Ben-Gvir visits al-Aqsa Mosque compound
Israel’s far-right national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir visited the compound that houses the alAqsa Mosque in Jerusalem on Tuesday, a move condemned by Palestinian as provocative and despite warnings it could lead to violence.
“The Temple Mount is open to all,” Ben-Gvir said on Twitter, using the Jewish name for the site. An accompanying photograph showed him strolling at the periphery of the compound, surrounded by a clutch of bodyguards and flanked by a fellow Orthodox Jew.
An Israeli official said the quarter-hour visit took place in accordance with a so-called status quo arrangement, dating back decades, that allows non-Muslims to visit on condition they do not pray. It passed without incident, the official said.
The rise of Ben-Gvir, leader of the Jewish Power party, to join a religiousnationalist coalition under re-elected Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has deepened Palestinians’ anger over the long frustrations of their goal of statehood.
In fresh violence in nearby Bethlehem, in the occupied West Bank, Israeli troops shot dead a Palestinian teenager during a clash, medical officials and witnesses said. There was no immediate comment from the army.
The Palestinian foreign ministry said it “strongly condemns the storming of al-Aqsa Mosque by the extremist minister Ben-Gvir and views it as unprecedented provocation and a dangerous escalation of the conflict.”
A spokesman for Hamas, a Palestinian group that rejects coexistence with Israel, said al-Aqsa “will remain Palestinian, Arab and Islamic... and no fascist can change this fact.”
There was no indication that Ben-Gvir approached the mosque, however. Once an advocate of ending the ban on Jewish prayer at the compound, he has, since taking office, spoken in a more non-committal way about a need to enforce “non-discrimination” there.
“If Hamas thinks that it can deter me with threats, it