Israel minister’s Al-Aqsa compound visit draws reaction from allies and enemies

The United Nations and the United States led a chorus of international criticism of a visit by Israel’s extreme-right new national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir to Jerusalem’s supersensitive Al-Aqsa mosque compound. “The Temple Mount is open to all,” Ben-Gvir said on Twitter, using the Jewish name for the site. Video footage on Tuesday showed him strolling at the periphery of the compound, surrounded by a heavy security detail and flanked by a fellow Orthodox Jew. Although the visit at the flashpoint site passed without incident, it risked increasing frictions with Palestinians after a surge of violence in the Israeli-occupied West Bank in 2022. Late Tuesday, militants in Hamas-ruled Gaza fired a rocket towards Israel, but it fell short and hit the ground inside the Palestinian enclave, the Israeli army said. Diplomats said both the United Arab Emirates and China asked the UN Security Council to meet publicly to discuss the issue, likely on Thursday. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said he would seek a Security Council condemnation, a statement published by the Palestinian WAFA News Agency said. The #Israeli far right wing minster Ben Gvir visited in Al-Aqsa compound for 13 minutes for the first time since election, pic.twitter.com/IP2xk4bsTJ — Rushdi Abualouf (@Rushdibbc) January 3, 2023 White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said that a change to the status quo of Jerusalem’s holy sites would be “unacceptable”. State Department spokesman Ned Price said the United States was “deeply concerned” by Ben-Gvir’s visit, which could “provoke violence”. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres “calls on all to refrain from steps that could escalate tensions in and around the holy sites,” UN deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said. In an apparent effort to lower the temperature, an official in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said the premier was fully committed to the site’s decades-old status quo allowing only Muslim worship there. An Israeli official said the 15-minute visit by Ben-Gvir, a senior member of Netanyahu’s new nationalist-religious cabinet, complied with an arrangement that allows non-Muslims to visit but not pray. Ben-Gvir once advocated ending the ban on Jewish prayer at the sensitive site, but has been non-committal on the issue since aligning with Netanyahu. Other members of Ben-Gvir’s Jewish Power party still advocate such a move. Jordan, the custodian of Al-Aqsa and whose 1994 peace deal with Israel is unpopular at home, summoned the Israeli ambassador and said the visit had violated international law and “the historic and legal status quo in Jerusalem”. Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh called on Palestinians to confront what he described as raids onto the compound and accused Ben-Gvir of staging the visit as part of a bid to turn the shrine “into a Jewish temple”. Israel denies having such designs. An official at Netanyahu’s office said “claims of a change in the status quo are groundless”. Israel’s Netanyahu returns with hard-right cabinet A spokesman for Hamas, a Palestinian Islamist group that rejects coexistence with Israel and which controls Gaza, said of the visit: “A continuation of this behaviour will bring all parties closer to a big clash”. The leader of Lebanon’s powerful armed Hezbollah group, Hassan Nasrallah, said that any infringement of the status quo would lead to an explosion in the entire region. The rise of Ben-Gvir in Netanyahu’s government, one of the most right-wing in Israeli history, has deepened Palestinian anger about their long-failed efforts to secure a state in territory Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war. The European Union’s Middle East envoy Sven Koopmans said the status quo must be maintained. Egypt and the United Arab Emirates, both among the few Arab states to have recognised Israel, condemned the visit, and Saudi Arabia also criticised Ben-Gvir’s action. Israel’s arch-foe Iran called the visit a “violation of international regulations and an insult to the values and sanctities of the Muslims”. Turkey, which has recently ended a long-running diplomatic rift with Israel, condemned the visit as “provocative”. Al Jazeera files international lawsuit over reporter’s killing in West Bank Al-Aqsa compound, known to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary, is Islam’s third holiest site. It is also Judaism’s most sacred site, a vestige of two ancient Jewish temples. Israel deems all of Jerusalem its indivisible capital – a status not recognised internationally. Palestinians want East Jerusalem, where the compound is located, as capital of a state also taking in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Ben-Gvir oversees Israeli police who are formally tasked with enforcing the ban on Jewish prayer at the compound. He said that freedom of movement would be upheld there, without any mention of freedom of worship. Additional reporting by Agence France-Presse and Associated Press

Israel minister’s Al-Aqsa compound visit draws reaction from allies and enemies

.css-1mniedq{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;}Israeli Cabinet minister Itamar Ben-Gvir visited a flashpoint Jerusalem holy site Tuesday’s visit angered the Palestinians and drew a slew of condemnations

Israeli Cabinet minister Itamar Ben-Gvir visited a flashpoint Jerusalem holy site

Tuesday’s visit angered the Palestinians and drew a slew of condemnations