Mmember of the most right-wing government in the history of Israel, Italar Ben Gvir, a figure of the Israeli far right and new Minister of National Security, made a brief trip to the esplanade of the Mosques in East Jerusalem on Tuesday , a holy place at the heart of Israeli-Palestinian tensions. He was accompanied during his visit by members of the Israeli security forces. A drone was flying over the esplanade, site guards told Agence France Presse.
After his departure, the situation on the esplanade was calm and worshipers and visitors were able to access it without incident, noted an AFP journalist. The third holiest site in Islam and the holiest site in Judaism known as the “Temple Mount”, the Esplanade of the Mosques is located in the Old City of Jerusalem, in the Palestinian sector occupied and annexed by Israel. Under a historic status quo, non-Muslims can visit the site at specific times but cannot pray there. However, in recent years, a growing number of Jews, often nationalists, surreptitiously pray there, a gesture denounced as a “provocation” by the Palestinians and several countries in the Middle East.
Italar Ben Gvir, known for his anti-Palestinian diatribes, had announced his intention to go there and the Palestinian Hamas, in power in Gaza and Israel’s pet peeve, had warned that such a visit would risk being “a prelude to an escalation”. “The Israeli government of which I am a member will not yield to a vile and murderous organization,” Ben Gvir retorted on Twitter. “If Hamas thinks threats will deter me, let them understand that times have changed. »
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An “unprecedented provocation”
“Our Palestinian people will continue to defend their holy places and the Al-Aqsa mosque,” said Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem, calling Ben Gvir’s displacement a “crime.” This is an “unprecedented provocation”, said the Palestinian Foreign Ministry in Ramallah, in the West Bank, Palestinian territory occupied by Israel.
Ben Gvir had previously visited the site as an MP, but this is his first visit since entering government last week. Contrary to the position of the Israeli rabbinate, he pleads for Jews to be allowed to enter and pray there. “What will people say when they see a minister, an observant Jew, flouting the position of the rabbinate,” Yitzhak Yossef, Sephardic chief rabbi, wrote in a letter to Italar Ben Gvir.
Jordan denounced a “provocation” foreshadowing “an escalation” and summoned the Israeli ambassador to Amman while the United Arab Emirates called for “an end to serious and provocative violations” at the site. Saudi Arabia, home to Islam’s holiest places, and Morocco, whose monarch chairs the Al-Quds Committee, condemned the visit.
In Iran, a sworn enemy of Israel, a spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs denounced a “violation of international rules and an insult to the values of Muslims in the world”. Israel’s attack on holy sites in Jerusalem “will not only blow up the situation inside Palestine, but could blow up the whole region”, Lebanese Shiite Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said Tuesday evening.
The White House warning
The White House has warned that ” any unilateral action that would endanger the status quo (around the holy sites in Jerusalem) would be unacceptable ». A US State Department spokesperson told him ” deeply concerned » by this trip by Itamar Ben Gvir, judging that the visit was likely to ” exacerbate tensions and incite violence ».
For his part, the Deputy Spokesman of the Secretary General of the United Nations, Farhan Haq underlined ” the importance of maintaining the status quo in holy places »adding that the UN chief ” asks everyone to refrain from taking measures that could increase tensions in and around holy places ».
Berlin also called on Tuesday to ” avoid actions that could increase tensions ». ” The status quo » on this Esplanade in Jerusalem has ” long contributed to maintaining fragile peace and security around holy sites », underlines on Twitter the German ambassador in Israel, Steffen Seibert. In a statement, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he was ” determined to strictly maintain the status quo ».
” A weak prime minister »
” This is what happens when a weak prime minister is forced to hand over responsibility to the most irresponsible person in the Middle East in the most explosive place in the Middle East. », commented on Twitter the leader of the opposition, Yaïr Lapid. In 2000, the visit of Ariel Sharon, then head of the right-wing opposition, to the esplanade led to bloody clashes between Palestinians and Israeli police, marking the start of the second Intifada (2000-2005).
In May 2021, after violence on the compound and elsewhere in East Jerusalem, Hamas fired salvos of rockets into Israel, leading to an 11-day war with the Israeli military. Mr. Ben Gvir advocates the annexation by Israel of the West Bank and the transfer to neighboring countries of part of the Israeli Arabs, descendants of the Palestinians who remained on their land after the creation of Israel in 1948.