From the Liveblog of
Monday, February 19, 2024
Rejecting Temple Mount move, MK Tibi says Ben Gvir is a ‘pyromaniac’ being handed fuel by Netanyahu
Sam Sokol is the Times of Israel's political correspondent. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir’s call to restrict Arab Israeli and Palestinian access to the Temple Mount on Ramadan is an inflammatory move that could spark violence, leaders of the Arab-majority Hadash-Ta’al party warn.
“Ben Gvir is calling on the government to make a decision to prevent Arab citizens from going to the Al Aqsa mosque,” MK Ayman Odeh says at his party’s weekly faction meeting in the Knesset, linking the October 7 attack, Second Intifada and 1929 Hebron massacre to Arab sensitivities regarding the disputed holy site.
Arab mobs slaughtered 133 Jews during that massacre, which took place prior to the establishment of the State of Israel.
There is a “need to respect the holy places of all faiths,” he says.
“There is no freedom of worship for Muslims. Not even for Christians. Contrary to the false claim in the world,” adds Hadash-Ta’al chairman Ahmad Tibi, calling Ben Gvir a “pyromaniac” being handed fuel by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“Muslims have free access to the Al-Aqsa Mosque, all year round and especially during the holy month of Ramadan. Any other decision is illegitimate by definition,” Tibi declares.
Their comments come only minutes after Ben Gvir, in his own faction meeting, doubled down on his belief that restrictions on access to the Temple Mount are necessary over Ramadan.
Speaking ahead of her Labor party’s faction meeting, chairwoman Merav Michaeli accuses Ben Gvir of looking to recreate the Arab-Jewish violence that accompanied 2021’s Operation Guardian of the Walls.
“Ben Gvir and Hamas have the same interest. Both want a religious war. Both want to create a conflagration, because each of them believes that that is the way to eliminate the other side,” she says.
