He caused a wave of indignation, and of concern, the visit of the Israeli Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir to the esplanade of the Moschee of Jerusalem. The ultra -nationalist hawk prayed in front of the Al Aqsa mosque and spread a video in which it seems to claim the sovereignty of what for the Jews is ‘the Mount of the Temple’, as well as calling the occupation of Gaza.
“I say it right from here, from the Mount of the Temple, where we have shown that sovereignty and government are possible, it is precisely from here that a message must be transmitted,” he said in the movie posted on his X account, in the aftermath of the terrible images of the two Israelis still hostage to Gaza in terrible physical conditions. “We must conquer all Gaza, declare sovereignty on the whole strip, eliminate every member of Hamas and encourage voluntary emigration,” he urged.
It is certainly not the first time that a exponent of high -ranking Israeli rises on the salary. The most famous is Ariel Sharon who in September 2000, then head of the opposition, with his sortie heated the fuses of the second nipshades. But it had never happened that a Jew – at least not a minister – would start to pray in front of the Al Aqsa mosque, in an open violation of the agreement between Israel and Jordan on the status of the Holy Places of Jerusalem.
It is no coincidence that the first very hard reaction to the violation of the third holy place of Islam after Mecca and Medina came from Amman. So far, beyond the continuous provocations, the agreement on the status quo had seemed to keep. But Ben Gvir may have also blown this precarious balance.
The spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom Hashemita, Sufian al qudah, defined the initiative of Ben Gvir a “flagping violation of international law, an unacceptable provocation and an escalation to be condemned”.
Israel, he remembered at Qudah, “has no sovereignty on the sacred mosque of Al Aqsa”.
Amman warned on the “consequences of violations” and invited “Israel, as a occupying power, to stop all the actions of the extremist minister Ben-Gvir”.
Saudi Arabia also lasts for which the visit “feeds the conflict in the region”.
The status quo ‘current has its roots in the Ottoman Empire when, in the mid -1700s, the coexistence between the three monotheistic religions in the Holy City was sanctioned. The principle was also protected during the British protectorate, the kingdom of Jordan and then by Israel after the six -day war of 1967.
The assignment of the custody of the holy places in Amman was formalized in the 1994 peace treaty between Jordan and Israel. Through the Waqf religious institution, Jordan has the control and management of religious activities and all the necessary conservation interventions of the esplanade, with its Al Aqsa mosque and the rock dome.