Al-Aqsa Mosque is again causing a major rift in the once friendly relationship between Jordan and Israel. Relations turned sour in the past week when Israeli security officials conducted a humiliating arrest of Jordan’s most senior official in Jerusalem. Heavily armed Israeli security forces arrived at the East Jerusalem home of Sheikh Abdul Azim Salhab at 5:30 a.m. on Feb. 24. Salhab’s deputy and a score of other employees of the Jordanian Ministry of Awqaf were also taken away, as were leading Palestinian activists.
The Israeli police said the arrests were made because Salhab, 75, and hundreds of Muslims broke an Israeli imposed ban forbidding Palestinians from entering or praying at the Bab al-Rahmeh prayer room in the mosque. They called the protest act a “change in the status quo.”
