JERUSALEM — An extremist Israeli Cabinet minister visited a delicate Jerusalem holy website on Sunday at a time of heightened tensions with the Palestinians.
The go to by National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, his second recognized go to since turning into a member of Israel’s most right-leaning authorities ever, drew condemnations from the Palestinians and Israel‘s neighbor Jordan, which acts because the custodian of the location.
“I am happy to come up to the Temple Mount, the most important place for the Israeli people,” Ben-Gvir stated throughout his early morning go to to the location, with the golden Dome of the Rock within the background, in keeping with video launched by his workplace. He praised the police presence on the website, saying it “proves who is in charge in Jerusalem.”
Palestinian presidential spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh referred to as Ben-Gvir’s go to a “blatant attack” on the mosque. Jordan’s Foreign Ministry referred to as it “a provocative step that is condemned, and a dangerous and unacceptable escalation.” Neighboring Egypt, which has a peace treaty with Israel, additionally issued a condemnation.
The go to comes days after Israelis marked Jerusalem Day, which celebrates Israel’s capturing of east Jerusalem within the 1967 Mideast conflict. Flag-waving nationalists marched by the principle Palestinian thoroughfare in Jerusalem’s Old City, some singing racist anti-Arab chants, whereas a whole lot of Jews visited the delicate hilltop shrine, together with a low-level minister from Ben-Gvir’s celebration, however not Ben-Gvir himself.
Later on Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Cabinet held a particular session to mark Jerusalem Day at an archaeological website close to the principle space of the Western Wall, the holiest website the place Jews can pray and a remaining exterior wall of the biblical Temples. At the assembly, Netanyahu reasserted Israel‘s claim to all of Jerusalem, which it views as its eternal, undivided capital. He made no mention of Ben-Gvir’s go to.
Known to Jews because the Temple Mount, the hilltop website is the holiest in Judaism and residential to the traditional biblical Temples. Today, it homes the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the third-holiest website in Islam. Since Israel captured the location in 1967, Jews have been allowed to go to however not pray there.
The ultranationalist Ben-Gvir, together with a rising motion of activists, has lengthy referred to as for higher Jewish entry to the holy website.
Palestinians take into account the mosque a nationwide image and look at such visits as provocative and as a possible precursor to Israel seizing management over the compound. Most rabbis forbid Jews from praying on the website, however there was a rising motion in recent times of Jews who assist worship there.
Tensions on the disputed compound have fueled previous rounds of violence. A go to by then-opposition chief Ariel Sharon in September 2000 helped spark clashes that grew to become the second Palestinian rebellion. Clashes between Israeli safety forces and Palestinian demonstrators in and across the website fueled an 11-day conflict with Hamas in 2021.
Israel captured the Old City of Jerusalem, with its websites holy to 3 monotheistic faiths, together with the remainder of east Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip within the 1967 Mideast conflict. The Palestinians search these territories for a future impartial state, with east Jerusalem as capital. Israel annexed east Jerusalem in a transfer unrecognized by a lot of the worldwide group and considers the town its undivided, everlasting capital.
Violence between Israel and Palestinians within the West Bank has spiked within the final yr, as Israel launched near-nightly raids in response to a spate of Palestinian assaults.
More than 250 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli hearth because the spring of 2022. About 50 folks have been killed in Palestinian assaults in opposition to Israelis.
Israel says a lot of the Palestinians killed had been militants, however stone throwing youths protesting the incursions and other people not concerned within the confrontations have additionally been killed.
Earlier this month, preventing additionally erupted between Israel and militants within the Gaza Strip. Israeli strikes killed 33, lots of them militants but additionally girls and youngsters, and two folks had been killed in Israel by militant rocket hearth.
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Goldenberg reported from Tel Aviv, Israel. Associated Press author Omar Akour in Amman, Jordan, contributed to this report.
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