Amman, Aug 22 (Petra) – Royal Commission for Jerusalem Affairs
Secretary-General Abdullah Kanaan said on Saturday that the August
21, 1969, arson attack on Al-Aqsa Mosque brings to mind a crime that
destroyed the famed 12th-century pulpit (minbar) of Saladin Al-Ayyubi
and large sections of the southern Qibli prayer hall.

In a statement on the anniversary of the historic fire, Kanaan
reiterated the need for protecting Islamic and Christian holy sites
in Jerusalem.

The attack on Al-Aqsa Mosque did not stop with the fire incident, but
continued through incursions, attempts to impose new facts,
excavations, and temporal and spatial division plans coinciding with
escalating attacks in the Palestinian territories, he said.

“What is happening in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, as well as
attacks on Islamic and Christian sanctities, underscores the danger
of the continuation of these policies on the religious and historical
identity of Jerusalem and Palestine,” he said.

Kanaan called for supporting the steadfastness of the Palestinian
people, providing humanitarian aid, and stopping the aggression,
urging the international community to shoulder its responsibility and
press for respect for international law and the existing historical
status quo in Jerusalem.

He called for supporting Jordan’s position and His Majesty King
Abdullah II’s efforts in safeguarding the Islamic and Christian holy
sites in Jerusalem, based on the historical Hashemite custodianship
over them.

Kanaan noted that Jordan took the initiative, under royal directives,
to reconstruct Al-Aqsa Mosque after the 1969 fire, and return the
pulpit of Saladin to its place in 2007.

He urged stepped up international efforts to end the occupation and
bring about peace based on the two-state solution, and the
establishment of an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem
as its capital on the 1967 borders.

//Petra//SS