Racist National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir on Tuesday, Aug 13, dismissed far-right Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s insistence that Jewish prayer on the Al-Aqsa-Temple Mount remains prohibited, repeating that it was his policy to allow the practice and eliciting outrage from Arab leaders as well as members of his own coalition. However, Tuesday’s prayers were far more explicit, with numerous men flattening themselves on the ground, and loud calls of “Shema Yisrael” heard in videos from the scene, in violation of police instructions.

The uproar began as Ben Gvir visited the Al-Aqsa compound on Tuesday morning to mark the solemn Jewish fast day of Tisha B’Av, which mourns the destruction of the Temples that once stood in Judaism’s holiest site. The Palestinian news agency WAFA, quoting the Jordanian Waqf, said some 2,000 fanatic Jews had entered the site on Tuesday. It was the third time the police minister has made such a claim while visiting the Mount, with the Prime Minister’s Office being repeatedly forced to issue denials that this was Israel’s policy.

Fanatic Jewish worshipers are seen prostrating themselves while praying at the Al-Aqsa compound in Jerusalem, August 13, 2024 (Video screenshot)

The National Security Minister’s latest provocation drew furious condemnation by Hadash and the Communist Party of Israel (CPI). Hadash-Ta’al MK Ofer Cassif said the move was a “declaration of war on the Muslim world. Ben-Gvir is a pyromaniac interested in igniting a regional war.” MK Ahmad Tibi (Hadash-Ta’al) labelled Ben-Gvir a “racist fascist who wants to start a religious war,” and according to MK Youssef Atawneh (Hadash-Ta’al), “Ben-Gvir is playing with war issues and looking for any way to ignite the Arab society and declared war to the Muslim public and placed the blame on Netanyahu for letting him “go wild for the sake of his political survival.”

According to a joint communique issued by Hadash and CPI, “This is a plan to harm the freedom of worship at Al-Aqsa are trying to set the Middle East on fire, change the status quo in occupied Jerusalem, and drag us into a dangerous religious war.” 

Also, MK Moshe Gafni (United Torah Judaism), charged that Ben Gvir doesn’t care about the “harm to the Temple Mount’s sanctity and the status quo,” alleging he was causing immense damage to the Jewish people and causing unnecessary hate on Tisha B’Av. He said that his faction would have to “check with our rabbis whether we can be partners with him and will clarify this to the prime minister as well.”

On Wednesday morning, an influential newspaper aligned with the United Torah Judaism calls for the Haredi party to reconsider its place in the far-right government. A front-page item in the Yated Ne’eman daily edition blasts the racist minister for “endangering Jewish lives” by visiting Al-Aqsa compound on the Jewish fast day of Tisha B’av. The newspaper’s editorial reads, “The Temple Mount may turn into a volcano that covers the entire Middle East with ash.” In addition, Religious Affairs Minister Michael Malkieli (Shas) reiterated the Chief Rabbinate’s stance against Jewish visits to the site due to its holiness, adding that it also constituted “unnecessary provocation to nations around the world.”