The United Nations Security Council will convene an emergency meeting to discuss hotheaded National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir’s visit to Jerusalem’s hotspot Temple Mount, which has sparked a spate of international condemnation, a source said on Tuesday.
A date for the Security Council meeting – formally requested by the United Arab Emirates and China on behalf of the Palestinian and Jordanian UN mission – has not yet been set, but it could take place as early as Thursday, a diplomat on the top panel said times of Israel.
Ben Gvir, leader of the far-right Otzma Yehudit party, toured the site Tuesday morning, denouncing alleged “racism” against Jews at the site and scorning warnings of a significant backlash. The visit fueled concern in the Muslim world that the Israeli government would change the status quo and ban Jewish prayer at the shrine – considered Judaism’s holiest site and third-holiest for Muslims, who call it Al-Aqsa Mosque, or Noble Sanctuary denote – despite repeated vows that the regulations will remain in place.
Ben Gvir has long been a proponent of formally changing the Temple Mount status quo, allowing Muslims to pray and enter with few restrictions, while Jews can only visit through a single gate and walk along a predetermined route during limited windows of time, closely monitored by police accompanied.
Palestinians and most of the international community vehemently oppose any change to the current situation, although most Palestinians also object to any Israeli-Jewish presence at the compound, including police officers tasked with maintaining security.
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Tuesday’s visit took place on Tevet 10, a Jewish fast day to mourn the events that led to the destruction of the temple that once stood there.
Many Palestinians reject the notion that the site is sacred to Jews after for about a century they have accused Israel and Zionists of plotting to demolish the mosque and replace it with a Jewish temple – a move suggested by the is not supported by mainstream Israeli society.
It is unlikely that the Security Council meeting on the visit will result in any concrete action or even a formal condemnation, but will nonetheless serve to underscore the serious international disapproval of Ben Gvir’s visit.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office has argued that Ben Gvir’s visit did not violate the status quo.
Israel remains committed to “strictly maintaining the status quo at the site,” the prime minister said in a statement. “The claim that a change in the status quo has been made is unfounded.”
However, Ben Gvir acknowledged during an interview with Channel 12 on Tuesday night that Jews have occasionally been allowed to pray silently at the site in recent years while police look on without action.
In contacts with allies abroad, the prime minister’s office and the foreign ministry have emphasized that other ministers have visited the site in the past, including a former Likud party public security minister.
But none of them had a reputation like that of Ben Gvir, who was inspired by the late racist Rabbi Meir Kahane and has been convicted in the past of instigating and supporting a Jewish terrorist group. He has also long called for changing the status quo at the site to allow Jewish prayer there, although he balked on Tuesday night when asked if he still stood by that position – likely due to instructions from Netanyahu, which has drawn international backlash fears how he’s trying to build on normalization deals with Arab countries he struck in his last term.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir visits the Temple Mount, January 3, 2023 (Courtesy of Minhelet Har Habayit)
As Minister of National Security, Ben Gvir is responsible for the police force tasked by Israeli courts with setting and enforcing policy on the Temple Mount.
In a video clip captured during his Tuesday morning visit, Ben Gvir condemned what he called “racial discrimination” against Jewish worshipers, who were forbidden from praying at the compound. With the Dome of the Rock in the background and waving his fingers at the camera, he said visits would continue.
“The Israeli government will not surrender to a murderous organization, a heinous terrorist organization,” Ben Gvir said in response to threats from Hamas and other terrorist groups who warned of consequences if the tour goes ahead.
Countries condemning the visit included the US, Britain and France, as well as much of the Middle East including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, Turkey, Egypt, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority.
Asked about the visit, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said, “The United States stands firm … in maintaining the status quo regarding the holy sites in Jerusalem.”
“Any unilateral action that jeopardizes the status quo is unacceptable,” she added.
US Ambassador to Israel Tom Nides made similar, albeit unsolicited, comments early Tuesday; US State Department spokesman Ned Price said the US was “deeply concerned” by Ben Gvir’s move, which “has the potential to escalate tensions and provoke violence.”
The United Nations Security Council will vote on a draft resolution sanctioning Russia’s planned annexation of war-held territory from Ukraine on Friday, September 30, 2022 at the UN headquarters. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)
A senior official in US President Joe Biden’s administration told the Ynet news site that Ben Gvir was “trying to cause chaos.” The White House was briefed about the trip in advance and said the trip would be short and would not violate the status quo, but Washington still protested, according to the website.
Ben Gvir has visited the Temple Mount many times in the past, but the administration official noted that his ministerial position now lends more weight to the move.
“Why go to the Temple Mount? Just to get more views on Tiktok?” the official charged.
Israel has also sought to reassure other allies who have responded in a similar manner, warning Jerusalem of the possible backlash of such visits across the region, even if they are brief and do not violate the status quo, according to the news of channel 12
Israel, in turn, has responded that if the Palestinians incite violence, it will blame Hamas or anyone else involved.
Before the visit, Hamas warned Israel it would serve as a “detonator.”
Although Ben Gvir still visited the site, the fact that he initially appeared to distance himself from the plans and initially did not publicize the tour was taken by Hamas as evidence their threats had worked, officials with the group told Arabs Media.
Tourists visit the Temple Mount in Jerusalem on January 3, 2023. (Jamal Awad/Flash90)
Palestinians regard the site on which Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock sit as a national symbol and view such visits as provocative and a potential precursor to Israel changing reality on the ground, although Jews are permitted to visit after the status quo. Many ultra-Orthodox rabbis forbid Jews from worshiping on the site, but in recent years there has been a growing movement of Jews supporting worship there.
The visit fueled fears of unrest as Palestinian terrorist groups threatened to respond. On Tuesday night, the Israeli military said fighters from the Gaza Strip tried to fire a rocket at southern Israel, but the projectile fell short and landed in Hamas-controlled territory.
The Temple Mount has been the scene of frequent clashes between Palestinian protesters and Israeli security forces, most recently in April last year.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir (2nd from left) visits the Temple Mount on January 3, 2023. (Youtube screenshot; used in accordance with Section 27a of the Copyright Act)
Tensions at the disputed site have fueled past rounds of violence. A visit by then opposition leader Ariel Sharon in September 2000 was followed by significant Palestinian unrest and clashes that became the second Palestinian uprising. Clashes between Israeli security forces and Palestinian rioters trying to prevent Jews from entering the compound led to an 11-day war with Hamas in 2021.
Netanyahu returned to power last week for his sixth term as prime minister, leading the most religious, right-wing government in the country’s history. Their goals include expanding settlements in the West Bank and legalizing outposts throughout the disputed territory.
Israel captured the Temple Mount and the Old City of Jerusalem from Jordan in the 1967 Six-Day War, nearly two decades after Amman captured it during the 1948 War of Independence. However, Israel allowed the Jordanian Waqf to continue to retain religious authority on the mountain.
Israel considers Jerusalem its undivided capital, having annexed East Jerusalem in a move not recognized by most of the international community, while the Palestinians are targeting East Jerusalem, including the Old City, as the capital of a potential future state. The competing claims to Jerusalem lie at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.