Ultra-Orthodox accuse Ben Gvir of "endangering Jewish lives" with his visit to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem

The Yated Ne'eman newspaper, associated with the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism (JUT) party, criticized this Wednesday in an editorial the visit yesterday of the Minister of National Security, the extremist Itamar Ben Gvir, along with thousands of Hebrews, to Mount of the Temple in Jerusalem, which "endangers Jewish lives."

For this reason, JUT assures that it is rethinking its permanence in the government coalition of Benjamin Netanyahu, of which it is a fundamental partner, as is Ben Gvir's party, Jewish Power, representative of the religious Zionist extreme right, with conceptions that mix politics and religion, something that the haredis do not like.

“Jews going up to the Temple Mount is like throwing a match into an oil well,” reads the newspaper's editorial. "The Temple Mount can become a volcano that covers the entire Middle East with ash."

Taking advantage of the religious commemoration of Tisha B'av, among chants, hundreds of Jewish visitors - mostly young boys, but also adults and women - advanced yesterday through the area known as the Temple Mount since the First and Second Temples were built there. Temple. It is, by the way, the most sacred place for Judaism.

The leader of the opposition, the centrist Yair Lapid, called this visit "provocative" which, he warned, could lead to "a fire and cause the death of Israeli citizens."

It was the third time that Minister Gvir went to this place of worship on key dates in the last two months to demand the right of Jews to pray there, provoking the anger of the Palestinian population.

According to the 'status quo' in force since 1967 - when Israel liberated the eastern part of Jerusalem, where the Temple Mount is located - the site is reserved exclusively for the worship of Muslims, while Jews can only enter as visitors. In addition, certain Jewish laws prohibit their faithful from praying in the most sacred place for the Hebrew people, something only permitted to some rabbis.

Jewish prayer is practiced at the so-called “Wailing Wall” (or Western Wall) -located on one side of the Temple Mount-, and this is advised by the Chief Rabbinate of Israel, although in recent years, some rabbis Aligned with the religious Zionism movement, they have changed that recommendation and advocate praying where the First and Second Temples were built.

Agencies contributed to this Aurora article