Al Aqsa Mosque and WWI Agreements

There is currently fighting between Israeli police and Palestinian youth in and around the Al Aqsa Mosque, sometimes called Dome of the Rock, in Jerusalem, Israel. This clash has led to King Abdullah II threatening weakened relations between Israel and Jordan if the fighting does not stop.  This is an unprecedented move on the part of King Abdullah II of Jordan, who has a mainly positive relationship with Israel.

The fighting started on Sunday with Israeli forces trying to secure the area with the arrival of Jewish visitors for Rosh Hashanah to Jerusalem. The fighting started and has continued because the Palestinians believe Israel may be trying to establish dominance in the holy site.

Dome of the Al Aqsa Mosque

The Sykes Picot Agreement and the Balfour Agreement that were formulated during the first world war by the British and French governments had much to do with todays struggle between Israeli police forces and Palestinian youth at the mosque. Sykes Picot, as we know, divided up the in the Middle East between their two governments in order to establish imperial control and resource control. The Balfour Agreement in Britain supported the establishment of a Jewish state in the Middle East which caused rifts in the Arab countries which had controlled that land in the past. 

Today there are fights over contested Holy Land in Jerusalem because the Arab countries surrounding what would become Israel were not consulted on the creation of the Jewish state after the First World War. If consultation had happened when Britain backed the Jewish State instead of imperialistic creation, there is a possibility that there would be peace now. Consultation was not an option because the Arab states were not even their own states, due to Sykes Picot. This cannot be known for certain, but one can imagine that there would be a better possibility for peace if imperialistic powers had not been at play at the time. 

News Source: New York Times, Fighting at Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem Stretches into Third Day http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/16/world/middleeast/israel-palestinians-violence.html?ref=middleeast

Photo credit: me