{"id":555849,"date":"2026-07-23T14:52:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T14:52:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/555849\/"},"modified":"2026-07-23T14:52:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T14:52:11","slug":"ultranationalist-israeli-minister-itamar-ben-gvir-visits-flashpoint-al-aqsa-mosque-compound","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/555849\/","title":{"rendered":"Ultranationalist Israeli minister Itamar Ben-Gvir visits flashpoint Al-Aqsa Mosque compound"},"content":{"rendered":"

Israeli far-right police minister Itamar Ben-Gvir<\/a> visited \u200bthe flashpoint Al-Aqsa Mosque compound<\/a> in Jerusalem on Thursday, praising Jewish visitors he said had prayed at the site in breach of arrangements that allow only Muslim prayer \u2060there.<\/p>\n

\"NBC<\/p>\n

Subscribe to read this story ad-free<\/p>\n

Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.<\/p>\n

\"arrow\"<\/p>\n

His visit drew condemnation from Jordan and Palestinian officials.<\/p>\n

The compound in Jerusalem\u2019s walled Old City <\/a>is one of the most sensitive sites in the Middle East. Known to Jews as Temple Mount, it \u2060is the most sacred site \u200bin \u2060Judaism and is Islam\u2019s third-holiest site.<\/p>\n

Under a delicate, decades-old arrangement with Muslim authorities, it is administered by a \u2060Jordanian religious foundation and Jews can visit but may not pray \u200bthere.<\/p>\n

Suggestions \u2060that Israel would alter \u200cthe rules have sparked outrage among Muslims and ignited violence in the past.<\/p>\n

There was no immediate sign of unrest \u200con Thursday after Ben-Gvir\u2019s visit on Tisha \u200cB\u2019Av, a day of fasting and lament in Judaism mourning the destruction of the ancient Jewish temples.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn Tisha B\u2019Av we mark the destruction. But \u2060we also see huge progress on the Temple Mount. Look at what\u2019s happening here \u2013 Jews praying, feeling like they\u2019re the owners of the place. This has never happened before,\u201d Ben-Gvir said in a video, which appeared to show one Jewish visitor bowing in prayer.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/p>\n

Jordan\u2019s foreign ministry and the Palestinian religious affairs \u200cministry both condemned Ben-Gvir\u2019s visit, which they said violated \u200bthe status-quo agreements.<\/p>\n

Jordan said Ben-Gvir\u2019s visit was \u201ca desecration \u200cof the sanctity of the \u2060mosque, an escalation, a barbaric act, and unacceptable provocation.\u201d<\/p>\n

There was \u2060no immediate comment from Netanyahu\u2019s office. Previous such visits and statements by \u200cBen-Gvir have prompted announcements \u200bfrom Netanyahu saying that there \u200cis no change in Israel\u2019s policy \u200bof keeping the status quo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Israeli far-right police minister Itamar Ben-Gvir visited \u200bthe flashpoint Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem on Thursday, praising Jewish…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":555850,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[85,46,43],"class_list":["post-555849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=555849"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555849\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/555850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=555849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=555849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=555849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}