-Analysis-
PARIS — It’s one of those subjects that has the power to set fire to much of the world. Literally. Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, in the Old City where the holy sites of the three monotheistic religions coexist, is at the center of quite a battle, a war within a war.
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The battle is not being fought with missiles but with symbols and taboos. The man who launched the offensive was Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel’s National Security minister and leader of one of the far-right parties in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition.
Ben-Gvir simply wants to challenge the religious status quo. What’s at stake? The compound, home to the Dome of the Rock, Islam’s third holiest site after Mecca and Medina, and the Al-Aqsa Mosque. Non-Muslims are not allowed to pray there, but Ben-Gvir has not shied away from doing so; this week, he even suggested building a synagogue on the esplanade – a statement that did not go over very well.
A third temple
To understand his approach, we need to take a wider focus. The mosque compound, known to Jews as the Temple Mount, was built on the site of the Temple of Solomon, destroyed in 586 BC, and the Second Temple of the Hebrews, destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD.
All that remains of this last temple is the Western Wall, the famous “Wailing Wall”, which after the 1967 war became the main place of prayer for Orthodox Jews. The result is uncomfortable: the Jews are at the bottom, facing the wall, and they have the Muslim mosques above their heads.
In Israel, a Jewish messianic movement dreams of rebuilding the “third temple” in place of the mosques: the plans already exist, and all that’s missing is the arrival of the Messiah. Yet Ben-Gvir has a more political aim: He wants to expel the Palestinians from the biblical lands, and, to do so, seeks to trigger the apocalypse that could make this possible.
Netanyahu’s silence
This stance has caused quite a stir. Surprisingly, in Israel, two ultra-Orthodox newspapers condemned it, pointing out that Jewish religious authorities are opposed to prayers on the esplanade. It is significant that the guarantors of Orthodoxy refuse the violent adventure proposed by Ben-Gvir.
But there are also reactions in the Muslim world, and in particular in Saudi Arabia, guardian of Islam’s holy sites. The Foreign Ministry condemned the “extremist and inflammatory” statements, and called for respect for the status quo. Saudi Arabia is ready to establish relations with Israel provided that a prospect of peace with the Palestinians emerges; changing the status quo in Jerusalem would make this impossible.
But Netanyahu’s silence is heavy when the stakes are explosive.
Netanyahu is silent, because he needs Ben-Gvir to maintain a majority in the Knesset. But this silence is heavy when the stakes are explosive: We need only recall that the second intifada, in 2000, was triggered by then opposition leader Ariel Sharon’s visit to the compound, resulting in thousands of deaths.
In this context, the most apt word to describe Ben-Gvir was used by an ultra-Orthodox Jerusalem newspaper: “pyromaniac”!
