Cameras on the Temple Mount – Good for Israel, bad for PA

The PA can no longer claim Israel is causing the disturbances

By Dr Reuven Berko, ISRAEL HAYOM

Over the weekend, an anonymous warning was posted across Al-Aqsa mosque compound warning worshippers about the security cameras installed on the holy site.

The closed-circuit TV project is the result of an American-brokered understanding reached Israel and the Jerusalem Islamic Waqf, a Jordanian trust that controls and manages the Islamic edifices on and around the site, seeking to monitor the volatile compound and prevent insidious elements, such as Hamas and the Islamic Movement, from asserting a “Jewish plot” to change the status quo on the Temple Mount and spark a religious war.

The surveillance grid set up in the area is meant to finally point to the real provocateurs who endanger the holy site, but the Palestinian Authority, which is “profoundly concerned” with the integrity of Al-Aqsa mosque, is the one trying to sabotage this project, as it stands to undermine its influence on the site.

The Israeli-Jordanian collaboration on the closed-circuit TV grid excludes the Palestinian Authority from the Al-Aqsa “game,” as it bolsters Israeli sovereignty in Jerusalem, and cements Jordan’s role in the site’s administration. It also serves Israel’s interests in its efforts to neutralize the forces fanning the flames of incitement, by allowing it to monitor the subversive elements trying to promote foreign agendas and escalate tensions in the compound — all in favor of the holy site with which it has been entrusted.

Moreover, the increased security collaboration between Israel and Jordan, much like Israel’s security collaboration with Egypt, serves Jerusalem, Amman, and Cairo’s interests in the broader sense, which is why the Palestinian Authority and its myriad organizations are averse to any progress in this arena.

This aversion is what drives the Palestinian efforts to sabotage a project meant to increase security on the holy Muslim site. The closed-circuit TV grid deals a massive blow to the Islamic groups, most prominently the Islamic Movement and the Hizb ut-Tahrir party, which strive to foster pan-Arab unity around the fictitious claim that Al-Aqsa mosque is “in danger.”

The surveillance will also challenge Islamic Movement Northern Branch leader Sheikh Raed Salah’s attempts to released false images of alleged Israeli excavations under Al-Aqsa mosque, as well as the attempts by the fundamentalist Morabiton and Morabitat groups to spark riots in the prayer compound, especially during Jewish holidays.

The project also undercuts the Palestinian Authority’s absurd attempts to use Al-Aqsa mosque as the anchor to its demand to have east Jerusalem as the capital of the future Palestinian state, especially given the fact that all of Islam’s other holy cities — Mecca, Medina, Qom, Karbala, and Najaf — are not capital cities.

Jordan plays a key role in this equation. The Hashemite kingdom sees Al-Aqsa mosque as a critical religious anchor, which is why Amman was named its administrative keeper in the 1994 Israel-Jordan peace treaty. This is why Jordan’s statements that if need be it will “deal with the radical Israeli provocateurs” is nothing more than a cover for its security cooperation with Israel.