When Israel conquered the Old City of Jerusalem from Jordan in 1967, it endeavored to protect access to all holy sites as well as maintain the delicate religious status quo of Ottoman and British rule. This was in stark contrast to the situation under 19 years of Jordanian rule (1948-67) during which Jews were prohibited from accessing the Western Wall and Jewish religious sites in and out of the Old City were desecrated, all in direct contravention of UN resolutions and the Armistice agreements which ended the 1948 war.

The status quo since 1967 has allowed Jews to visit the Temple Mount but not pray there. Custodianship of the entire Temple Mount site, also known as Haram a-Sharif or Noble Sanctuary, is maintained by the Islamic Waqf, with a special role for the Jordanian monarch under the terms of the Israel-Jordan peace treaty.

Over the decades, false claims of Israeli plans to damage the mosques have been used to mobilize violence against Jews in Israel and around the world. It is particularly saddening to see this falsehood being repeated at the UN. The only major change to the physical status quo was the construction of Al-Marwani mosque in the late 1990s just next to Al Aqsa, which resulted in immeasurable archeological damage, as discussed in Claim 29.

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