Erdan: UN giving credence to Palestinian ‘lies’ by debating Ben Gvir’s Temple Mount visit

NEW YORK — Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, says the world body is giving “legitimacy” to Palestinian “lies” about Jerusalem’s Temple Mount, ahead of an emergency Security Council session regarding National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir’s visit to the holy site earlier this week.

“There is absolutely no reason that this emergency session today should be held. None. To hold a Security Council Session on a non-event is truly absurd,” he says. “Israel’s minister of national security’s visit to the Temple Mount lasted 13 minutes in a peaceful and orderly fashion, without causing any destruction.”

“This visit was not an incursion into Al Aqsa or any of the other fabrications that the Palestinians branded his visit. Minister Ben Gvir’s visit was in line with the status quo and whoever claims otherwise is only inflaming the situation. Jews are allowed to visit the Temple Mount,” Erdan says.

“For years now, the Palestinians have orchestrated a poisonous campaign to obliterate any trace or connection between the Jewish people and the Temple Mount,” he says, highlighting a General Assembly resolution last week that referred to the holy site by only its Arabic name. “The Security Council is advancing this same narrative of lies by giving it legitimacy.”

He says the world body is engaging in hypocrisy by holding an emergency session on the visit, instead of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Iranian attacks on shipping, or Palestinian attacks on Israelis.