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Ben-Gvir Dismisses Palestinian Warnings, Visits Jerusalem's Temple Mount

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JERUSALEM, Israel – Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir made his first visit Tuesday to the Temple Mount as a cabinet member in the Israeli government. He dismissed warnings from Hamas leaders that such a visit would be a "detonator" in the Middle East, and said after his visit, “Our government will not surrender to threats from Hamas.”

U.S. Ambassador to Israel Tom Nides criticized the visit, calling changes to the status quo on the Temple Mount "unacceptable."

Ben-Gvir consulted with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu before his visit, and also met with Israeli police and internal security officials. His time on the Temple Mount lasted about 15 minutes, and ended without incident.

Both before and after the visit, the national security minister had made clear he would go Judaism's holiest site, which he had done many times in the past, in order to ensure ongoing access for Jews and non-Jews alike.

“The Temple Mount is the most important place for the people of Israel," he said. "We maintain freedom of movement for Muslims and Christians, but Jews also go up to the site, and those who make threats must be dealt with with an iron fist."

Ben-Gvir chose a Jewish fast day, the 10th day in the month of Tevet, to ascend to the Temple Mount. It's a day when Jews mourn the destruction of Solomon's Temple and the siege of Jerusalem by King Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon.

The Palestinian Authority also warned against the visit. The religious affairs advisor to PA President Mahmoud Abbas said Ben-Gvir's action would launch a "religious war."

Former Prime Minister Yair Lapid weighed in against Ben-Gvir as well, and cautioned Netanyahu that if he allowed the visit, it would "cost lives."

Jerusalem Post Editor-in-Chief Yaakov Katz reminded readers Monday that the Palestinians have a decades-long history of threatening conflict whenever a Jewish leader tries to go up to Judaism's holy site. He traces the problem back to Israel's capture of Jerusalem in the 1967 Six-Day War. 

"One of the greatest mistakes that Israel made was when it declared in 1967 that 'The Temple Mount is in our hands' but then never took steps to make it true," Katz wrote. "It immediately backtracked, worried of the fallout with the Muslim world, the impact moves on the mount would have on Israel's relations with Jordan and the possibility that anything that happens there could lead to widespread violence in the West Bank."

The early signal from the Netanyahu government is that the new leaders will take into account non-Muslim rights to access the holy site without giving automatic preference to parameters set by Ramallah, Gaza, Washington, and even Tel Aviv.

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About The Author

John
Waage

John Waage has covered politics and analyzed elections for CBN New since 1980, including primaries, conventions, and general elections. He also analyzes the convulsive politics of the Middle East.