Israel extreme-right minister visits Al-Aqsa Mosque compound

Israel’s extreme-right firebrand Itamar Ben-Gvir visited Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa mosque compound Tuesday for the first time since becoming a minister, his spokesman said, enraging Palestinians who see the move as a provocation.

“Our government will not surrender to the threats of Hamas,” Ben-Gvir said in a statement published by his spokesman, after the Palestinian militant group warned such a move was a “red line”.

Ben-Gvir’s visit comes days after he took office as national security minister, giving his decision to enter the highly sensitive site considerable weight.

Al-Aqsa mosque is the third-holiest place in Islam and the most sacred site to Jews, who refer to the compound as the Temple Mount.

Under a historic status quo, non-Muslims can visit the site at specific times but are not allowed to pray there.

But in recent years a growing number of Jews, mostly Israeli nationalists, have covertly prayed on the compound, a development decried by Palestinians.

“The Temple Mount is the most important place for the people of Israel, and we maintain the freedom of movement for Muslims and Christians, but Jews will also go up to the mount, and those who make threats must be dealt with — with an iron hand,” said Ben-Gvir.

Lying within Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, the compound is administered by Jordan’s Waqf Islamic affairs council, with Israeli forces operating there and controlling access.

Ben-Gvir has lobbied to overhaul management of the site to allow Jewish prayer there, a move opposed by mainstream rabbinical authorities.

Waqf guards told AFP that Ben-Gvir was accompanied by units of the Israeli security forces, while a drone hovered above the holy site.

After he left the site on Tuesday morning, visitors arrived at the plaza and the situation remained quiet.

Jordan slammed the Israeli politician for “breaking into the blessed Al-Aqsa mosque and violating its sanctity.”

Foreign ministry spokesman Sinan Majali condemned it as a “provocative step” in a statement.

A controversial visit in 2000 by then opposition leader Ariel Sharon was one of the main triggers for the second Palestinian intifada, or uprising, which lasted until 2005.

The Palestinian foreign ministry condemned Ben-Gvir’s visit as an “unprecedented provocation and a serious threat to the arena of conflict”.

Basem Naim, a senior Hamas official, last week warned such a step would be “a big red line and it will lead to an explosion”.

On Tuesday, Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem deemed it a “crime” and vowed the site “will remain Palestinian, Arab, Islamic”.

During this period Ben-Gvir rallied his supporters at Israeli settler homes in east Jerusalem, which has been occupied by Israel since the 1967 Six-Day War.

For years seen as a fringe figure, the Jewish Power leader entered mainstream politics with the backing of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Israeli opposition chief Yair Lapid held Netanyahu responsible for Ben-Gvir’s controversial move.

“This is what happens when a weak prime minister is forced to entrust the most irresponsible man in the Middle East with the most explosive place in the Middle East,” he wrote on Twitter.

He launched his ministerial career on December 29, as part of Israel’s most right-wing government in history led by Netanyahu.

The premier made no mention of Ben-Gvir’s visit in his remarks Tuesday at the start of the new government’s first cabinet meeting.