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Tour of the supposed "landlord": Israel's Security Minister Ben-Gvir (left in the foreground) in the mosque area of the Temple Mount

Photo: - / AFP

A visit by Israeli Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem sparked fierce criticism on Sunday. Ben-Gvir said during the visit to the site, which Muslims revere as Al-Haram al-Sharif: "I am pleased to visit the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, the most important place for the Jewish people."

He praised the work of the police, which shows "who is the master of the house in Jerusalem". The Jordanian Foreign Ministry and the Palestinian Authority condemned the visit of the far-right minister as a dangerous provocation.

A reaction that Ben-Gvir may have expected. Most recently, he visited the Temple Mount shortly after taking office in early January, causing not only tensions in relations with the Palestinians and Jordan, but also irritation in the United States. The German government also criticized the visit at the time, which shortly afterwards even ended up on the agenda of the UN Security Council.

What makes the Israeli hardliner's visits there so delicate is that the Temple Mount is under Muslim administration, while Israel is responsible for security. The Temple Mount with the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa Mosque is the third holiest site in Islam. But it is also sacred to Jews because there used to be two Jewish temples there. Jordan is the custodian of Islam's holy sites in Jerusalem.

Jews are allowed to visit the site, but not to pray there. Ben-Gvir wants to ensure that Jewish people have more access to the facility. The Palestinians fear that Israel wants to expand its control of the holy site.

Ben-Gvir said during the visit: "All threats from Hamas (which rules the Gaza Strip) will not help, we are the master of the house in Jerusalem and in the whole Land of Israel." He also refers to the occupied West Bank and the Arab-dominated eastern part of Jerusalem.

A spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called Ben-Gvir's visit an "open attack on the holy site that will have serious consequences," according to the Wafa news agency. To harm the Al-Aqsa Mosque is to play with fire, and this will push the region into a religious war with unimaginable consequences."

The second strongman of Netanyahu's government

Itamar Ben-Gvir is a co-founder of the far-right party Otzma Yehudit, which once again secured the government for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a coalition partner after the Knesset elections in autumn 2022. The year before, Netanyahu had described his security minister as unsuitable for a government office. As one of the heads of the third-largest faction in the Knesset, there was no getting around him – Ben-Gvir is not only considered one of the most controversial figures in Israeli politics, but also the second strongman of Netanyahu's government.

Ben-Gvir made a name for himself as a lawyer for right-wing extremist criminals, and in 2007 he himself was convicted of incitement to racism and support for a terrorist organization. In November 2022, Prime Minister Netanyahu made him Minister with expanded responsibilities for Israel's internal security. In this capacity, he is, among other things, commander of the paramilitary-equipped security police in the West Bank, the larger part of the divided Palestinian state.

On May 18, Palestinian demonstrators burned Israeli flags and portraits of Ben-Gvir on the border of the so-called Gaza Strip after he had been celebrated on a flag march for "Jerusalem Day." The day of remembrance, which is considered a public holiday in Israel, commemorates the conquest of East Jerusalem as part of the Six-Day War in 1967. For Israel, the day marks the reunification of Jerusalem, Palestinians perceive the holiday, which from their perspective marks defeat, as a provocation.

dpa/pat