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Itamar Ben-Gvir, the ultranationalist national security minister, watched the days after taking office, prompting a furious reaction from Palestinian leaders.
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By Isabel Kershner
Reporting from Jerusalem
In one of his first acts as Israel’s national security minister, ultranationalist Itamar Ben-Gvir on Tuesday made a provocation to a Jerusalem holy site for Jews and Muslims, defying threats of retaliation from the militant organization Hamas and provoking a furious reaction from Palestinian leaders. and condemnation of the Arab world.
The monitored visit to the site, a common flashpoint in Jerusalem’s Old City where beyond Israeli movements have triggered wider conflagrations, was the first by such a high-level Israeli official in years, and was carried out without incident. But it continues two days after Mr. Ben-Gvir an early indicator of the difficulties Israel’s new, top-right, religiously conservative government will face on the domestic and foreign stage.
Palestinians and many Muslims in the region see such visits, especially through Israeli politicians with a nationalistic and devout agenda, as part of an effort to replace the prestige of Jewish worshippers and give them more rights. that of two ancient temples, and through Muslims such as the Noble Sanctuary, the compound containing the Al Aqsa Mosque and other vital Islamic shrines.
Mr. Ben-Gvir’s stopover took place around 7 a. m. and lasted less than 15 minutes. While at the site, Ben-Gvir said, “The Israeli government will not confront a murderous organization, a notorious terrorist organization,” referring to Hamas.
“The Temple Mount is the vital maxim in the world for the Jewish people,” he continued. “It’s open to everyone. Muslims and Christians come here, and yes, Jews too.
The Palestinian Foreign Ministry condemned it as “an unprecedented provocation” and said it held Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responsible for what it called a “blatant attack” on the holy site.
Hamas, the Islamist militant organization that controls Gaza, the Palestinian coastal enclave where Israel has fought several wars in recent years, had warned that any attack on the Ben-Gvir site would be “a detonator” that would trigger an explosion.
Ben-Gvir’s scale in highlighted the uncompromising technique toward Palestinians that has been promised through the new government at a time of expanding violence in the occupied territories. Some senior officials have called for Israel’s annexation of the occupied West Bank, territory the Palestinians make up of their long-term state under the globally accepted precept of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
On Monday, Israel’s new foreign minister, Eli Cohen, attacked Palestinian leaders in a rite marking his first day in office and said its members would be tried in The Hague for war crimes. His comments came after the United Nations General Assembly voted on Friday to approve a solution calling on the International Court of Justice to interfere and formulate an opinion on the Israeli profession and the state of the conflict.
In 2000, Ariel Sharon, then leader of the opposition, stopped at the holy site surrounded by scores of police in insurgency gear. The scale in was widely noted as triggering the fatal moment of the Palestinian intifada, or uprising, which lasted several years.
The holiest site for Jews and the third holiest for Muslims, the compound was conquered by Israel in the 1967 Arab-Israeli War. Under a deceptive arrangement that has prevailed for decades in Jordanian custody, Jews can visit, as can Muslim tourists. , however, they are not meant to pray there. This standard, long enforced through the Israeli police for the sake of preserving law and order, has crumbled in recent years.
The official rabbinical government claims that Jews are barred from entering the compound for fear that they will unwittingly set foot on a forbidden holy ground, and Mr. Netanyahu is confident that there has been no change in the prestige quo at the site.
But devout nationalists are increasingly emphasizing stopping the mountain and calling for equivalent prayer rights for Jews.
The United States, Israel’s top ally, has warned that it opposes conversion arrangements at the site. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said last month that Biden’s management “will unequivocally oppose any action that endangers the clients of a two-state solution. “to conflict
“Altering the historical quo at holy sites” would be such an act, he added.
On Tuesday, the U. S. ambassador to Israel reiterated that position. The British and French ambassadors to Israel issued statements on Twitter.
In response to reporters’ questions at a news conference Tuesday, State Department spokesman Ned Price said, “With respect to this visit, we are deeply involved in any unilateral actions that could escalate tensions,” adding that Biden’s management sought to see an easing in tensions.
The new government’s hardline policy may also have repercussions for Arab states, even as Israel has forged diplomatic relations with countries such as the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco in recent years, and ratified decades-old peace treaties with neighboring Egypt. Jordan.
Jordan’s King Abdullah II said in an interview with CNN last week that he was in a position to introduce “a conflict” if Israel tried to replace the prestige of Jerusalem’s holy site. After Ben-Gvir’s visit, the Palestinian Foreign Ministry said it would “continue at all levels,” in coordination with Jordan.
On Tuesday, the Jordanian Foreign Ministry strongly condemned Mr. Draught’s actions. Ben-Gvir said the visit, as well as Israel’s repeated incursions into the occupied West Bank, were a harbinger of a “new escalation and constitute a harmful trend that foreign netpaintings will have to be made to prevent them immediately.
The UAE condemned Mr. Ben-Gvir, as well as Saudi Arabia, a major player in the Muslim world. Netanyahu has established the status quo of open diplomatic relations with Saudi Arabia as the purpose of his new government. Egypt warned of the “negative repercussions of such measures on security and stability” and Morocco said so by closely following the occasion.
Netanyahu’s workplace issued a Tuesday afternoon saying the prime minister was “committed to the strict, unchanged preservation of the prestige quo on the Temple Mount. “But he also added: “We will not capitulate to the dictates of Hamas. “
Ben-Gvir, who has a history of provocative acts and has been convicted in the afterlife for inciting racism and supporting a terrorist group, made no secret of his goal on the site as a minister. “The Temple Mount is important, and as I said, I intend to climb Mt,” he wrote on Twitter on Sunday, the day he took office.
But the timing of the stopover was deliberately obscured, possibly to prevent Palestinian protesters from gathering at the site to confront it.
Israeli media reported that Ben-Gvir possibly intended to make a stopover at the site on Tuesday, a fast day on the Jewish calendar that is historically marked by pilgrimages to Jerusalem. On Monday night, Netanyahu met with Ben-Gvir to discuss the issue, after which Israeli media reported that Mr. Ben-Gvir had to postpone his stopover to an indefinite date in the coming weeks.
No less than being noticed as capitulated to threats from Hamas, Mr. Netanyahu issued a message that night saying that after consulting with security officials, the prime minister had not asked Mr. Ben-Gvir not to visit the site.
After the visit, Ben-Gvir posted on Twitter a photo of himself at the site, with one of the Islamic shrines in the background. It’s going to dissuade me, they had times changed. “
Palestinian-Israeli tensions in Jerusalem, culminating in an Israeli police raid on the Aqsa compound, triggered 11 days of fierce fighting between Israel and militant teams in Gaza in May 2021, as well as a rare outbreak of inter-ethnic violence in Israel. Clashes at the compound led to rocket fire from Gaza in April 2022.
Gabby Sobelman contributed reporting from Rehovot, Israel.
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