Far-right Israel Minister Ben-Gvir Enters Al-Aqsa Mosque Compound; Lapid Calls Netanyahu ‘Weak PM’

Israel’s new national security minister and far-right politician Itamar Ben-Gvir on Tuesday morning visited the Al-Aqsa mosque compound, news agency Haaretz reported. This is his first week in office and the move will strain relations between Palestinians and Israelis.

The Temple Mount/Al-Aqsa Mosque compound is a contested holy site in Jerusalem. Following his visit, critics of the government said it was challenging the status quo which would then impact peace as well as relations between Israel and Palestine.

The site, which is historic and is considered a holy site by both Jews and Muslims, is Islam’s third holiest site after Mecca and Medina and Judaism’s most sacred site.

Ben-Gvir ahead of his election promised that he would bring long standing changes to the status quo of Temple Mount, to allow Jews to pray there. He said that he would urge Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to introduce ‘equal rights for Jews’ in the mountain.

Hamas, the Palestinian fundamentalist and terrorist group, earlier warned that there would be ‘explosions’ and ‘it would not sit idly by’ if Ben-Gvir visited the disputed site.

Ben-Gvir in retaliation gave out a statement which said: “Our government will not submit to Hamas threats. The Temple Mount is the most important place for the people of Israel, and we maintain freedom of movement for Muslims and Christians, but Jews will also go up to the mount.”

Ben-Gvir, after entering the site, spent some time alone in the compound. He urged police to allow him on Monday, citing a religious function. However, the police held a situation assessment meeting with him on Monday evening, allowing him to enter the site on Tuesday. He was accompanied by members of the Temple Mount Administration.

The police said that there were no untoward incidents.

Ben-Gvir declared that the Temple Mount is ‘open to all’.

Ben-Gvir’s fellow party member Otzma Yehudit MK Zvika Fogel said if Hamas violates the current peace agreement then Israel will “respond as I think we should, and yes it would be worth it because this will be the last war.”

American envoy to Israel Thomas Nides told news agency Walla that any threat to the status quo is ‘unacceptable.’

Yair Lapid, the former Prime Minister, called Benjamin Netanyahu a ‘weak’ prime minister. “This is what happens when a weak prime minister is forced to entrust the most irresponsible man in the Middle East to the most explosive place in the Middle East,” he tweeted.

The Palestinian foreign ministry termed Ben-Gvir’s visit a ‘break-in’. It said the move was “an unprecedented provocation and that there is a real threat of escalation” and held Netanyahu responsible.

“The Palestinian people will continue to defend the sanctity of Al-Aqsa and to fight to cleanse it from the impurities of the occupation, and this battle will not stop until the final victory of our nation in expelling the occupier from all our lands,” Hamas spokesman Hazem Qasem said.

Jordan said the move violates the status quo and requires ‘international intervention.’ Jordan is the custodian of the holy site.

“Jordan condemns in the severest of terms the storming of the Aqsa mosque and violating its sanctity,” the Jordanian foreign ministry said.

After Israel occupied East Jerusalem in 1967, Jews are allowed to visit the mosque compound on conditions that they shall refrain from prayer or religious rites but radical groups are praying in the site with increased frequency and even under police protection.

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