Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir visited the Temple Mount on Thursday morning to mark Hanukkah. According to a statement from his office, the minister prayed for “the peace of the soldiers, the return of the hostages, alive and dead, and total victory in the war.”
This visit immediately provoked a strong reaction from Mansour Abbas, president of the Ra’am party, who accused Ben Gvir of “desecrating the sanctity of the Al-Aqsa mosque” and of trying to “drag the Arab citizens of Israel into a confrontation with the State. Abbas also blamed Prime Minister Netanyahu for authorizing the visit.
Jordan followed suit, denouncing “Ben Gvir’s assault on the Al-Aqsa mosque, under the protection of the Israeli police”. “This is a provocative and obscene move, which constitutes a violation of the historical and legal status of the Al-Aqsa Mosque,” she added.
Netanyahu’s office rushed to issue a statement aimed at appeasement, assuring that the status quo was preserved, and that no changes to it were on the agenda.
Hamas, for its part, called on Palestinians in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria “to rise up against the actions of the far-right occupation government against Al-Aqsa and its Arab and Islamic identity.”
This visit is part of a series of similar trips by the minister to this sensitive site. Four months ago, during the Ticha B’Av fast, Ben Gvir had already gone there in the company of Minister Yitzchak Waserlauf. On this occasion, his Otzma Yehudit party welcomed a policy of openness to Jewish prayer on the site, with the minister himself evoking “very great progress in terms of governance and sovereignty”.
Last July, during a previous visit, Ben Gvir had already linked his presence on the site to the question of the hostages, while opposing a release agreement, calling instead to “increase military pressure”.
These regular visits to this holy site, considered the holiest in Judaism and the third holiest site in Islam, each time arouse a torrent of criticism in the Arab world, but also within the Israeli political class. Benjamin Netanyahu has already publicly opposed these initiatives by Itamar Ben Gvir in recent months.
