An Israeli minister further inflamed tensions in the Middle East by defending a synagogue on the Esplanade of Mosques | International

Before Benjamin Netanyahu, in need of support to return to power in late 2022, had drawn up an analogous portfolio with expanded powers, far-right Itamar Ben Gvir had already made clear his opposition to the so-called. status quo On the Esplanade of Mosques in Jerusalem, one of the most sensitive and explosive sites in the Middle East conflict. The third most important point for Islam (after Mecca and Medina), it is a place of prayer and an almost uninterrupted Muslim presence over the past 1,300 years. In Hebrew it is known as the Temple Mount, because about 2,000 to 3,000 years ago it housed two Jewish temples.

Since 1967, after the conquest of the eastern part of the city by Israeli forces in the Six Day War, verbal agreements left the administration in the hands of the Waqf – a religious foundation under the protection of the Jordanian monarchy – and reserved prayer for Muslims, while Jews do so at the Wailing Wall, the only vestige of the second biblical temple. That situation is exactly what the current Israeli national security minister wants to end.

Ben Gvir, whose portfolio includes the police (with a presence at the entrances and inside the Esplanade), has accumulated provocative statements and visits over these two years that the Israeli security forces themselves see as gasoline on an already burning fire. As if it were a ritual, they end with Netanyahu issuing a statement – mainly aimed at reassuring Jordan, a key country in this matter – making it clear that “status quo hasn’t changed” and he alone decides on the matter.

However, this Monday, Ben Gvir has notably added fuel to the fire by ensuring that he will build a synagogue there. During an interview with Israeli military radio, Galile Tzahal stressed that he had ordered the police not to enforce it. Status quo. “There will be no discrimination, there will be no racism. A Muslim can pray, but a Jew cannot? This is a racist policy,” he said. “For me, a Jew will not be afraid to pray. Because? Why does this cause problems for Hamas? Those who raped our women and our children? (…) We cannot surrender to Hamas, nor to the Waqf,” he said. Ben Gvir argued that discrimination on religious grounds is illegal, ignoring the fact that it is known status quo It is not registered in the legal system.

At one point in the interview, reporters ask how clear police officers at the scene would be about whether to allow Jewish prayer — as ordered by the branch minister — or follow it status quowhose legitimacy Netanyahu defends, higher up the hierarchy. Ben Gvir answers:

To know what happens outside is to understand what will happen inside, don’t miss anything.

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– It’s not like I do everything I want. If it was up to me I would have been flying the Israeli flag there for a long time.’ This whole war is a war for the Temple Mount

—Will you build a synagogue there? Will you build a synagogue there?

– yes yes yes

Netanyahu reacted by issuing the necessary statement, without mentioning Ben Gvir, to remind that “the status quo The official on the Esplanade “has not changed.” Insufferable to Interior Minister Moshe Arbel, who demands that he be dismissed because of the “price of blood”. Defense chief, Yoav Galant (who has a bad relationship with Ben Gvir) regretted such a “dangerous, unnecessary and irresponsible” situation.

Arbel also pointed out that “irresponsible comments” hinder the “strategic alliance of Muslim states against the evil Iranian axis” that Israel is trying to build informally with Jordan as a key component. With a peace agreement with Israel since 1994, it is the only Arab country to have helped intercept more than 300 missiles and drones launched by Tehran in retaliation for the killing of its military commanders at a consular building in Damascus last April. Amman has shown its anger with voices of protest over attacks from within the Netanyahu government on the role of the Waqf and attempts to change it.

Criticism of the interior minister also has a religious background. He is from the ultra-Orthodox Sephardic Shas party, which adheres to the ancient rabbinic consensus that prohibits visits to the ancient Jewish temples due to their sacred nature. Ben Gvir, on the other hand, belongs to the most radical religious nationalism, associated with “minority, but increasingly popular and influential” movements that challenge the “religious system”. status quo And the driving force for the increase in group visits, taking advantage of the few hours in which non-Muslims can enter.

“More resistance”

These statements have not gone unnoticed in the Arab-Muslim world. The media has repeated them, the Palestinian National Authority’s foreign ministry has described them as “very serious” and Hamas has called for “greater resistance” from Palestinians in the West Bank and Israel “to protect the holy places”. This was erroneously presented as a plan to “build a synagogue inside the Al Aqsa Mosque”.

Although Ben Gvir does not determine official policy, for years there has been a growing feeling among Palestinians that Al Aqsa – as they refer to the entire complex because of the mosque of the same name – is “in danger.” More and more videos of groups of religious Jews praying there, secretly or at the very least, are circulating on their networks and WhatsApp groups. Also unprecedented is the number of ministers who advocate, at the very least, the abolition of the unwritten rules governing the Esplanade and, at the most, the demolition of Muslim buildings of worship and the construction of a third Jewish temple.

The dispute comes as Egypt, another Arab country at peace with Israel in the Middle East, is hosting talks on a ceasefire in Gaza, where the Israeli army has ordered countless forced displacements of the population this Monday. Thousands of people are leaving Deir al Bala, located in the center of the damaged enclave, and due to the evacuation order in the area around al, Doctors Without Borders is considering suspending care for the wounded and leaving only life-saving activities. The NGO said an explosion struck the Aqsa hospital and about 250 meters away, causing panic.

Hopes that the talks, which began two weeks ago in Doha (capital of Qatar) and continue these days in Cairo, will reach an agreement are fading as the days go by, although the third mediator (the United States) has stressed this Monday that it is “constructive”. His Homeland Security Secretary, Jake Sullivan, has assured that they are working “frantically” to close a “definitive and enforceable” agreement. “The process will continue in the coming days through working groups to advance outstanding issues and details,” he said.

The teams remain in the Egyptian capital for the time being. Osama Hamdan, a Hamas leader, accused Israel a day earlier of trying to introduce another change to the draft agreed in July: that, after a ceasefire, Gazans would have to pass through a security scanner to travel from south to north of the enclave. The Islamist movement demands that the agreement lead to the complete withdrawal of troops from Gaza and the free movement of its residents. Another demand of Netanyahu is the presence of Israeli troops on the border between Egypt and Gaza (called the Philadelphia Corridor), which both Cairo and Hamas reject.

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