Netanyahu Holds Provocative Cabinet Session Underneath Al-Aqsa Mosque

Israel’s far-right government held a cabinet meeting on 21 May inside a tunnel underneath Al-Aqsa Mosque in a ham-fisted attempt to spotlight Tel Aviv’s “sovereignty” over occupied East Jerusalem and the Muslim holy site.

“A few days ago, [PA leader Mahmoud Abbas] said that the Jewish people do not have links to Jerusalem and Al-Haram, therefore, I am telling him that we are holding our meetings today in the depth of Jerusalem and its Haram,” the Israeli premier said during the meeting.

The tunnel in question is located under the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound’s Al-Buraq Wall – also known as the Western Wall. This is the first time since 2017 that the Israeli government has held a cabinet session in the tunnels underneath Al-Aqsa.

According to Hebrew media, during the meeting, the Israeli cabinet approved a budget of NIS60 million ($17m) for a “five-year plan to upgrade infrastructure and encourage visits to the Western Wall plaza.”

The budget also encourages more tunnels to be dug underneath Islam’s third holiest site, a practice that has inevitably weakened the ancient structure and which Palestinian resistance factions consider a “red line.”

Ahead of the cabinet meeting, Jewish supremacist National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir entered Al-Aqsa in one of his regular raids of its courtyards and declared that Israel was “in charge” of the site.

“I’m happy to ascend the Temple Mount, the most important place for the people of Israel,” Ben-Gvir said as he toured Al-Aqsa under heavy police protection. “All the threats from Hamas will not help, we are in charge here in Jerusalem and all of the Land of Israel,” he added.

A spokesman for Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas said Ben-Gvir’s “incursion at an early hour, like thieves, into the Al-Aqsa Mosque courtyards will not change the reality and will not impose Israeli sovereignty over it.”

Gaza-based resistance faction Hamas said on its Telegram channel that Israel would “bear responsibility for the barbaric incursions of its ministers and herds of settlers.”

Hamas spokesman Hazem Qasem called on Palestinians to step up their visits and “stand as a rampart in the face of all attempts to defile it and make it Jewish.”

“This is a dangerous escalation of the religious war waged by the Israeli occupation against the holy city of Jerusalem,” Qasem added.

Under the ‘status quo’ arrangements, Jordan has custodianship of Al-Aqsa, and non-Muslims may visit but are not allowed to pray. However, extremist settler groups have been increasingly defying the ban under police protection, violently removing Palestinian worshippers every week.*