“These are things I have been saying for a year and a half, every time I talk about the Temple Mount, what made you remember it now?” National Security Minister and Otzma Yehudit Chairman Itamar Ben Gvir tweeted on Wednesday, and added, “On my watch, there will be no racist discrimination against Jews, who are the only ones not allowed to pray, and what’s more, in the holiest place for the Jewish people.”
During Wednesday’s “Israel’s Return to the Temple Mount” conference in the Knesset, one week after ascending to the holy compound, and while PM Netanyahu was thousands of miles away in Washington, DC, Ben Gvir announced: “I am the political echelon, and the political echelon permits Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount.”
Channeling Louis XIV’s “L’État, c’est moi” (The state is me), Ben Gvir added: “I was on the Temple Mount last week. I prayed on the Temple Mount and we pray on the Temple Mount.”
Last month, Ben Gvir proudly declared the violation of the status quo on the Temple Mount, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office was quick to contradict his statement.
Ben Gvir told the conference, “It’s no secret that I had an argument with the Prime Minister about closing the Temple Mount to Jews in the last ten days of Ramadan. I thought it was forbidden to close the Temple Mount even for a minute. There is still more to be done, but I remember the days when they shouted at me ‘Allah Akbar’ and I shouted back at them ‘Shema Israel’ and was arrested.”
“Today it’s different, a lot of people enter the compound, walk around proudly and pray, and that’s how it should be,” Ben Gvir continued. “I want to say thank you to the police, to the outgoing Jerusalem police chief Doron Turgeman, and to his replacement, Deputy Inspector Amir Arzani, who works hard and demonstrates our sovereignty. There will be no discrimination against Jews on the Temple Mount, that’s what I strive for.”
The conference, organized at Ben Gvir’s initiative, witnessed harsh criticism from the Interior Minister and Sephardi Haredi Rabbi Moshe Arbel (Shas). “We cannot allow such a significant violation to go unnoticed,” he said. “It’s crucial to voice our objection. Throughout the generations, the most esteemed Rabbis of Israel have consistently forbidden ascending to the Temple Mount.”
MK Tali Gottlieb responded: “Your esteemed rabbis of the generations, not mine.”
New Democrat MK Gilad Kariv, who one day ago staged a Wagnerian opera over a picture of Netanyahu and his wife with a hat that read “Total Victory,” moved up from Twilight of the Gods to The Valkyrie, crying out, “Ben Gvir announced a change of policy on the Temple Mount while the Prime Minister is in the United States, preparing his speech (before Congress – DI). What further evidence do we need that this man (Ben Gvir) has resolved to throw a match into the most extremely burning barrel to ignite an intifada in the territories, Guardians of the Wall II. The headline, ‘Israel returns to the Temple Mount’ is anti-Zionist. Israel returned to the Temple Mount in 1967 when soldiers gave their lives to return to the Old City, but the state realized that sometimes sovereignty is expressed in restraint when the person in power realizes that it should not use all the power.”
United Torah Judaism’s Lithuanian Haredi MK Moshe Gafni condemned Ben Gvir’s statements, insisting that “ascending to the Temple Mount violates a severe prohibition whose punishment is Karet (the word means “severing” and the punishment is premature death by Heaven, although Gafni makes an Olympic leap from the prohibition on entering the Temple Mount in a state of spiritual impurity and Karet – DI).” referring to a religious punishment.
“I demand from the Prime Minister not to allow the change of status quo on the Temple Mount, and if it changes, then he must close the Temple Mount to Jews,” Gafni declared, stepping on freedom of religion and freedom of movement in one fell swoop, which is no small feat even for a Haredi politician.
Interestingly, Arab news outlets that last week screamed about how Ben Gvir “stormed” the Al Aqsa Mosque (Ben Gvir ‘Storms’ Temple Mount, Arabs and Shas Minister Upset), this time around only quoted Ben Gvir, Arbel, and Gafni.
