Abu Dhabi, 4 January 2023 (GNP): The United Arab Emirates (UAE), along with China, called for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council after the visit of Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir to the Al-Aqsa Mosque that was categorically denounced by the Arab world and the international community at large.
The far-right Minister for National Security Ben-Gvir’s visit to the holy site is seen by the Palestinian leadership as an unprecedented provocation and an attempt to change the status quo of the holy site. The Hamas group governing the Gaza Strip called this crossing the red line. At the same time, Ben-Gvir said that Israel would not surrender to the threats and attacks of Hamas. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in his statement, said Israel would maintain the status quo of the holy site without incurring any changes to it.
While it is also reported by media that the scheduled visit of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the UAE next week has been postponed, the new projected date for this visit is now somewhere in February. However, Israeli media and sources denied that it has any link with Ben-Gvir’s recent visit to Al-Aqsa Mosque.
This visit of Ben-Gvir is even condemned within Israel, too. The former prime minister and opposition leader, Yair Lapid, said that this visit will provoke violence and confrontation on both sides and called it a deliberate provocation and putting lives in danger.
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The Department of States spokesman Ned Price said in his media briefing that the United States is deeply concerned over the new developments in the Palestinian and in the holy site. The US would not appreciate any move on behalf of the side that may lead to confrontations and hostilities in the inflammable Middle East.
The compound of Al-Aqsa Mosque is a revered place both for Muslims and Jews as well. The Jews called this compound the Temple Mount, believing so much in its sanctity that it should not be violated for anything.
Yitzhak Yosef, the chief rabbi of Sephardi Jews, deplored over Ben-Gvir moving into the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound.
The Jordanian-funded WAQF organization administers and looks after the compound that incorporates both the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of Rock in a walled plaza in East Jerusalem occupied by Israeli forces in the 1967 Arab-Israel war.