The waqf has complained that Israeli police are growing increasingly lax at imposing the status quo on the Mount, which allows Jews to visit at prescribed hours during weekdays, but forbids them from praying there.
Another recent development was the Jordanian royal house’s decision to add seven Palestinian members associated with the Fatah faction to the waqf council. The move was seen as a gesture by King Abdullah to his own Palestinian subjects living in Jordan.
The last 18 months have been relatively calim in Jerusalem, after a round of violence around the Temple Mount in the summer of 2017. But the threat of escalation remains on other fronts — such as on the borders of Gaza, where rioting has renewed in recent weeks, and in the West Bank, where the Palestinian Authority is furious at the Israeli government’s decision to freeze £100 million in Palestinian funds worth of funds as a sanction for the PA’s payments to the Palestinian prisoners and families of those killed attacking Israelis.
There have also been a series of riots in Israeli prisons over recent weeks during searches were conducted for mobile phones illegally held by Palestinian prisoners.
The Temple Mount has been a flashpoint in the past for outbreaks of violence across Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza.
