Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke with National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir on Monday about the latter’s stated intention to visit the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, which has drawn condemnations from the opposition and threats from the Gaza-ruling Hamas terror group.
The content of the conversation was not made public, but Hebrew media reports indicated that the two agreed that Ben Gvir would postpone his trip to the flashpoint site.
A statement issued by Ben Gvir’s office said he would visit the Temple Mount as a minister “in the upcoming weeks,” and not this week as reportedly planned.
Unnamed associates of Ben Gvir who were cited by the Walla news site said the prime minister did not ask him to nix the visit altogether.
According to the Ynet news site, Ben Gvir told Netanyahu, “We mustn’t cave to Hamas,” after the terror group warned against the visit.
Ben Gvir, who has been to the Temple Mount on numerous occasions in the past, announced Sunday that he intends to visit the site soon, as a minister.
Far-right MK Itamar Ben Gvir seen after visiting the Temple Mount, at the Western Wall in Jerusalem’s Old City on March 31, 2022. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
In response, Hamas warned Israel that Ben Gvir’s visit to the Temple Mount would “blow up the situation.”
In a statement attributed to Hamas spokesperson Abd Al Latif Al, and passed on to the Israeli government via Egyptian and UN mediators, the terror group warned that Ben Gvir’s planned visit “indicates that the fascist settler government has begun its plan to attack our people and the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and declared war on it.”
Ben Gvir’s announcement was criticized by the opposition, with Opposition Leader Yair Lapid warning Monday that such a visit would “cost lives.”
“Itamar Ben Gvir must not go up to Temple Mount,” Lapid said at the outset of his Yesh Atid party’s weekly Knesset faction meeting. “It is a deliberate provocation that will put lives in danger and cost lives,” he added, urging Netanyahu to prevent the visit.
Ben Gvir is one of the three far-right party heads in Netanyahu’s nascent coalition. The newly minted national security minister, who has long been accused of being a provocateur, made several trips to the Temple Mount as a Knesset member, and was also a leader of a contentious nationalist march through the Muslim Quarter in Jerusalem’s Old City. On several occasions, he set up an ad hoc office in Jerusalem’s Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, which has also been at the center of Israeli-Palestinian tensions.
His last visit to the Temple Mount was about three months ago, ahead of the Jewish New Year of Rosh Hashanah. “I went up to the Temple Mount this morning to pray and exercise sovereignty in the holiest place for the people of Israel,” he tweeted at the time.
Despite Ben Gvir’s rhetoric on the issue ahead of the elections, he agreed to maintain the status quo at holy sites, including the Temple Mount, in coalition agreements reached with Netanyahu before the swearing-in of the government.
Far-right MK Itamar Ben Gvir speaks to the press as he arrives to visit the Temple Mount in Jerusalem’s Old City on August 7, 2022. (Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)
Also Monday, Netanyahu hit out at the previous government during the first faction meeting of his Likud party since returning to the prime minister’s seat last week.
Netanyahu said he discovered a “series of failures and neglect in a range of fields,” including alleged inaction on the rising cost of living and on Palestinian diplomatic efforts in the UN.
He also said his new government is subjected to “a coordinated and well-oiled attack,” urging Likud MKs to “contribute to the struggle against this incitement and return fire.”
Carrie Keller-Lynn, Tobias Siegal, and Ash Obel contributed to this report.
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Netanyahu meets with Ben Gvir over concerns about planned Temple Mount visit - The Times of Israel
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