Posted on 07/24/24
| News Source: i24
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir shocked lawmakers during a "Return of Israel to the Temple Mount" conference held Wednesday in the Knesset (Israel's parliament), declaring that he had prayed at the Temple Mount and that Jewish prayer was allowed on there.
"I prayed on the Temple Mount, and we pray on the Temple Mount," Ben Gvir said. "I am the political echelon and the political echelon allows Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount."
The statements upturn the status quo between Israel and its neighbors, Jews and Muslims, and even within the Jewish community.
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Ben Gvir is a "pyromaniac who is trying to ignite the Middle East."
Interior Minister Moshe Arbel slammed the conference, which was initiated by Ben Gvir.
"The great desecration that was done cannot pass quietly, I want to express protest," said Arbel, a Shas politician and ultra-Orthodox rabbi. "The prohibition on ascending to the Temple Mount is the position of all the great sages of Israel for their generations."
United Torah Judaism's Moshe Gafni also condemned Ben Gvir's statements, stressing that "ascending to the Temple Mount is entangled with a serious prohibition of karet punishment," 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 changes, then to close the Temple Mount to Jews."
Benny Gantz, leader of the Blue and White, scoffed at Ben Gvir's statement.
"Just as Ben Gvir did not decide on the entry plan to the Temple Mount during Ramadan, so he does not decide on the issue today," he wrote on X. "Instead of holding discussions on his inclusion in the small forum of security decision makers, his decision making authority on sensitive security issues should be taken away from him."
Yesh Atid's Mickey Levy, former Israel Police Jerusalem District commander, warned the Knesset plenary: "A group of lunatics and messianics will entangle Israel in another war."
"You are abnormal," he added, warning that "a third world war will break out. This is a real danger to the people and the State of Israel."