Two ultra-Orthodox newspapers condemn Ben-Gvir’s Temple Mount/Al-Aqsa compound policy

Itamar Ben-Gvir at the Western Wall, prior to visiting the Temple Mount-Al-Aqsa Compound, August 2024

Aaron Rabinowitz reports in Haaretz on 27 August 2024:

Two ultra-Orthodox newspapers condemned on Tuesday Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir’s new Temple Mount/Al-Aqsa compound policy, which does not limit Jewish prayer at the Al-Aqsa Mosque/Temple Mount compound.

Ultra-Orthodox newspaper Yated Ne’eman, affiliated with the Ashkenazi Haredi party Degel HaTorah, published a headline in Hebrew and Arabic on its front page criticizing the new policy.  “It is the opinion of all the Jewish Halachic rulers for generations, that it is prohibited for Jews to ascend to Temple Mount and this has not changed. The political pyromaniac is burning the area for the second time,” it said.

This is the second time that this newspaper is taking a critical stance against Ben-Gvir’s Temple Mount Policy. In January of last year, the paper called one of the minister’s visits to Temple Mount an “unnecessary and dangerous provocation.”

The second ultra-orthodox newspaper to condemn Ben-Gvir’s policiy was Haderech, affiliated with Haredi party Shas, with the headline: “Ben-Gvir continues to create provocations and desecrate the holiness of Temple Mount.”  In an interview with army radio on Monday, the far-right minister said “there won’t be a discriminatory policy at the Temple Mount, you’re allowed to pray.” He added, “if I was able to do anything I wanted to do at the Temple Mount, the flag of Israel would have been raised there long ago.”  Asked if he would establish a synagogue at the Temple Mount if he could, Ben-Gvir replied in the affirmative.

In response, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office clarified that “there is no change in the status quo.”

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