Washington has joined the international chorus of criticism of Israeli far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir’s Tuesday storming of Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque.
The spokesperson of the U.S. embassy to ‘Israel’ said “Ambassador [Tom] Nides has been very clear in conversations with the Israeli government on the issue of preserving the status quo in Jerusalem’s holy sites. Actions that prevent that are unacceptable.”
US State Department spokesman Ned Price said in a briefing that Ben-Gvir’s storming “has the potential to exacerbate tensions and to provoke violence.”
He further stated that the U.S. “is deeply concerned by any unilateral actions that have the potential to exacerbate tensions precisely because we want to see the opposite happen. We want to see tensions reduced.”
Price added that “We know that the exceedingly rare instances of previous high-profile visits to the Temple Mount have only exacerbated tensions. This is not an academic question, we have seen what has transpired in the past, and we continue as I said before to strongly support the long-standing historic status quo at the site.”
Asked about the storming, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said “the United States stands firmly… for the preservation of the status quo with respect to holy sites in Jerusalem.”
“Any unilateral action that jeopardizes the status quo is unacceptable,” she added.
A senior official in US President Joe Biden’s administration told the Ynet news site that Ben-Gvir was “trying to cause chaos.” The White House was informed about the trip ahead of time, and told the trip would be short and not violate the status quo but Washington still protested it, according to the site.
“Why go up to the Temple Mount? Just to get more views on Tiktok?” the official charged.
Earlier on Tuesday, Ben-Gvir broke into the holy site amid tight security measures. The break-in lasted for 13 minutes, local sources reported.
He requested to break into the site on Monday claiming that the visit was intended to mark the fast of the Tenth of Tevet.
On Sunday, Ben-Gvir said he would visit the holy site in the near future. New Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly spoke with Ben-Gvir on Monday to discuss his intention to visit the site. The Likud confirmed that, following consultations with security establishment officials, Netanyahu did not object to Ben-Gvir’s break-in.
Ben-Gvir’s last storming of the holy site took place last March and lasted about fifteen minutes. In May last year, accompanied by his wife and son, Ben-Gvir posted a picture calling for the destruction of the site to “establish a synagogue on the mountain”.
Since 2014, stormings by Israeli occupation officials to the Al-Aqsa Mosque have been considered provocations and a threat to the status quo. Former Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon’s storming to the site in 2000 sparked the Second Palestinian Intifada, or uprising.
Ben-Gvir, who was sworn in last week as part of a new government led by Benjamin Netanyahu, is known for his extreme views.
In response to Ben-Gvir’s Sunday remarks, the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas warned that such a step will explode the situation.
“Any escalation in Al-Aqsa Mosque will explode the situation and the occupation government will be responsible for this,” Hamas spokesman Abdel-Latif al-Qanoua said in a statement published Monday.
He added that the planned visit was “another example of the arrogance of the settler government and their future plans to damage and divide Al-Aqsa mosque”.
“The Palestinian resistance will not allow the neo-fascist occupation government to cross the red lines and encroach on our people and our sanctities.”
According to a report by the Lebanese Al-Mayadeen news channel, Hamas “won’t sit idly by” if Ben-Gvir goes to the site, violating an agreement banning non-Muslims from entering the site without permission.
Israel’s opposition leader and former prime minister Yair Lapid had warned that such a visit by Ben-Gvir would spark violence.
A string of condemnations from several Arab countries, including the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Algeria, and Morocco, quickly followed Ben-Gvir’s storming of the holy site.
Hamas slammed the storming, saying the “crime of the fascist Zionist Ben-Gvir in breaking into Al-Aqsa Mosque is a continuation of the Zionist occupation’s aggression against our sanctity and our Arab identity.”
The Palestinian Foreign Ministry also said Tuesday it “strongly condemns the storming of Al-Aqsa mosque by the extremist minister Ben-Gvir and views it as unprecedented provocation and a dangerous escalation of the conflict.”
