Lazar Berman is the diplomatic reporter for The Times of Israel
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu will travel to Israel on Tuesday and Wednesday, Israel’s Foreign Ministry announced with due date on Monday.
Cavusoglu is expected to land in Israel on Tuesday morning and at the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah later that day.
On Wednesday, Cavusoglu is scheduled to meet with Foreign Minister Yair Lapid. The two diplomats will make joint public statements a while before noon.
Cavusoglu will have lunch with Tourism Minister Yoel Razvozov, then head to Jerusalem’s Old City for a personal excursion and the Temple Mount.
Cavusoglu plans to go to the Temple Mount complex without being accompanied by any Israelis, public broadcaster Kan said, mentioning “an official with wisdom of details. “
His plan creates tensions between Ankara and Jerusalem, and also sparked a dispute involving the Shin Bet’s internal security service over security protocol for his visit, according to the report.
However, a diplomatic official told The Times of Israel on Monday night that the plan was without tension.
“Israel is a country of freedom of worship, and there is no challenge for a Muslim who personally heads to the Temple Mount,” the official said.
The Temple Mount is the holiest place for Jews, as it is where the biblical temples are located, and the Al-Aqsa Mosque, which is located on top of the mount, is the third holiest for Muslims. Israel claims sovereignty over Jerusalem and its Old City, however, the Temple Mount precinct, or Haram al-Sharif, is administered through the Muslim Waqf, and Jews can pass there at certain times, but not pray there.
Cavusoglu will conclude its Wednesday evening with an event with business leaders in Tel Aviv and an assembly with the umbrella organization of Turkish Jews in Israel.
President Isaac Herzog and Cavusoglu first announced the Turkish envoy’s plan to Israel in March, while Herzog was in Ankara.
Cavusoglu was scheduled to make a stopover in April, but the date was pushed back because Israel tried to avoid a more tense situation in Jerusalem’s Ramadan. There were almost daily clashes between police and Palestinians in the capital during the festivities, mainly around the Temple. Ride.
Ties between Jerusalem and Ankara have recently tightened, and Cavusoglu’s scale would be the first in years to the Jewish state through such a vital figure in the Turkish government.
Warming bilateral relations experienced a small bump last month in clashes in Jerusalem, with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan expressing fear to Herzog over the fighting.
However, soon after, Erdogan said Turkey’s rapprochement with Jerusalem would continue despite tensions around the Temple Mount. Erdogan said Turkey will continue to protest vigorously against Israeli movements at the holy site, but that this will not have a direct effect. on the diplomatic relations of the countries.
Cavusoglu told an assembly with Israeli journalists last month that Turkey seeks a “lasting relationship” with Israel, but those ties count on Israel’s policy toward the Palestinians.
“We expect Israel to respect foreign law on the Palestinian issue,” he said.
Cavusoglu spoke with Lapid in January, marking the first phone call between the nations’ foreign ministries in thirteen years.
Herzog’s trip to Ankara in early March was the highest-level stopover made by an Israeli official since former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s stopover in Turkey in 2008.
Once strong regional allies, Israel and Turkey have noticed their ties crumbling during Erdogan’s long tenure, and the Turkish president has openly criticized Israel’s policy toward the Palestinians.
Israel has been disappointed by Erdogan’s warmth with Hamas, the terrorist organization that controls the Gaza Strip.
The countries reciprocally withdrew their ambassadors in 2010, after Israeli forces boarded a Gaza-bound flotilla carrying humanitarian aid for palestinians, were attacked and killed 10 Turkish nationals in the resulting tumult.
Relations slowly improved, breaking down in 2018, after Turkey, angered by the move of the US embassy to Jerusalem, once again called its envoy from Israel, prompting Israel to reciprocate.
Earlier this month, Erdogan sent a congratulatory letter to Herzog on Israel’s Independence Day, and the two held a phone call, marking the third time in several weeks that the two leaders have spoken on the phone.
Erdogan also on April 1 to condemn a series of Palestinian terror attacks that have killed 11 people.
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