National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir visited the Temple Mount early on Tuesday morning, his first journey to the holy website since taking on his ministerial put up final week. The go to got here hours after stories that Ben Gvir had agreed to place off the go to following a gathering with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and despite condemnation from the opposition and threats from the Gaza-ruling Hamas terror group.
“Our government will not surrender to threats from Hamas,” Ben Gvir mentioned on the conclusion of his go to, which reportedly lasted some quarter-hour and handed with out quick incident.
“The Temple Mount is the most important place for the people of Israel. We maintain freedom of movement for Muslims and Christians, but Jews also go up to the site, and those who make threats must be dealt with with an iron fist,” he mentioned.
The go to by Ben Gvir, whose ministry is answerable for policing, was held after an evaluation with safety and police officers, his workplace mentioned in a press release.
After his assembly with Netanyahu, Ben Gvir met later Monday with Shin Bet head Ronen Bar, as effectively as Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai and the Jerusalem district commander, who “determined there was no obstacle” to the go to, the assertion mentioned.
“Security officials who participated in the assessment of the situation believed that capitulating in the face of threats would be a reward for terror and legitimize actions against Israel,” the assertion mentioned. There was no touch upon the matter from police or the Shin Bet.
Netanyahu on Monday mentioned with Ben Gvir the latter’s acknowledged intention to go to the location. The content material of the dialog was not made public. An announcement issued by Ben Gvir’s workplace after their talks had mentioned he would go to the Temple Mount “in the upcoming weeks.”
Hebrew media stories indicated that the 2 had agreed that Ben Gvir would maintain off on visiting the flashpoint website for the time being. However, Likud insisted this was not the case. Rather, it mentioned, after discussions with safety officers, Netanyahu prevented recommending to the far-right minister that he chorus from visiting.
Likud chief MK Benjamin Netanyahu (L) with Head of the Otzma Yehudit social gathering MK Itamar Ben Gvir at a vote within the meeting corridor of the Knesset, the Israeli parliament in Jerusalem, on December 28, 2022. (Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)
The Palestinian Authority’s Foreign Ministry on Tuesday condemned the go to, calling it an “unprecedented provocation.”
“Netanyahu bears responsibility for this attack on Al-Aqsa,” the PA mentioned in a press release.
The Temple Mount is believed by Jews to be the historic location of the 2 Jewish Temples, making it Judaism’s holiest website. It can be the third-holiest for Muslims, who seek advice from it as the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound or the Noble Sanctuary.
Provocations and violence on the website have regularly became wider conflagrations.
Ben Gvir’s Tuesday go to was held on the tenth of Tevet, a Jewish quick day mourning the occasions that led to the destruction of the Temple.
Labor MK Gilad Kariv mentioned Ben Gvir’s choice confirmed he was prioritizing the “promotion of an extreme nationalistic worldview” over Israeli residents’s security.
“Particularly on the fast day of the 10th of Tevet, it is important to remember that the connection between political extremism, intoxication from power and government corruption led to the destruction of the Temple,” Kariv mentioned in a press release. “Standing up against these phenomena is essential to guaranteeing the future of Israel.”
Ben Gvir, who has been to the Temple Mount on quite a few events prior to now, had introduced on Sunday his intention to go to the location for the primary time as a minister.
In response, Hamas had warned Israel that Ben Gvir’s go to to the Temple Mount could be “a detonator” and vowed resistance.
The Haaretz every day reported Monday that diplomats from a number of unnamed Arab states reached out to Jerusalem to precise their concern over Ben Gvir’s deliberate go to, saying such steps may result in a deterioration of the safety scenario in Jerusalem, the West Bank, and the broader area.
Far-right MK Itamar Ben Gvir seen after visiting the Temple Mount, on the Western Wall in Jerusalem’s Old City on March 31, 2022. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
They famous that Passover and Ramadan will once more fall on the identical time this 12 months and that “extreme statements and actions by senior officials of the new government, along with the sense of desperation on the Palestinian side, may take their toll,” a supply conversant in the matter instructed the newspaper.
Ben Gvir’s announcement of his supposed go to was criticized by the opposition, with opposition chief Yair Lapid warning that such a go to would “cost lives” and urging Netanyahu to forestall the go to.
Ben Gvir is head of one of many three far-right events in Netanyahu’s nascent coalition.
The newly minted nationwide safety minister, who has lengthy been accused of being a provocateur, made a number of journeys to the Temple Mount as an activist and Knesset member and has additionally led contentious nationalist marches by way of the Muslim Quarter in Jerusalem’s Old City. On a number of events, he arrange an advert hoc workplace in East Jerusalem’s Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, which has additionally been on the middle of Israeli-Palestinian tensions, kindling unrest.
His final go to to the Temple Mount was about three months in the past, forward of the Jewish New Year of Rosh Hashanah.
Despite Ben Gvir’s rhetoric on the difficulty forward of the elections, he agreed to keep up the established order at holy websites, together with the Temple Mount, in coalition agreements reached with Netanyahu earlier than the federal government was sworn in.
Ben Gvir has lengthy been an advocate of formally altering the Temple Mount establishment, through which Muslims are allowed to hope and enter with few restrictions, and Jews can go to solely throughout restricted time slots by way of a single gate and stroll on a predetermined route, intently accompanied by police. Jews aren’t allowed to hope on the website, although latest years have more and more seen police permit some silent prayer.
Israeli safety forces escort a gaggle of non secular Jews as they go to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem’s Old City on March 31, 2022. (Jamal Awad/Flash90)
Palestinians and many of the worldwide neighborhood vehemently reject any adjustments to the present scenario, though most Palestinians additionally object to any Israeli Jewish presence on the website, together with of cops tasked with preserving safety.
Netanyahu has sought to guarantee Israel’s allies that he is not going to permit any adjustments, and he had a clause included in all of his coalition offers stipulating that the established order “with regard to the holy places” will probably be preserved.
However, critics level to what they are saying has been the gradual erosion of the coverage, with Jewish pilgrims usually seen praying quietly on the website in recent times as Israeli police look on.
