National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, a far-right settler with a history of provocation, led a prayer at the highly sensitive Esplanade of the Mosques in East Jerusalem on Tuesday, attended by several hundred Israelis on the occasion of a Jewish holiday, officials said.
Located in the area of the Holy City occupied and annexed by Israel, the Esplanade of the Mosques, the third holiest site in Islam, is built on the ruins of the second Jewish temple, destroyed in the year 70 by the Romans. For Jews, it is the Temple Mount, the holiest place in Judaism.
Mr. Ben Gvir filmed himself at the site on the occasion of Tisha Beav, the Jewish commemoration of the destruction of the two Temples, calling in particular to “beat” Hamas rather than negotiate with the Palestinian Islamist movement.
On Tuesday morning, “around 2,250 Jews prayed, danced and raised the Israeli flag” on the esplanade, an official from the Waqf, the Jordanian administration of Muslim religious properties in Jerusalem, told AFP on condition of anonymity.
Under a status quo decreed after Israel’s conquest of East Jerusalem in 1967, non-Muslims can go to the Esplanade of the Mosques, which houses the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa Mosque, at specified times, without praying there, a rule increasingly disregarded by some nationalist Jews.
The site is administered by Jordan but access is controlled by Israeli security forces.
In a video he himself posted online, Mr. Ben Gvir welcomed “great progress on governance, sovereignty and the number of Jews who pray.”
“Provocations”
“There is no private policy of any minister on the Temple Mount — neither of the Minister of National Security nor of any other minister,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office responded. “This morning’s event on the Temple Mount is an exception to the status quo.”
In Amman, the Jordanian Foreign Ministry condemned “the storming” of the Al-Aqsa mosque by the far-right minister and Israeli MPs “under the protection of the Israeli occupation police.”
He further denounced “unilateral Israeli measures and continued violations of the historical and legal status quo in Jerusalem and its holy sites.”
The Waqf official told AFP that “Israeli police had only let in a few Muslim worshipers, imposing restrictions on entry to al-Aqsa” on Tuesday.
Mr. Ben Gvir “oversees the Judaization” of the highly sensitive holy site “and helps change the situation at Al-Aqsa […] instead of respecting international treaties on the status quo with Jordan,” he accused.
The Palestinian Foreign Ministry denounced an “escalation” and “provocations”, referring to “illegal incursions” […] to prepare the imposition of total Israeli control and “Judaization” of the places “in violation of international law.”
During his trip, Mr. Ben Gvir spoke about the war that has pitted Israel against Hamas for more than ten months in the Gaza Strip, affirming that it was necessary to “win this war, not go to discussions in Doha or Cairo”, the regional negotiators who, with the United States, are pushing for a truce in Gaza.
“We have to beat them, bring them to their knees, we can beat Hamas,” Mr. Ben Gvir insisted.
Tisha B’Av commemorates each year the destruction of the two Temples, by the Babylonians in 587 B.C. and then by the Romans in 70 A.D. During this day, Jews fast for 25 hours. This fast will end this year on Tuesday evening.