade grow to more than $10 billion within five years.
The deal shows the durability of a series of diplomatic deals in 2020 known as the Abraham Accords, which normalized relations between Israel and four Muslim countries—the U.A.E., Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan. The accords marked the biggest diplomatic breakthrough in relations between Israel and its neighbors in decades, and the Israel-Emirati trade deal is among the accords’ most tangible achievements.…
That brief criticism from the Emirates did not get in the way of the free-trade agreement with the Jewish state that was announced a day later. It’s back to business between the two. Nothing will stop this juggernaut. Especially not the spittle-flecked squeals of rage from the rais in Ramallah, who at this point must be inconsolable. Tough.
proudlyislamophobic says
The Al-Aqsa Mosque should be demolished. It has no business being there. It is only there because of some laughable “vision” that Mohammad supposedly had. It is just another excuse for Muslims to overrun a place that they feel they have a right to – which apparently includes the whole world!
gravenimage says
The Palestinian Authority’s Rage at Israel and the UAE’s Mild Reproof
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Just surprising that the UAE said anything critical at all.