Jordan urges Israel to remove cameras from Jerusalem mosque

Jordan rejects Israel's move to install surveillance cameras at the Al Aqsa Mosque in occupied Jerusalem to monitor Waqf and Hashemite reconstruction workers and Muslim worshippers, Minister of State for Media Affairs and official government spokesman Mohammad Momani said on Tuesday, Jordan Petra news agency reported. "Jordan strongly dismisses the presence of a police station inside the holy Al Aqsa compound and deems it as a flagrant military assault against the freedom of worship and an interference in the affairs of the Jordanian Islamic Waqf, which has the jurisdiction and the mandate to maintain security and ensure the safety of worshippers and tourists inside the compound," he said. Momani called on the occupation authority to remove all military manifestations from the Haram Al Sharif compound, including the police post and the cameras, which were put up last week, and all other cameras installed at the Bab al Magharebah Gate in 2011 to monitor movement into and out of the compound. He also urged Israel to stop the "military tourism" which began in January 2012, which, along with other measures, constituted a gross violation of the freedom of worship, and had been censured by Jordan and the U.N. cultural agency UNESCO, besides amounting to a provocation against the 1.7 billion Muslims throughout the world. Momani said Jordan also opposed all attempts by the occupation authority to impose a new status quo in Jerusalem in breach of the Jordanian-Israeli peace treaty and international law that would trigger unprecedented trouble at Al Aqsa and undermine the momentum in the U.S.-sponsored Palestinian-Israeli peace talks.