(United Nations) Israel denounced on Thursday an “absurd” meeting of the UN Security Council supposed to condemn the visit of an Israeli minister to the esplanade of the Mosques in East Jerusalem, which since Tuesday has provoked an international outcry and that Palestinians call it a “red line”.
“I am really, really shocked,” said Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Gilad Erdan, outside the doors of the Security Council. ” And why ? Because there is absolutely no reason for this emergency session to be held today. None. Holding a Security Council session on a non-event is really absurd,” the diplomat told the press.
Figure of the Israeli far right and new Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben Gvir made a trip of less than a quarter of an hour on Tuesday to the esplanade of the Mosques, raising a wave of international condemnations, including from States States, the historic ally of Israel.
At the request of China and the United Arab Emirates, the Security Council convened on Thursday afternoon as Arab and Muslim countries demanded concrete action condemning the Jewish state.
Mr. Erdan denied that his minister’s visit was an “incursion into [l’esplanade de la mosquée] Al Aqsa” or a departure from the historical “status quo” concerning the holy places of Jerusalem.
“Every Jew has the right to visit the Temple Mount”, designation of the site in Judaism, he hammered. “To claim that a brief and completely legitimate visit should trigger an emergency session of the Security Council is pathetic,” Erdan said.
The Palestinian representative to the United Nations Riyad Mansour attacked the Israeli neighbor and adversary and criticized the UN, where many resolutions on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict have been passed for decades.
“What red line does Israel need to cross for the Security Council to finally say ‘enough’ and act on it. When are you going to act? “, protested Mr. Mansour in a long speech.
On Wednesday evening, surrounded by counterparts from Arab and Muslim countries, the Palestinian diplomat demanded that the international community “decide to defend and protect the historic status quo in Jerusalem and [concernant ses] Muslim and Christian sites”.
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.
On Tuesday, the White House warned its Israeli ally against any “unacceptable” unilateral act.
A US representative to the UN, Robert Wood, “urged Israelis and Palestinians to take the necessary steps to restore calm, prevent further loss of life and preserve the possibility of a two-state solution,” stalled for years.