A large delegation of foreign diplomats met with Palestinian and Islamic Awqaf officials at the Al-Aqsa Mosque on Wednesday in an apparent show of support for upholding the status quo in occupied East Jerusalem, The New Arab reported.
Diplomats from EU and European countries, South America and Australia – led by EU representative Sven Kuehn Von Burgsdorff – toured Haram al-Sharif and held a meeting with Islamic clerics.
The visit comes at the heels of several provocative incidents by Israel, including the storming of the compound by Israel’s far-right security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and hindering of visits of two diplomats, including the Jordanian ambassador to Tel Aviv.
“They came to witness and hear about the happenings here at the Al-Aqsa, the visits by Ben-Gvir and other provocations by Israeli officials,” Mufti Muhammad Husseini to The New Arab.
Sven Kuehn Von Burgsdorff, head of the visiting delegation, declined to comment about the visit.
A day earlier, the Israeli police obstructed the visit of Jordan’s ambassador to Tel Aviv to the holy site claiming the visit was not coordinated in advance.
The ambassador left the site in protest but returned later and entered without incident.
Israel occupied the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, in the 1967 war, and since has illegally annexed the territories in a move neither recognized by international law nor most of the international community.
(The New Arab, PC, SOCIAL)
