Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir visited the Har Habayis in Yerushalayim on Thursday for Tisha B’Av.
“This is the most important place for the people of Israel where we have to go back and show our rule,” the Otzma Yehudit Party leader said.
All major poskim have prohibited going on to the Har Habayis.
Ben-Gvir informed Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu in advance of his intention to go up to the Har Habayis, his third visit this year.
“On this day, in this place, it is always important to remember: We are all brothers. Right, left, religious, secular. We are all the same people,” Ben-Gvir said.
“And when a terrorist looks through the window, he does not differentiate between us and separate us. Unity is important, love of Israel is important,” he added, in an apparent reference to sharp divisions in Israeli society.
The American embassy in Yerushalayim criticized Ben-Gvir’s visit, saying that the United States “stands firmly for the preservation of the historic status quo with respect to the holy sites in Jerusalem. Any unilateral action or rhetoric that jeopardizes the status quo is unacceptable.”
Jordan’s Foreign Ministry also slammed the minister’s move, calling it a violation of the status quo that “threatens to escalate the situation into more rounds of violence.”
The Palestinian Authority’s Foreign Ministry claimed that the visit to the Har Habayis was “an official Israeli cover for the ongoing invasions and the plans to Judaize the Al-Aqsa mosque and to impose forced changes on the existing historical and legal reality, as an inseparable part of the Judaization of Jerusalem.”
Hamas issued a statement calling Ben-Gvir’s ascension a “dangerous escalation” and vowing to “defend the identity of the blessed Al-Aqsa mosque and protect its Islamic and Arab character at all costs.”
Minister of the Negev, Galilee and National Resilience Yitzchak Wasserlauf and Likud MK Amit Halevi also visited the Har Habayis along with more than a thousand other Jews on Thursday morning.
Police said that 16 visitors to the Har Habayis were arrested for violating regulations and not complying with police instructions. Additionally, two suspects who attempted to disrupt the visitations were arrested.
Non-Muslims are not allowed to pray on the Har Habayis, among other restrictions.
Despite the restrictions on Jewish worship, an increasing number of Jews are ascending the holy site. A report published in February revealed that some 20,329 Jews had visited the Har Habayis since the start of the Jewish year on Sept. 25, 2022, a 16% increase compared to the same time last year, with an average of 140 Jews ascending the holy site daily.
“We are at Tisha B’Av on the Temple Mount, the holiest place for the people of Israel. All Jews for two thousand years of exile prayed and begged to reach this place, to go up to the Temple Mount. With God’s help we will be blessed with the building of the Temple,” said Wasserlauf. JNS
And then we wonder why Mashiach is still not here.
Where does it say that ascending the Har Habyis impedes Moshiach? If anything, I would think that when Hashem sees the yearning of yidden for the BHM by ascending the HB, He would bring him soon,
IyH.
Nisht pashut.
A PR stint on Tisha bAv
Wonderful that’s so special
I bet growing up he was a handful in school
A “Yid” from “Queens” is an oxymoron.
“One who lives outside the Holyland is like an idol worshipper.”
Mr. Kareis: Your Jewish ignorance is only exceeded by your Jewish ignorance.
To any Jews on this site, I invite you to study the topic and come up in purity in the proper route to pray and assist in changing conditions to bring about the bais hamikdash!
You commenters are conveniently ignoring that thousands of Yidden of all types including Chassidim ascend to the Har Habayis.
Because many Gedolei Yisroel permit it.
who is this Charedi going with him???
A member of the Lev Tomei cult.
This guy is a charlatan.
Time to say hack toe.
When the Caliph Umar seized Ir Ha-Qodesh, he and his Jewish allies cleared 3 centuries of dump the Xians had piled in. And ordered the Aqsa built built at the southermost edge of Herod’s southern fill, which was never part of the Haram. A later caliph built the Dome over the Qodesh-Qdoshim site to honor and protect it. No prayers of any sort were to be conducted there. The Crusaders turned it and the Aqsa into churches. Saladin threw them out. I hope that Mr. Ben-Gvir can flaunt his grandstanding by honoring true history. Personally, I’d much prefer him to stomp around Ram*llah and Hebron. And seriously consider what this week’s sedra says about Gil’ad (Jordan).