Israeli practices/Holy places – Letter from Jordan

Letter dated 20 January 1986 from the Chargé d'affaires a.i. of the

Permanent Mission Jordan to the United Nations

addressed to the Secretary-General

Further to my letter of 9 January 1986, and on instructions from my Government, I have the honour to inform you of the following:

Yesterday morning, Sunday, 19 January 1986, as part of the series of incessant acts of aggression directed against the Haram al-Sharif in Jerusalem by fanatical Jewish groups encouraged and sponsored by the Israeli authorities, a group of the Kach terrorist gang, which is led by Rabbi Meir Kahane, intruded into the Haram al-Sharif. This group, which included a number of rabbis, held a provocative, racist demonstration from which were emitted shouts threatening the Arabs with death or expulsion and with seizure of the holy Al-Aqsa Mosque. Given this situation, Arab citizens resisted the intruders and prevented them from achieving their goal, while members of the gang gathered at the Bab al-Magharibah under the protection of occupation troops, who, in their turn, arrested a number of Arab citizens in the Holy City.

This attempt was preceded by yet another Israeli attempt to desecrate the holy Ibrahimi Mosque in the city of Hebron on Friday, 17 January 1986, when a group of Israeli settlers invaded the mosque during the Friday sermon and prayer service. This prompted the Muslim worshippers to resist those settlers and to prevent them from desecrating the holy mosque. Clashes took place between Muslim worshippers, on the one band, and Israeli settlers and occupation forces on the other.

The latest attempt to desecrate the Haram al-Sharif, coming after repeated attempts since 1968 to enter the Al-Aqsa Mosque and hold prayers there, the blatant statements made by Israeli leaders (including statements by the Prime Minister of Israel in which he has said that all of Palestine is Israeli territory, including the Haram al-Sharif), as well as the intrusion of the Internal Affairs Committee of the Israeli Knesset into the Haram al-Sharif and the attempt made by Sharon on the following day to enter tho precinct of the sanctuary, all confirm Israeli ambitions with respect to the Islamic Holy Places.

I request you to have this letter circulated as an official document of the General Assembly, under the items entitled "The situation in the Middle East" and "Report of the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Population of tho Occupied Territories", and of the Security Council.

(Signed) Farouk A. KASRAWI

Chargé d'affaires a.i.

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* Reissued for technical reasons.