Israel’s hardline Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir repeated a call for Jews to be allowed to pray at the Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, drawing sharp criticism for inflaming tensions as ceasefire negotiators seek a deal to halt fighting in Gaza.
“The policy at the Temple Mount allows praying there. Period,” Ben-Gvir told an Army Radio interviewer.
“The prime minister knew when I joined the government there would not be any discrimination. Muslims are allowed to pray and a Jew is not allowed to pray?” Asked if he would build a synagogue on the site if he could, Ben-Gvir replied “Yes, Yes”.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office immediately put out a statement restating the official Israeli position, which accepts decades-old rules restricting non-Muslim prayer at the mosque compound.
“There is no change to the status quo on the Temple Mount,” Netanyahu’s office said.
The hillside compound, in Jerusalem’s Old City, is one of the most sensitive locations in the Middle East, holy for both Muslims and Jews, and the trigger for repeated conflict.
Nabil Abu Rudeineh, spokesperson for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, said calls to tamper with the status of Al Aqsa appeared intended “to drag the region into a religious war that will burn everyone”.
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