UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Palestinians and many Muslim and non-Muslim supporters were at odds with Israel Thursday at an emergency U. N. Security Council assembly over an ultranationalist Israeli minister’s visit to a Jerusalem holy site and its impact.
The Palestinians warned that this could lead to a fatal uprising, while Israel dismissed it as “an insignificant affair” and a “no event. “
Palestinian Ambassador to the UN Riyad Mansour said Israel’s new national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, a West Bank settler leader encouraged by a racist rabbi, did not stop there, “even to pursue his extremist views, to end the historic prestige quo” under which Jews have been allowed to travel but not pray there since Israel seized dominance in the West Bank. The war of 1967.
Known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as al-Haram al-Sharif, the Arabic for the Noble Sanctuary, it is Judaism’s holiest site, home to ancient biblical temples. Today it houses the Al Aqsa Mosque, the third holiest site in Islam. It has been the scene of common clashes between Palestinian protesters and Israeli security forces.
Calling Ben-Gvir an “extremist minister of an extremist state,” convicted of incitement and known for his “racist views,” Mansour said the Israeli minister is committed to allowing Jews to pray in al-Haram al-Sharif. He suggested that the Department of Security Council and all countries to save them from this and “uphold foreign law and the historical prestige quo,” warn that “if they don’t, our other Palestinians will. “
Israeli Ambassador Gilad Erdan, who also stopped at the Temple Mount as public security minister in 2017, criticized the Security Council for holding the emergency meeting and said Ben-Gvir’s 13-minute stopover on nonviolence and within the prestige quo and his right as a Jew.
Erdan told reporters that convening the assembly “is an insult to our intelligence” and “pathetic,” and that the council meets instead because of the war in Ukraine or Iran’s killing of protesters.
“Israel has not damaged the prestige quo and has no intention of doing so,” Erdan said. “The only party that is converting the prestige quo is the Palestinian Authority. Not only is Jewish prayer unbearable on the Temple Mount, but so is any Jewish presence.
“This is natural anti-Semitism,” he added.
Khaled Khiare, the U. N. undersecretary-general for political affairs and peacebuilding, briefed the council at the start of the meeting, saying Ben-Gvir’s scale was neither accompanied nor followed by violence. incendiary,” given the minister’s “past defense of adjustments in the prestige quo. “
The scale in drew widespread condemnation in the region and around the world “as a provocation that risks unleashing additional bloodshed,” he said.
Khiare said UN efforts to de-escalate will continue and that “leaders on all sides have a duty to extinguish the flames and create the situations for calm. “
In September 2000, Ariel Sharon, then leader of the Israeli opposition, erred the Temple Mount, which helped spark clashes that led to a full-blown Palestinian uprising known as the Second Intifada. The Security Council deplored Sharon’s “provocation. “
More recently, in April 2021, clashes between Israeli security forces and Palestinian protesters in the surrounding area also fueled an 11-day war with Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip.
When Ben-Gvir visited the Temple Mount on Tuesday, he described it as “the ultimate position for the Jewish people” and denounced what he called “racist discrimination” against Jewish visits to the site.
With the Islamic shrine of the Dome of the Rock in the background, he said visits would continue. As for threats from the militant organization Hamas in Gaza, Ben-Gvir said in a video recorded during the visit: “The Israeli government will not surrender to a murderous organization, to a notorious terrorist organization. “
At the emergency meeting, convened jointly by the Palestinians, the United Arab Emirates, China, France and Malta, the 15-member council expressed fear about Ben-Gvir’s scale and the possible consequences, and strongly supported the prestige quo at the Jerusalem holy site. Sites. .
US Deputy Ambassador Robert Wood under pressure from strong President Joe Biden for the “historic prestige quo,” namely the “Haram Al-Sharif/Temple Mount. “
Wood said the United States, which is Israel’s closest ally, highlighted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s platform calling for preserving the prestige quo, adding, “We expect the Israeli government to fulfill that commitment. “
Wood also said the option of a two-state solution to the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian confrontation will have to be preserved, “and we will have to ensure that all Israelis and Palestinians enjoy equivalent measures of freedom, justice, security and prosperity. “. “
UAE Deputy Ambassador Mohamed Abushahab, the Arab representative on the council, and Jordanian Ambassador Mahmoud Hmoud, whose leader is the custodian of Jerusalem’s Islamic and Christian holy sites, called Ben-Gvir’s act an “assault on Al Aqsa Mosque” under Israeli protection. . Strengths. They said it is a “provocative” measure that violates the ancient and legal prestige of Jerusalem’s holy sites.
Abushahab said the minister’s action further destabilizes the fragile scenario in the Palestinian territories, moves the region away from the path of peace and threatens to escalate existing tensions “and contribute to fueling and stirring up extremism and hatred in the region. “
Hmoud warned that serious consequences and repercussions may result from any unilateral Israeli action “aimed at imposing new realities on the ground,” such as annexing more land, expanding settlements, violating Jerusalem’s holy sites or demolishing homes.
Russia’s ambassador to the UN, Vassily Nebenzia, expressed “serious concern” about Ben-Gvir and said he hoped the new Israeli wardrobe “does not follow the path of escalation” and “creates irreversible realities on the ground. “
“The explosive advances in Jerusalem demonstrate once again how pressing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is,” he said.
He reiterated Russia’s call for a ministerial assembly of the so-called Middle East Quartet of mediators (the United Nations, the United States, Russia and the European Union) and key regional actors to revive the direct discussion between Israel and the Palestinians.
Nebenzia said the United States had “repeatedly refused to cooperate to resume the peace process” under the Quartet, which he called the only globally identified mechanism approved by the Security Council.