The rapid Jewish day of Tisha B’AV, which cries the destruction of the first and second temples, the Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir rose on Mount du Temple, joining thousands of Jewish visitors who should visit and pray throughout the day.
Under Ben-Gvir’s policy, Israeli police have enabled Jewish visitors to sing, to pray in the eastern section of the mountain, and even to prostrate, a significant passage of the long-standing status which prohibits the manifest Jewish worship on the Lightning Point site.
Sunday morning videos showed dozens of Jewish worshipers singing and dancing openly on the mountain. The police did not intervene. In an incident, an Arab man who shouted in a group of Jewish visitors was withdrawn and arrested by the security forces.
The partners of Ben-Girvir have welcomed the moment as “a monumental change that has not occurred for a thousand years”, adding that its policy is to ensure the freedom of worship of the Jews on all the sites of Israel, including the Mount of the Temple. “There is no law authorizes racist discrimination against the Jews on the Mount of the Temple or elsewhere in Israel,” they said.
The Mount of the Temple, known to Muslims as the noble sanctuary, is the most sacred site in Judaism and the third more sacred in Islam. It houses the Al-Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock. The site remains one of the most sensitive and disputed in the region, the tensions often evasing on the perceived modifications of the fragile status quo.
Ben-Gvir’s visits and policies have aroused strong criticism from the Arab states, international actors and the security establishment of Israel, which warned that changes in the policy of worship on the site could ignite tensions and endanger national security. This decision was also sentenced by ultra-Orthodox Jewish leaders, who oppose the site visit for religious reasons.
Despite criticism, Ben-Gvir argued that Jewish worship at Mount du Temple is a question of fundamental rights and national sovereignty.
