Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu initially did not comment on his minister’s visit to the Temple Mount. Ben-Gvir had completed the visit announced the day before – but he did not specify a time – immediately before a government meeting. Hours later, Netanyahu’s office told Israeli media that the prime minister was committed to the “status quo.”
This is the name of the regulation that has been in effect since Israel conquered East Jerusalem in 1967. The Temple Mount is under Muslim administration, but the Israeli police monitor security. To avoid provocation, Jews – like other non-Muslim visitors – are allowed to visit the Temple Mount at certain times, but not to pray there. However, nationalist Israelis deliberately break the prayer ban time and again.
Far-right minister visits Temple Mount
Despite warnings, Israel’s new Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben-Gvir, has visited the Temple Mount in Jerusalem for the first time since taking office. He came to the holy place in the old town in the early morning, accompanied by the police. Hamas, the Islamist Palestinian organization ruling in the Gaza Strip, had previously warned against such a visit by Ben-Gvir and threatened a new serious escalation. Ben-Gvir of the far-right Ozma Jehudit is considered a political arsonist, especially with regard to the Palestinians. He is part of Benjamin Netanyahu’s new right-wing religious government.
Enormously charged place
Judaism reveres the Temple Mount as its holiest site. For Muslims, the hill with the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa Mosque is the third holiest site after Mecca and Medina. At the foot of one side of the Temple Mount is the Western Wall, also known as the “Wailing Wall”. It is a retaining wall of the Herodian Temple destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD.
Visits by Israeli politicians to the Temple Mount, which in the eyes of the Palestinian population are a provocation, have a long tradition and have become more frequent in recent years. Nationalist politicians in particular use this to signal their clientele what they stand for. One of the proponents of this approach was the non-religious ex-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. He had bought a house in the middle of the Arab part of the old town and triggered the Second Intifada with his visit to the Temple Mount in 2000. The Palestinian uprising lasted about five years.
In May 2021, an outbreak of violence in East Jerusalem, particularly on the Temple Mount, marked the start of an 11-day war between Hamas and Israel.
Hamas: “Prelude to escalation”
Despite warnings from the Palestinian side, Ben-Gvir entered the Temple Mount. Israel’s new ultra-right government will “not give in to a vile and murderous organization,” Ben-Gvir said Tuesday after his controversial visit. The Palestinian Foreign Ministry in Ramallah called the visit an “unprecedented provocation”. The radical Islamic Palestinian organization Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, had previously described Ben-Gvir’s visit plans as “the prelude to an escalation in the region”.
The head of the right-wing extremist Jewish Force party had already visited the Temple Mount, sacred to Muslims and Jews, several times as a non-government member of parliament and also announced a visit as a minister.
Internationally under pressure
The already tense situation in the Palestinian territories and in East Jerusalem is still calm. But Ben-Gvir’s visit put the Israeli government under international pressure just a few days after taking office: Jordan – which is in charge of the Muslim administration of the Temple Mount – summoned the Israeli ambassador to the Foreign Ministry. The Washington White House told Israeli news website Walla that it expects Netanyahu to maintain the status quo on the Temple Mount.
Netanyahu recently tried to allay international concerns about the coalition with right-wing extremists and emphasized that he ultimately decides everything. However, Netanyahu is largely at the mercy of his coalition partners because he has no alternatives. No other party is willing to work with him, who is facing a corruption scandal in parallel with his official duties. The right-wing extremists Ben-Gvir and Besalel Smotritsch already had a lot of weight in the coalition negotiations.
Netanyahu’s ambitions torpedoed
And Ben-Gvir’s Temple Mount visit jeopardizes one of Netanyahu’s major foreign policy goals that he hopes will go down in the history books right from the start: further de facto peace agreements along the lines of the “Abraham Accords” with Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) – and at least a rapprochement with mighty Saudi Arabia.
But criticism of Ben-Gvir’s action came from all Arab countries, especially Saudi Arabia. And Netanyahu is forced to at least postpone his first trip abroad: this should bring him – symbolically – in a few days to the UAE, from which he also hopes to find mediation services with other Arab Gulf states. Abu Dhabi canceled the appointment after Ben-Gvir’s visit to the Temple Mount.
Netanyahu’s predecessor, current opposition leader Jair Lapid, tweeted: “This is what happens when a weak prime minister is forced to hand responsibility to the most irresponsible person in the Middle East in the most explosive place in the Middle East.” transfer.”
One of the most radical
The 46-year-old Ben-Gvir is one of the most radical and controversial members of the new, right-wing Israeli government under Prime Minister Netanyahu, which was sworn in at the end of December. Ben-Gvir has repeatedly been accused of deliberately fueling tensions with the Palestinians and has been convicted of supporting a Jewish terrorist organization.
Ben-Gvir advocates an Israeli annexation of the occupied West Bank, where around 2.9 million Palestinians and 475,000 Israelis currently live in settlements illegal under international law. In addition, Ben-Gvir spoke out in favor of relocating part of Israel’s Arab population to neighboring countries – and justified this with their “disloyalty”.
