Tel Aviv. Israel’s far-right Minister of National Security Itamar Ben Gvir on Thursday visited the site known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary or Esplanade of the Mosques on the Jewish holiday of Tisha B’Av.
“On this day, in this place, it is very important to remember that we are all brothers. Right, left, religious, secular, we are all the same people. When a terrorist looks out the window, he does not discriminate between us. Unity is important and love for Israel is important,” Ben Gvir said in a statement.
The minister added that this was the most important place for the people of Israel: “where we must return and show our government.”
The site is considered the holiest in Judaism, as it is where the two biblical temples stood, while the Al-Aqsa Mosque is the third holiest shrine in Islam, making the area a sticking point in the Israeli-Israeli conflict. Palestinian.
This was Ben Gvir’s third visit to the site since he has been a cabinet minister. Each visit has provoked a furious reaction from the Arab world. The Jordanian Foreign Ministry warned that violations of the status quo by Israelis “threaten to escalate the situation to more rounds of violence.”
“We warn of the dangerous consequences of allowing extremists to reach the bush and allow them to carry out provocations,” the ministry added.
Israel captured Jerusalem’s Esplanade and Old City from Jordan in the 1967 Six-Day War. However, it has allowed the Jordanian Waqf to continue to maintain religious authority at the holy site.
The Palestinian National Authority (PNA) Ministry of Foreign Affairs accused Ben Gvir’s visit of being part of “official Israeli coverage of the ongoing invasions and plans to Judaize the Al-Aqsa Mosque and impose forced changes to the existing historical and legal reality, as an inseparable part of the Judaization of Jerusalem”.
According to reports by Israeli public radio Kan, about a thousand pilgrims had toured the site by 10 a.m., exceeding the count of Jewish visitors to the site on Tisha B’Av in previous years. Police said they arrested 16 Jewish and two Arab visitors for rioting at the site on Thursday morning. No further details were given.
Observing Jews fast the entire day in mourning for the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in 586 BC and then its replacement in 70 AD. One of the main reasons for the catastrophes cited in tradition is division and hatred between different groups in Jewish society.
Under the status quo, an agreement that has prevailed for decades in cooperation with Jordan, Jews and other non-Muslims can visit the Temple Mount during certain hours, but cannot pray there.
