by Dan Williams
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israeli Homeland Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir visited Jerusalem’s Al-Masjids on Tuesday, ignoring warnings that his trip could spark violence.
The Israeli media broadcast photos and a video of Itamar Ben-Gvir, a far-right leader repeatedly convicted by Israeli justice for racist acts, strolling on the esplanade, where security had been reinforced.
“The Temple Mount is open to everyone,” the controversial minister tweeted, using the name given by Jews to the mosque compound.
An Israeli official said the 15-minute visit was made in strict compliance with an arrangement in place for decades under which non-Muslims are allowed to visit the esplanade provided they do not pray there.
Benjamin Netanyahu, who has just taken over the head of the most right-wing government in the history of Israel, is committed to “strict maintenance (of this) status quo”, assured a member of his services, recalling that ministers Israelis had already visited this site in the past under the same conditions.
Israeli opposition leader and former prime minister Yair Lapid warned that such a move could spark violence.
The head of Palestinian diplomacy called it an “unprecedented provocation and dangerous escalation of the conflict”, Palestinian Prime Minister Mohamed Chtayyeh saying that he saw in it the will of the new government of Benjamin Netanyahu to transform the Al Aqsa mosque “into a Jewish temple”. .
The visit of Itamar Ben-Gvir, who stayed away from the Al Aqsa mosque, the third holiest site in Islam, was denounced by several Arab countries, including Jordan and Saudi Arabia, but also Egypt and the United Arab Emirates, two of the rare Arab countries to have recognized the existence of the State of Israel.
Jordan thus summoned the Israeli ambassador to send him an official protest.
US Ambassador to Israel Thomas Nides said in a statement that he warned the Israeli government that any action challenging the status quo regarding the status of holy sites in Jerusalem would be “unacceptable”.
In Washington, a spokesman for the White House National Security Council made a similar speech.
“The United States is firmly committed to preserving the status quo regarding the holy sites in Jerusalem. Any unilateral initiative that threatens this status quo is unacceptable,” the spokesperson said.
The Palestinian Islamists of Hamas, in power in the Gaza Strip, have warned that the continuation of such initiatives by the Netanyahu government, which relies on a coalition of nationalist and religious parties, could lead to a “large-scale conflict”.
Hours before Itamar Ben-Gvir’s trip, a Palestinian teenager was shot dead during clashes with the Israeli army in the occupied West Bank, witnesses and the Palestinian health ministry reported.
(Written by Dan Williams, with contributions from Ali Sawafta, Nidal al-Mughrabi, Ari Rabinovitch, Maayan Lubell, Suleiman al-Khalidi and Matt Spetalnick; French version Camille Raynaud and Tangi Salaün, editing by Kate Entringer)