Israel: Having become Minister, Itamar Ben Gvir plays incendiaries on mosques esplanade

With the agreement of the Prime Minister, Benyamin Netanyahu, the Jewish supremacist orchestrated a visit as a force demonstration on this ultra -sensitive holy place of Jerusalem.

by Clothilde Mraffko (Jerusalem, correspondence)

The little tour lasted just under a quarter of an hour. Escorted by the police, Kippa Blanche on the head, Itamar Ben Gvir entered the mosques esplanade around 7 a.m. on Tuesday January 3, marking the first symbolic act of the Netanyahu government, invested on December 29, 2022.

The brand new Israeli Minister of National Security is a Jewish supremacist who makes politics with provocations on the ground. As an activist then deputy, he had already come to test the fragile status quo which governs, without written agreement, this complex in the heart of the old town of Jerusalem, which Muslims venerate as the third holy place of Islam and that The Jews, under the name of Mont du Temple, consider the most sacred site of Judaism. Mr. Ben Gvir would like his co -religionists to pray to it – only Muslims are authorized there today – and intends to assert Israeli sovereignty in this place where, according to tradition, the two Jewish temples were built, now destroyed.

As minister, this visit, made with the tacit agreement of the head of government, Benyamin Netanyahu, acts as a declaration of general policy for the mandate which opens. She was carefully orchestrated. Itamar Ben Gvir first announced his intentions; Hamas had then warned of what it considered as a “prelude to an escalation”. On Monday evening, the minister seemed to go back: after an interview with the Prime Minister, he had reported to postpone his visit. In fact, behind the scenes, the police had just agreed, under certain conditions; She was already preparing the deployment of reinforcements in the old town. No media was invited to the visit.

“Our government will not give in to the threats of Hamas. The Mount du Temple is the most important site in the world for the Jewish people,” said Ben Gvir, who has planned to return every month. Hamas and the Palestinian authority firmly condemned this visit. Tuesday evening, the Israeli army announced that a rocket launched from Gaza was crushed before reaching the territory of the Hebrew state. It is not the first time that an Israeli minister has been touning the ground for the mosques esplanade. The previous Ariel Sharon made the worst fear: in 2000, the chief of Likoud, who led the opposition to Israel at the time, had made foray on the site. Provocation had resulted in clashes and then trigger the second intifada.

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/Media reports cited above.