The United States, the United Nations and Arab countries condemned a visit by Israel’s hardline national security minister and hundreds of supporters to Jerusalem’s flashpoint al-Aqsa Mosque compound, where they performed Jewish prayers.
Washington criticized National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir’s “unilateral action” of storming the compound Tuesday with the aid of Israeli police, calling it a provocation that could undermine efforts for a cease-fire in the Gaza war between Israel and Hamas.
U.S. State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel said, “Any unilateral action, which this would be … that jeopardizes such status quo is unacceptable.
“The United States stands firmly for the historic preservation of the status quo with respect to the holy sites of Jerusalem,” he said. “And not only is it unacceptable, it detracts from what we think is a vital time as we are working to get this cease-fire deal across the final line.”
Ben-Gvir has often defied the Israeli government’s longstanding ban on Jewish prayer at the mosque compound. Known to Jews as the Temple Mount, it’s one of the most sensitive religious sites in the Middle East. Jews and other non-Muslims are allowed to visit the mosque compound during certain hours, but they are not allowed to pray or display religious symbols there.
Last month, Ben-Gvir announced that he considered Jewish prayer now to be permitted on the Temple Mount. However, Israeli Prime Benjamin Netanyahu’s office quickly rebuked him, saying the status quo was unchanged.
Meanwhile, Israel’s interior minister, Moshe Arbel, of the ultraorthodox Shas coalition party, said, “The day will come when the era of Ben-Gvir’s trolling will pass. The Torah will never be replaced.”
Hardliners such as Ben-Gvir do not want a Gaza deal, analyst Dania Koleilat Khatib told VOA, but want the war to continue in the belief that Israel will retake the enclave.
“They don’t want a deal with Hamas [because] if I do a deal with you, that means I recognize you,” said Khatib, president of the Research Center for Cooperation and Peace Building in Beirut.
She said it was no coincidence that Ben-Gvir acted just after U.S. President Joe Biden, Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and Eqyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi “put their foot down and said that’s it, we need to finish this.”
Jordan, which also criticized Ben-Gvir’s actions, has been the custodian of the mosque compound since its 1994 peace treaty with Israel, Palestinian journalist Daoud Kuttab, a former professor at Princeton University, told VOA. The arrangement was reiterated in a 2014 understanding supervised by then-U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and agreed to by Netanyahu and Jodan’s King Abdullah.
“This is a violation of so many agreements, understandings and peace agreements,” he said. “The state of Israel cannot claim this is some kind of rogue person. This is a minister in the government of Netanyahu, who himself reached that understanding. So, there is something extremely wrong in that Netanyahu and his government are not doing anything. The Israelis have to answer, but the Jordanians as well as the rest of the world are upset.”
Jordan’s Islamic Affairs Ministry is the legal authority for managing the al-Aqsa compound and regulating access to it. Jordanian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Sufian Qudah said continued Israeli unilateral measures and violations of the historical and legal status in Jerusalem require a clear and firm international response and protection.
