Jordan MPs want Israel peace treaty scrapped

A 1994 peace treaty with Israel should be scrapped, 47 Jordanian MPs have said, after the Knesset debated Israeli sovereignty over Jerusalem's al-Aqsa mosque compound, a newspaper reported Wednesday.

Out of 150 members of the lower house, 47 MPs signed a motion late Tuesday that the treaty be annulled.

"The motion came in response to Israel's actions in Jerusalem and to the Knesset debate of a law that seeks to impose Israel's sovereignty over al-Aqsa," Al-Rai quoted MPs as saying in the motion.

It accused Israel of violating the peace treaty and the newspaper reported that the lower house will discuss "the repercussions of the debate later Wednesday."

“Israel's actions clearly violate the peace treaty... it is aggression against Jordanian custodianship," the motion said.

In a motion which was not put to a vote, MP Moshe Feiglin, a hardline member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party, said Israel's fear of igniting Muslim rage amounted to discrimination against Jews.

The al-Aqsa compound, which lies in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem's Old City, is a flashpoint because of its significance to both Muslims and Jews.

Sitting above the Western Wall plaza, it houses the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa mosques and is Islam's third-holiest site.

It is also Judaism's holiest place, being the site of the first and second Jewish temples.

Israeli police on Tuesday clashed with stone-throwing Palestinian protesters and entered the compound to disperse them. An Israeli police spokesman said there was "high tension" amid the Knesset debate.

(With AFP)