Otzma Yehudit leader MK Itamar Ben Gvir is a well-known advocate of strengthening Jewish rights on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, where the activities of non-Muslims, in addition to the right to prayer, are strictly limited.
The far-right leader and his component are expected to be part of the governing coalition established through Benjamin Netanyahu, in which Ben Gvir seeks to serve as minister of public security, a role that carries authority over Israeli policy at Temple Monter. . As such, what adjustments can the next government make to the arrangements made at the incendiary holy site?
For more than two decades, activist organizations have advocated for greater Jewish rights to the Temple Mount, Judaism’s holiest and, as the location of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, one of the holiest in the world for Muslims.
It also finds itself amid competing national grievances between Israel and the Palestinians, and the movements of Israeli security forces and politicians at the site have been continuously followed through intense outbreaks of violence with Palestinians. Israel extended its sovereignty to the Mount and the rest. of the Old City when it captured East Jerusalem and the West Bank from its Jordanian rulers in 1967, but allowed the Waqf (Muslim trust) to continue administering its holy sites and decided that Jews would be allowed to make a stopover but not pray there.
Ben Gvir has been a common guest on the Temple Mount for many years, and other members of his party, and the party of devout Zionism, with which Otzma Yehudit is allied, are, like him, fervent advocates of expanding the rights of Jews and Israelis. The site.
The 14 seats held through the devout Zionism-Otzma Yehudit alliance will give Ben Gvir and his allies leverage to push for greater Jewish rights on the Temple Mount. Ben Gvir said in his election crusade that Jews deserved the same rights as Muslims at the site.
Critically, it is the Israeli police who, in large part, is the policy on the Temple Mount related to Jewish prayer and visiting hours. If Ben Gvir is given the Ministry of Public Security, which controls the police, he will in fact have authority over those decisions.
Although the High Court of Justice affirmed the right of Jews to pray on the mountain, it ruled that the police have the right to limit this right if they allow Jewish prayer to endanger public safety.
As a result, police imposed a blanket ban on Jewish public prayer and the wearing of pieces such as prayer shawls and phylacteries, in accordance with the 1967 quo agreement between Israel and Jordan.
Ahead of the general election, the Beyadenu organization, which defends the rights of Jews on the Temple Mount, presented a list of 10 measures to expand Jewish rights and affirm an Israeli major over the holy site to candidates in the number one elections of Likud and devout Zionism.
Beyadenu’s list, dubbed “The Ten Principles for the Way to Sovereignty on the Temple Mount,” includes granting Jews freedom of worship on the Temple Mount and adding them to Israel’s list of holy sites as explained in the Law of Holy Places.
Other principles of Beyadenu’s list come with the introduction of the Temple Mount exam into Israel’s school curriculum; freedom of movement for Jews on the Temple Mount; prevention of destruction of archaeological artifacts on site; equivalent visiting hours for Jews and Muslims and the opening of the site to Jews on Shabbat, Jewish holidays and evening; allow Jews to enter through more than one door; identify a government company to administer the site; signage from the front to the site; and the improvement of the bridge to Mughrabi Gate, the only existing access point for non-Muslims.
Tom Nisani, director of the Beyadenu organization, which is one of the main teams of activists on the Temple Mount, said that while it will take time to implement several pieces on the organization’s list, policies such as the right to public prayer, the extension of Jewish visits hours, and the prevention of the destruction of antiquities can all be implemented immediately.
Nisani also expressed hope that eventually a synagogue could be established on the Temple Mount, first in an existing design on the site, but in a new compromised building.
He acknowledged, however, that it would take time to achieve such a purpose.
According to Beyadenu, several members of the Zionist and Likud parties backed the group’s target list.
The head of the devout Zionist party, MK Bezalel Smotrich, has called in the afterlife for the status quo of a synagogue on the Temple Mount, he himself does not stop at the site.
Ahead of Tuesday’s election, Ben Gvir reiterated his call for equivalent rights for Jews on the Temple Mount.
“There is a challenge of racism on the Temple Mount, which violates the quo,” he told The Times of Israel, pointing to the large gap between visiting hours for Jews and Muslims.
“A Jew praying on the Temple Mount is arrested,” he continued. “Why are Arabs allowed to pray and Jews forbidden to pray?This is racism opposed to Jews. I need equivalent rights. infringed solely because they are Jews.
Although demonstrative Jewish prayer is still banned, police have allowed silent prayer in recent years, contrary to previous policy.
The replacement began Gilad Erdan’s tenure as public security minister from 2015 to 2020 in two previous governments headed by Netanyahu.
Erdan took several steps to ease restrictions on Jewish rights at the site, adding that he appointed a Jerusalem district police commander who was sympathetic to the demands of Temple Mount teams and activists.
One thing that may prevent the next government from adopting the program of the Temple Mount organizations is the presence in the coalition of ultra-Orthodox parties, which are fiercely opposed to Jews visiting the site.
Shas and United Torah Judaism actively attacked Ben Gvir’s electoral crusade for his defense of the Jewish scale on the Temple Mount.
Netanyahu will be willing to contain his coalition partners on this incendiary issue.
Radically converting the prestige quo on the Temple Mount would create a serious diplomatic crisis with Jordan, whose casual prestige as custodian of Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem, and the sites of al-Aqsa and the Dome of the Rock in particular, is to legitimacy. of the Hashemite regime, which rules the country.
Netanyahu will also be well aware that Israeli movements on the Temple Mount have provoked serious outbreaks of violence.
The main cause of the May 2021 riots and war with Gaza was police action against Palestinian protesters at the site, adding the entrance to the al-Aqsa Mosque, while the stopover of past Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in September 2000 at the holy site was a catalyst for the attack of Palestinian terror attacks against Israelis at the time of the intifada.
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