Minister of National Security will continue to visit the Explanada das Mesquistas, despite the law that prevents Jews from praying there. Jordan asked Netanyahu to respect the local status quo.
Israel’s Minister of National Security guaranteed on Wednesday that he would continue to visit the Mosque Mount despite Jordan’s demands to maintain the status of the place known to Jews as the Temple Mount.
With all due respect to Jordan, Israel is an independent country,” ultranationalist Itamar Ben Gvir told Israeli broadcaster Kan.
“I visited the Temple Mount and I will continue to visit the Temple Mount,” said Ben Gvir, leader of the far-right Otzma Yehudit party.
The words come a day after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met King Abdullah II of Jordan in Amman.
At the meeting, the Jordanian monarch conveyed to Netanyahu the “need to respect the historical and legal status quo in the Esplanada das Mesquitas“, after the increase in tension in the region triggered already this month by the visit that Ben Gvir made to the place.
The statute of the Explanada das Mesquitas prohibits Jews from praying there, it only authorizes them to visit the place at predetermined times and to visit it on a fixed route, always accompanied by the police, who have the obligation to prevent the faithful from fulfilling their prayers. , carry Israeli flags or religious objects.
Israel took control of the Temple Mount and the rest of the Old City of Jerusalem during the Six Day War (1967).
However, it allowed Jordan to continue to retain religious authority there and, under the peace agreement, recognized Amman’s “special role” over “Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem.”
Source: Observadora
