Before Benjamin Netanyahu, in need of support to return to power, tailored a portfolio with expanded powers for him at the end of 2022, the far-right Itamar Ben Gvir had already made his opposition to the so-called status quoon the Esplanade of the Mosques in Jerusalem, one of the most sensitive and explosive sites in the Middle East conflict. The third most important point for Islam (after Mecca and Medina), it is a place of prayer and a Muslim presence almost uninterrupted for the last 1,300 years. In Hebrew it is known as the Temple Mount, after the two Jewish temples that it housed between approximately 2,000 and 3,000 years ago.
Since 1967, following the conquest of the eastern part of the city by the Israeli army in the Six-Day War, verbal agreements have left the administration in the hands of the Waqf – a religious foundation under the tutelage of the Jordanian monarchy – and reserved prayers for Muslims, while Jews do so at the Wailing Wall, the only stronghold of the second biblical temple. This is the situation that the current Israeli Minister of National Security wants to end.
Ben Gvir, whose portfolio includes the police (with a presence at the entrances and inside the Esplanade), has accumulated in these two years provocative statements and visits that the Israeli security forces themselves see as fuel to an already burning fire. As if it were a ritual, they end with Netanyahu issuing a statement ―aimed primarily at reassuring a key country in the matter, Jordan― making it clear that the “status quohas not changed” and that only he decides on the matter.
On Monday, however, Ben Gvir particularly added fuel to the fire by saying that he would build a synagogue there. During an interview with the Israeli military radio station, Galei Tzahal, he insisted that he had given the police orders not to enforce the law. status quo.“There will be no discrimination, there will be no racism. A Muslim can pray, but a Jew can’t? It’s a racist policy,” he said. “For me, a Jew will not be afraid to pray. Why? Because it bothers Hamas? Those who raped our women and our babies?” […] We cannot surrender to Hamas, nor to the Waqf,” he said. Ben Gvir argued that discrimination on religious grounds is illegal, ignoring the fact that it is known that the status quois not registered in the legal system.
At one point in the interview, the journalists ask how the police officers on site will be clear about whether to allow the Jewish prayer – as dictated by the minister of the branch – or to follow the status quowhose validity is defended by Netanyahu, hierarchically above. Ben Gvir responds:
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― It’s not that I do everything I want. If it were up to me, I would have been waving the Israeli flag there a long time ago. This whole war is a war for the Temple Mount.
―Would you build a synagogue there? Would you build a synagogue there?
― Yes, yes, yes
Netanyahu reacted by issuing the obligatory statement, without mentioning Ben Gvir, to recall that “the status quo “The official position” on the Esplanade “has not changed.” This is not enough for Interior Minister Moshe Arbel, who is calling for his dismissal because of the “price in blood” that it may have. Defense Minister Yoav Gallant (who has a bad relationship with Ben Gvir) regretted such a “dangerous, unnecessary and irresponsible” stance.
Arbel also said that the “irresponsible comments” hinder the “strategic alliance of Muslim states against the evil Iranian axis” that Israel is trying to build informally, with Jordan as a key piece. With a peace agreement with Israel since 1994, it is the only Arab country that helped it last April to intercept the more than 300 missiles and drones launched by Tehran, in retaliation for the murder of its military commanders in a consular building in Damascus. Amman has shown its anger, with notes of protest, at the attacks from within the Netanyahu government on the role of the Waqf and the attempts to change it.
The Interior Minister’s criticism also has a religious undertone. He is from the ultra-Orthodox Sephardic party Shas, which adheres to the ancient rabbinical consensus that prohibits visits, due to the sacred nature of the ancient Jewish temples. Ben Gvir, on the other hand, belongs to the more radical religious nationalism, connected to the movements – a minority, but increasingly popular and influential – that challenge the status quoand driving force behind the increase in group visits, taking advantage of the few hours when non-Muslims are allowed to enter.
“More resistance”
The statements have not gone unnoticed in the Arab-Muslim world. The media have echoed them, the Palestinian Authority’s Foreign Ministry has described them as “very serious” and Hamas has called for “more resistance” from Palestinians in the West Bank and Israel “to protect the holy sites”, wrongly presenting it as a plan to “build a synagogue inside the Al Aqsa mosque”.
Although Ben Gvir does not set official policy, there has been a growing feeling among Palestinians for years that Al Aqsa – as they refer to the entire complex, after the mosque of the same name – “is in danger”. Videos of religious Jewish groups praying there, either secretly or not, are increasingly circulating on social media and WhatsApp groups. There is also an unprecedented number of ministers who advocate, at the very least, doing away with the unwritten rules that govern the Esplanade and, at most, dismantling the Muslim buildings of worship and building a third Jewish temple.
The controversy comes as another Middle Eastern Arab country at peace with Israel, Egypt, is hosting ceasefire talks in Gaza, where the Israeli army on Monday ordered the umpteenth forced displacement of the population. Tens of thousands of people are leaving Deir al-Balah, in the centre of the battered enclave, and Doctors Without Borders is considering suspending care for the wounded, leaving only life-saving activities, due to the evacuation order in the vicinity of Al Aqsa hospital and an explosion about 250 metres away that sparked panic, the NGO said.
Hopes that the talks, which began two weeks ago in Doha (the Qatari capital) and are continuing these days in Cairo, will lead to an agreement have faded with each passing day, although the third mediator (the United States) stressed on Monday that they are being “constructive.” Its Secretary of Homeland Security, Jake Sullivan, has assured that they are working “frantically” to close a “definitive and applicable” agreement. “The process will continue in the coming days through working groups to further address the pending issues and details,” he added.
The teams are staying in the Egyptian capital for the time being. Hamas leader Osama Hamdan accused Israel yesterday of trying to introduce another addition to the draft agreed in July: that, after the ceasefire, Gazans would have to go through a security scanner to pass from the south to the north of the enclave. The Islamist movement demands that the agreement result in the complete withdrawal of troops from Gaza and the free movement of its inhabitants. Another demand from Netanyahu is the presence of Israeli troops on the Egypt-Gaza border (called the Philadelphia Corridor), which both Cairo and Hamas reject.
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