JERUSALEM (AP) – A far-right Israeli Cabinet minister visited Jerusalem’s most sensitive holy site on Sunday, declaring that “we are in charge,” while the Israeli Cabinet held a rare meeting in Jerusalem’s Old City to celebrate its control of the area.
Itamar Ben Guvir’s visit to the disputed hilltop site has been condemned by Palestinians and Israeli neighbor Jordan. The site is revered by Jews and Muslims, and conflicting claims are at the center of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Former leader of the West Bank settlers and far-right activist Ben Guvir, who was convicted years ago of inciting and aiding Jewish terrorist organizations, is now Israel’s minister of national security and has served as Israel’s national security minister.
Known by Jews as the Temple Mount, this place is the holiest site in Judaism and is where the Biblical Temple once stood. Al-Aqsa Mosque, now the third holiest site in Islam, is located here.
According to a longstanding treaty, Jews are allowed to visit the site, but not to pray there. But in recent years, the number of Jewish visitors offering silent prayers has increased fears among Palestinians that Israel plans to share or take over the site. Ben Guvir has long called for more access for Jews.
“I look forward to coming to the Temple Mount, the most important place for the people of Israel,” with Islam’s Golden Dome of the Rock in the background during his early morning visit, Ben Guvir said in a video statement. . He praised the police for being on the scene, saying they had shown “who is in charge in Jerusalem”.
Palestinian presidential spokesman Nabil Abu Rudyneh called Ben Guvir’s visit a “blatant attack” on the mosque. The mosque’s administrator, Jordan, called it “a reprehensible provocative act and a dangerous and unacceptable escalation.” Neighboring Egypt, which has a peace treaty with Israel, also condemned.
The visit comes just days after Jerusalem Day, which celebrates Israel’s conquest of East Jerusalem, including the Old City, in the 1967 Middle East war. Flag-waving nationalists marched down the Palestinian boulevard in Jerusalem’s Old City, some singing racist and anti-Arab chants, while hundreds of Jews gathered at a sensitive hilltop shrine. visited. Among them was the deputy pastor of the Ben Guvir party, but not Ben Guvir himself.
Israel also conquered the West Bank and the Gaza Strip in the 1967 Middle East War. Palestinians want these areas as a future independent state with East Jerusalem as its capital. Israel has annexed East Jerusalem in a move not acknowledged by much of the international community, and regards the city as an undivided permanent capital.
Late Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet will hold a special ceremony to mark Jerusalem Day at ruins near the main part of the Western Wall, the holiest place of Jewish worship and the outer wall of the Biblical Temple. held a meeting.
At the meeting, Prime Minister Netanyahu reaffirmed Israel’s claim to all of Jerusalem. He boasted that he had resisted international pressure to partition the city, saying only a right-wing Israeli government could ensure continued control of Israel. “There are still people who openly claim that they want to divide Jerusalem,” he said. “Only the people’s camp, led by us, can defend a strong and united Jerusalem.”
The minister did not mention Ben Gubir’s visit, which was his second public visit to the site since taking office.
Palestinians see mosques as national symbols and find such visits provocative. Most rabbis forbid Jews to pray at this place, but in recent years there has been a growing Jewish movement to support worship there.
Tensions in disputed territories have led to violence in the past. Prime Minister Netanyahu formed the most right-wing government in Israel’s history last December. The government, which includes a complex of ultra-orthodox and far-right nationalist parties, has made reconciliation in the West Bank a top priority.
Most of the international community views the Israeli settlements of 700,000 people in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem as illegal and an obstacle to peace.
In March, the government repealed a 2005 law dismantling four settlements in the West Bank. Over the weekend, the commander-in-chief of Israeli forces in the West Bank signed an order to bring the evacuated Homesh settlement under a regional council of local settlers. Another settler leader, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, praised the general’s actions and said it would pave the way for the reconstruction of a Jewish seminary in the area.
Violence between Israelis and Palestinians in the West Bank has intensified over the past year, with Israel escalating near-night raids in response to successive Palestinian attacks.
More than 250 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli shelling since spring 2022. About 50 killed in Palestinian attacks on Israelis.
Israel says most of the Palestinians killed were militants, but youths who threw stones in protest at the attacks and people who were not involved in the clashes were also killed. Fighting between Israel and militants also broke out in the Gaza Strip earlier this month. Israeli attacks killed 33 people, including women and children, as well as many militants, while militant rocket launches killed two people in Israel.
