The official PA news agency WAFA reported Thursday morning that “Extremist Israeli Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir stormed on Thursday morning the courtyards of Al-Aqsa Mosque under the protection of the occupation police.”
Ben Gvir’s press release reported that “During his visit, the minister prayed for the return of the hostages, and called for continued military pressure against Hamas.”
Minister Ben Gvir stated: “I came here, to the most important place for the State of Israel, for the people of Israel, to pray for the hostages to return home, but without a promiscuous deal, without surrender. I pray and also work hard that the Prime Minister will have the strength not to fold and continue fighting until a victory – increase military pressure, stop their fuel – to win!”
Since the second intifada, circ. 2000, Arab news outlets and politicians have begun to refer to the Temple Mount, or Beit el Maqdis (the Temple) and Haram ash-Sharif (Noble Sanctuary), as Al Aqsa, after the mosque located at the distant corner of the compound. Therefore, in Arab reports, when Ben Gvir stepped anywhere on the Temple Mount, he, in fact, stormed Al Aqsa.
In that spirit, WAFA reported: “Local sources said that Ben-Gvir stormed Al-Aqsa Mosque from al-Maghrabi Gate, and wandered around the eastern square, accompanied by a large number of occupation police officers. The sources indicated that the occupation prevented worshipers from entering Al-Aqsa Mosque, coinciding with Ben-Gvir’s raid of the holy mosque. It is noteworthy that this is Ben Gvir’s third raid on Al-Aqsa Mosque in less than a year.”
In Arab reports, every visit to the Temple Mount is a storming of Al Aqsa, and every Jewish visitor is a settler.
Interior Minister Moshe Arbel (Shas) also rebuked Ben Gvir for storming Al Aqsa, stating in a particularly acerbic tone: “The elders of the generation and the Chief Rabbinate Council have already enumerated and decreed and agreed with all force to erect a fence and warn with a stern warning that no one should dare to enter the Temple Mount area until Shiloh (the Messiah) comes, when we will experience the prophecy ‘I will sprinkle pure water upon you, and you shall be purified’ (Ezekiel 36:25). The day will come and the era of Mr. Ben Gvir’s tricks will be replaced. The Torah will not be replaced.”
Them’s fighting words.
In the summer that followed the 1967 War, Chief IDF Rabbi who later became the most beloved Chief Rabbi of Israel, organized Jewish prayers in minyanim in the periphery of the Temple Mount that was not part of the Holy Sanctuary. The Military Rabbinate established a yeshiva inside the Temple Mount, next to the Mugrabim Gate, through which Ben Gvir stormed the compound Thursday morning. Under Rabbi Goren, there were three daily prayers with a minyan at the holy site – until then-Defense Minister Moshe Dayan canceled the whole thing ahead of Shabbat Nachamu which Goren had planned to turn into a huge redemption event after the 9th of Av.
Dayan wrote in his diary at the time: All I need is a Vatican in the middle of Jerusalem. He enlisted the most Haredi rabbis to issue a stern ruling against ascending the Temple Mount, thus outmaneuvering Rabbi Goren.
All of which stands to show that it wasn’t Ben Gvir’s side doing the tricks – it was and continues to be Minister Arbel’s.
