JERUSALEM — An extremist Israeli Cupboard minister visited a delicate Jerusalem holy web site on Sunday at a time of heightened tensions with the Palestinians.
The go to by Nationwide Safety Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, his second identified 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’m comfortable to return as much as the Temple Mount, crucial place for the Israeli folks,” 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 web site, saying it “proves who’s in cost in Jerusalem.”
Palestinian presidential spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh known as Ben-Gvir’s go to a “blatant assault” on the mosque. Jordan’s International Ministry known as it “a provocative step that’s condemned, and a harmful and unacceptable escalation.”
The go to comes days after Israelis marked Jerusalem Day, which celebrates Israel’s capturing of east Jerusalem within the 1967 Mideast warfare. Flag-waving nationalists marched by way of the principle Palestinian thoroughfare in Jerusalem’s Outdated Metropolis, some singing racist anti-Arab chants, whereas a whole lot of Jews visited the delicate hilltop shrine, together with a low-level minister from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.
In a while Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Cupboard is predicted to carry a particular session to mark the event close to the Western Wall, the holiest web site the place Jews can pray and a remaining exterior wall of the biblical Temples.
Recognized to Jews because the Temple Mount, the hilltop web site is the holiest in Judaism and residential to the traditional biblical Temples. Right this moment, it homes the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the third-holiest web site 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 known as for larger Jewish entry to the holy web site.
Palestinians think about 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 web site, however there was a rising motion lately of Jews who help 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 web site fueled an 11-day warfare with Hamas in 2021.
Israel captured the Outdated Metropolis of Jerusalem, with its websites holy to 3 monotheistic faiths, together with the remainder of east Jerusalem, the West Financial institution and the Gaza Strip within the 1967 Mideast warfare. 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 town its undivided, everlasting capital.
Violence between Israel and Palestinians within the West Financial institution has spiked within the final yr, as Israel launched near-nightly raids in response to a spate of Palestinian assaults.
Greater than 250 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fireplace for the reason that spring of 2022. About 50 folks have been killed in Palestinian assaults in opposition to Israelis.
Israel says a lot of the Palestinians killed have 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 ladies and kids, and two folks have been killed in Israel by militant rocket fireplace.
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Goldenberg reported from Tel Aviv, Israel.