Is it Benjamin Netanyahu’s goal to drag the US into a war with Iran?

Ray Radio Show – Jeff Cohen 1_ Israel’s strategy to draw the US into a broader regional war
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Updated 02 November 2024
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Is it Benjamin Netanyahu’s goal to drag the US into a war with Iran?

Is it Benjamin Netanyahu’s goal to drag the US into a war with Iran?
  • Ithaca College Professor Jeff Cohen says Israeli PM is ‘close to succeeding’ in drawing the US into a full-scale conflict with Iran
  • ‘Intentional’ targeting of medical professionals will set healthcare in Gaza and Lebanon ‘way back,’ says Dr. Zaher Sahloul

CHICAGO: A prominent American academic with decades of expertise in Israeli politics believes the year of violence in Gaza and the expansion of the conflict into Lebanon are designed to pull the US into a direct war with Iran.

During a taping of “The Ray Hanania Radio Show” on Thursday, former Ithaca College Professor Jeff Cohen said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s intentions have been evident for some time, even suggesting that if Hamas had not attacked Israel on Oct. 7, Netanyahu would have found another pretext to blame Iran, in an effort to draw the US into a broader regional conflict with Israel’s longstanding adversary.

“It’s this one-sidedness that empowers the right wing in Israel. We (the US) are not arming Hamas, we are not arming Iran. We arm Israel. And no matter what they do with those weapons, in violation of US law, they just keep getting more weapons and more ammunition and more bombs to kill innocent civilians,” Cohen said.




In this file photo, an Israeli artillery crew prepares shells at a position near the border with the Gaza Strip in southern Israel amid the ongoing battles between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas in the Gaza Strip. (AFP)

The US has been Israel’s primary military backer in the ongoing conflict, with nearly $23 billion spent in support of its war on Gaza and operations against the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen, according to a report by Brown University’s Watson Institute. When adjusted for inflation, total economic and military aid to Israel since its founding in 1946 rises to $310 billion.

Cohen, who is Jewish, highlighted the deeply entrenched relationship between the US and Israel.

“We have to stop arming Israel. And there needs to be a solution from the Palestinian leadership and the Israeli leadership. There has to be equality on both sides,” Cohen said, adding that “what we’re moving toward” is the opposite of what should be pursued and would eventually lead to the US being dragged into a wider, regional conflict.




Israeli army soldiers sit by a deployed infantry-fighting vehicle (IFV) at a position along the border with Lebanon in northern Israel on October 1, 2024. (AFP)

On Oct. 7, people around the world held vigils and protests to mark first anniversary of a Hamas-led attack on Israel that triggered the war in Gaza. The Palestinian militant group and its allies killed some 1,200 people and took about 250 hostages to then Hamas-controlled Gaza, according to Israeli figures.

Nearly 42,000 Palestinians have been killed so far and most of the 2.3-million-strong population displaced by Israel’s retaliatory attacks, according to Gaza health authorities.

Cohen argued that Netanyahu, who has repeatedly claimed that Iran funded and coordinated the Hamas-led assault of Oct. 7 and Hezbollah’s rocket attacks, has long sought to push the US into a war with Iran.

“He’s very close to succeeding,” he said, noting that Iran is often portrayed as the root of all regional problems.

On Friday, the Biden administration announced fresh sanctions targeting Iran’s energy trade following an attack on Oct. 1 launched by the country against Israel, involving nearly 200 ballistic missiles. It was Iran’s second such attack on Israel this year, after it launched about 300 missiles and drones in April, both conducted in response to killings of high-level Iranian, Hamas and Hezbollah officials thought to have been carried out by Israel.

Cohen, the founding director of the Park Center for Independent Media at Ithaca College, argues that “bias” in the mainstream American media has heavily influenced coverage of the conflict, reinforcing US support for Israel regardless of its military actions, while marginalizing Palestinian voices.




Jeff Chen, retired associate professor of journalism at Ithaca College in New York. (Supplied)

“My main message as someone who worked in mainstream media and taught journalism at college is we have to, as journalists, understand that all lives matter. That Palestinian lives are as important as Israeli lives,” said Cohen, referencing the Israeli military’s actions in Gaza.

“You don’t get that from the US news media. You get it in a lot of other countries that all lives matter including Palestinians. In our country (the US), it’s just Israeli lives. Israeli suffering. Israeli deaths. Israeli hostages.

“There are far more Palestinian detainees who are in many ways ‘hostages.’ They aren’t charged. They’re tortured. They’re abused. There’s thousands and thousands of them, including children.”




The Israeli army has said it has deployed a third troop grouping at division strength to participate in ongoing operations in southern Lebanon. (AFP)

Cohen argued that while violence is often attributed solely to groups like Hamas and Hezbollah, with Israeli victims predominantly highlighted by mainstream media, the history of terrorism in the Middle East traces back to Zionist extremists operating before the founding of the State of Israel.

“We have to understand, and any historian of Israel knows, there were Israeli terrorists, before the State of Israel, trying to bring a state into existence. They bombed the King David hotel. They killed civilians. They killed British civilians,” said Cohen, citing Jewish extremist groups from the 1940s led by future Israeli Prime Ministers Menachem Begin and Yitzhak Shamir, who opposed Palestinian statehood.

“If you’re an oppressed group and you’re a stateless group, there will be people within your community turning to violence. The only way to prevent that is peace and justice for all sides,” he said.

Hezbollah, which began firing rockets into Israeli cities from Lebanon on Oct. 8 last year in solidarity with Palestinian militant groups, and Hamas, which Israel is still fighting in Gaza, are two members of an alliance of Iran-funded militias that also operate in Iraq, Syria and Yemen.

The Houthis have targeted more than 80 merchant vessels with missiles and drones since the war in Gaza erupted last October. They seized one vessel and sank two in the campaign that also killed four sailors. Similarly, Iraqi militias vowed since October 7 to support Hamas’s war effort and have launched hundreds of rocket and drone attacks at Israeli cities and US military bases in the region.

Indiscriminate violence against civilians, as well as targeted attacks on media workers and medical professionals, have become a central issue in protests and discussions surrounding the conflict. These groups, often viewed as “intentional targets,” are seen as part of a broader strategy to force civilian displacement in both Gaza and Lebanon.




Dr. Zaher Sahloul, founder of the non-profit MedGlobal. (AFP)

In a separate segment of the “The Ray Hanania Radio Show,” Dr. Zaher Sahloul, founder of the non-profit MedGlobal, which provides medical support to civilians caught up in conflicts in the Middle East, South America, and Ukraine, remarked that the number of medical professionals killed and hospitals destroyed by Israeli bombings has reached “unprecedented levels.”

“There are new norms, if we can call it that way, that are now being created, especially in Gaza and now in Lebanon,” said Sahloul. “And we’ve seen that in Syria and a little bit in Ukraine, where you have hospitals, doctors and ambulances targeted intentionally to cause displacement and deprive communities of healthcare.”

According to UN statistics, more than 600 medical professionals, including doctors, nurses, and first responders, have been killed in Gaza, while 39 hospitals have been bombed and 97 medics killed in Lebanon over the last two weeks.




A man pushes an injured boy in a wheelchair past the destroyed al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City on September 17, 2024. Once the crown jewel of Gaza's proud medical community, the Palestinian territory's main Al-Shifa hospital has become a stark symbol of the utter devastation wrought by the Israel-Hamas war. (AFP)

“You didn’t see these numbers in previous conflicts,” Sahloul said. If Israel is not held to account for violations of the Geneva Conventions and international humanitarian law, he said such war crimes would only persist.

“It looks like it’s becoming the norm. There is no accountability. When there is no accountability, murderers tend to repeat the crime,” he said. “These attacks on healthcare in Gaza and Lebanon are not just collateral damage. They are intentional. And they are causing more harm and, of course, displacement of the population.”

Both Article 9 of the Geneva Convention and the statutes of the International Committee of the Red Cross classify the killing of medical personnel as a war crime. Sahloul argued that Israel’s current operations in Gaza, and similar tactics being employed in Lebanon, exceed what is justified, designed to hasten the displacement of civilians.

Israel has denied deliberately targeting medical facilities, but has accused both Hamas and Hezbollah of commandeering civilian infrastructure such as hospitals, schools and residential buildings to coordinate attacks and store weapons, using their occupants as human shields.




A man looks at destroyed buildings hit by Israeli airstrikes in Dahiyeh, Beirut, Lebanon, on  Oct. 7, 2024. (AP)

The Israeli military has released photos and videos purporting to show these weapons depots as well as underground tunnels since it launched its military operations last year.

Sahloul, who has led numerous medical missions to conflict zones, pointed out the devastating long-term impact of losing key medical professionals.

“It is not normal. And imagine how long it will take to get a doctor, to become a physician. You know, it takes 30 years of education and then specialization. If you remove a surgeon or a head of department in Gaza or in Lebanon, it’s very difficult to replace them. It takes years and generations to replace these doctors.

“And if you bomb their hospitals and universities, that means this will set healthcare in Gaza and other places way, way back.”




A man standing atop a heavily damaged building views other destroyed buildings in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on October 7, 2024 on the first anniversary of the ongoing war in the Palestinian territory between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)

He also criticized the mainstream media for its lack of coverage on this aspect of the conflict.

“The media, of course, is not giving justice to this,” he said. “There were bits and pieces, especially at the beginning of the war in Gaza. But after that the media, for some reason, turned away from what’s going on in Gaza. It is inhumane. It is immoral. It’s unethical to ignore this, but for some reason, the media is not paying attention.”

“The Ray Hanania Radio Show” is broadcast every Thursday on the US Arab Radio Network on WNZK AM 690 Radio in Michigan Thursday at 5 PM EST, and again the following Monday at 5 PM. The show is sponsored by Arab News and is available by podcast at ArabNews.com.rayradioshow or at Facebook.com/ArabNews.
 

 


Berlin says evacuated 19 Germans plus relatives from Gaza

Updated 10 sec ago
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Berlin says evacuated 19 Germans plus relatives from Gaza

Berlin says evacuated 19 Germans plus relatives from Gaza
Foreign ministry spokeswoman Kathrin Deschauer said the evacuation on Tuesday “took considerable time” but Berlin was “very relieved
She welcomed reports of talks, facilitated by regional actors, toward a new Gaza truce

BERLIN: Germany said Wednesday that 19 of its citizens and 14 of their relatives had been evacuated from Gaza as Israel presses its offensive against Hamas in the war-ravaged Palestinian territory.
Foreign ministry spokeswoman Kathrin Deschauer said the evacuation on Tuesday “took considerable time” but Berlin was “very relieved that this succeeded through close cooperation” with Israeli officials.
Deschauer added that she welcomed reports of talks, facilitated by regional actors, toward a new Gaza truce.
“That’s important, good and somewhat encouraging, but the current situation is dramatic, and it’s important that all parties return to the negotiating table to achieve a ceasefire,” she said at a regular news briefing.
The war was sparked by Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.
Israel resumed major air strikes on Gaza on March 18 after talks on next steps in a six-week truce broke down.
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said Tuesday that the overall toll since the war began had reached at least 50,399 people, most of them civilians.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz announced Wednesday a major expansion of military operations in Gaza to “destroy and clear the area of terrorists.”
Jordan’s King Abdullah II, speaking during a Berlin visit, deplored the dire humanitarian situation and the war’s impact on children.
“Today, Gaza has the highest number of child amputees per capita in the world, along with massive numbers of injured adults,” he told the Global Disability Summit.
He said a Jordanian aid project with mobile clinics had helped more than 400 amputees in Gaza, including children.

Jordan welcomes EU’s approved €500m financial aid package

Jordan welcomes EU’s approved €500m financial aid package
Updated 35 min 15 sec ago
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Jordan welcomes EU’s approved €500m financial aid package

Jordan welcomes EU’s approved €500m financial aid package
  • European Parliament approved the aid package with 571 votes during a plenary session in Strasbourg
  • Ministry of Foreign Affairs thanked the EU for its support, which enhances cooperation between Amman and Brussels

LONDON: Jordan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs welcomed the EU’s decision to allocate a €500 million ($541 million) financial aid package to the Hashemite Kingdom on Wednesday.

During a plenary session in Strasbourg, the European Parliament approved an aid package for Jordan with 571 votes as part of a macro-financial assistance initiative.

Sufian Qudah, the ministry’s spokesperson, announced that the European Commission plans to propose an extra €500 million for Jordan, increasing the total funding under the MFA initiative to €1 billion for 2025–2027.

Qudah thanked the EU for its support, which enhances cooperation between Amman and Brussels and acknowledges Jordan’s role in regional peace and stability, the Petra news agency reported.

In January, King Abdullah II of Jordan and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen signed the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership Agreement in Brussels.

The agreement includes a €1 billion financial aid package and a €3 billion aid package for Jordan for 2025–2027, which comprises €1.4 billion for investment support and €640 million in grants, Petra added.


Suspected US airstrikes in Yemen kill at least 4 people near Hodeida, Houthi militants say

Suspected US airstrikes in Yemen kill at least 4 people near Hodeida, Houthi militants say
Updated 02 April 2025
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Suspected US airstrikes in Yemen kill at least 4 people near Hodeida, Houthi militants say

Suspected US airstrikes in Yemen kill at least 4 people near Hodeida, Houthi militants say
  • The intense campaign of airstrikes in Yemen under US President Donald Trump has killed at least 65 people, according to casualty figures released by the Houthis
  • “Iran is incredibly weakened as a result of these attacks, and we have seen they have taken out Houthi leaders,” Leavitt said

DUBAI: Suspected US airstrikes battered militant-controlled areas of Yemen into Wednesday, with the Houthis saying that one strike killed at least four people near the Red Sea port city of Hodeida.
Meanwhile, satellite images taken Wednesday and analyzed by The Associated Press show at least six stealth B-2 Spirit bombers now stationed at Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean — a highly unusual deployment amid the Yemen campaign and tensions with Iran.
The intense campaign of airstrikes in Yemen under US President Donald Trump, targeting the militants over their attacks on shipping in Mideast waters stemming from the Israel-Hamas war, has killed at least 65 people, according to casualty figures released by the Houthis.
The campaign appears to show no signs of stopping as the Trump administration again linked their airstrikes on the Iranian-backed Houthis to an effort to pressure Iran over its rapidly advancing nuclear program. While so far giving no specifics about the campaign and its targets, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt put the overall number of strikes on Tuesday at more than 200.
“Iran is incredibly weakened as a result of these attacks, and we have seen they have taken out Houthi leaders,” Leavitt said. “They’ve taken out critical members who were launching strikes on naval ships and on commercial vessels and this operation will not stop until the freedom of navigation in this region is restored.”
The Houthis haven’t acknowledged the loss of any of its leadership so far — and the US hasn’t identified any official by name. However, messages released by the leak of a Signal conversation between Trump administration officials and their public comments suggest a leader in the militants’ missile forces had been targeted.
Fatal strike reportedly targets Hodeida
Overnight, a likely US airstrike targeted what the Houthis described as a “water project” in Hodeida governorate’s Mansuriyah District, killing four people and wounding others. Other strikes into Wednesday targeted Hajjah, Saada and Sanaa governorates, the militants said.
The militants say they’ve continued to launch attacks against US warships in the Red Sea, namely the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman, which is carrying out the majority of the strikes on the Houthis. No warship has been struck yet, but the US Navy has described the Houthi fire as the most intense combat its sailors have faced since World War II.
The aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson, now in Asia, is on its way to the Middle East to back up the Truman. Early Wednesday, Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said that “additional squadrons and other air assets” would be deployed to the region, without elaborating.
More B-2s seen at Diego Garcia
That likely includes the deployment of nuclear-capable B-2 bombers to Camp Thunder Bay on Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean. Satellite photos taken Wednesday by Planet Labs PBC analyzed by the AP showed at least six B-2s at the base.
The deployment represents nearly a third of all the B-2 bombers in Washington’s arsenal. It’s also highly unusual to see that many at one base abroad. Typically, so-called show of force missions involving the B-2 have seen two or three of the aircraft conduct operations in foreign territory.
The nuclear-capable B-2, which first saw action in 1999 in the Kosovo War, is rarely used by the US military in combat, because each aircraft is worth around $1 billion. It has dropped bombs in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya as well. The bombers are based at Whiteman Air Base in Missouri and typically conduct long-range strikes from there.
The US has used the B-2 in Yemen last year to attack underground Houthi bases. The B-2 likely would need to be used if Washington ever tried to target Iran’s underground nuclear sites as well.
The Houthis on Tuesday said that they shot down another American MQ-9 drone over the country.
Intense US bombings began on March 15
An AP review has found the new American operation against the Houthis under Trump appears more extensive than those under former US President Joe Biden, as Washington moves from solely targeting launch sites to firing at ranking personnel and dropping bombs on cities.
The new campaign of airstrikes started after the militants threatened to begin targeting “Israeli” ships again over Israel blocking aid entering the Gaza Strip. The militants have loosely defined what constitutes an Israeli ship, meaning many vessels could be targeted.
The Houthis targeted more than 100 merchant vessels with missiles and drones, sinking two of them and killing four sailors from November 2023 until January of this year. They also launched attacks targeting American warships without success.
The attacks greatly raised the Houthis’ profile as they faced economic problems and launched a crackdown targeting dissent and aid workers at home amid Yemen’s decadelong stalemated war, which has torn apart the Arab world’s poorest nation.


Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu will visit Orban in Hungary, defying international arrest warrant

Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu will visit Orban in Hungary, defying international arrest warrant
Updated 02 April 2025
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Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu will visit Orban in Hungary, defying international arrest warrant

Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu will visit Orban in Hungary, defying international arrest warrant
  • The ICC, the world’s only permanent global tribunal for war crimes and genocide, issued the arrest warrant in November for Netanyahu
  • The ICC has criticized Hungary’s decision to defy its warrant for Netanyahu

BUDAPEST: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to arrive in Hungary’s capital on Wednesday to meet with the country’s nationalist prime minister despite an international arrest warrant for the Israeli leader over the war in the Gaza Strip.
Netanyahu’s four-day visit to Budapest is a sign of both his close relationship with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and the latter’s growing hostility toward international institutions, like the International Criminal Court, of which his country is a member.
Orbán, a conservative populist and close Netanyahu ally, has vowed to disregard the ICC warrant against the Israeli leader, accusing the world’s top war crimes court based in The Hague, Netherlands, of “interfering in an ongoing conflict for political purposes.”
Members of Orbán’s government have suggested that Hungary, which became a signatory to the court in 2001, could withdraw. Currently, all countries in the 27-member European Union, including Hungary, are signatories, and all members of the court are required to detain suspects facing a warrant if they set foot on their soil.
The ICC, the world’s only permanent global tribunal for war crimes and genocide, issued the arrest warrant in November for Netanyahu as well as for his former defense minister and Hamas’ military chief, accusing them of crimes against humanity in connection with the war in Gaza after the Hamas attack against Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
Tens of thousands of Palestinians, including children, have been killed during the Israeli military’s response.
The warrants said there was reason to believe Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant used “starvation as a method of warfare” by restricting humanitarian aid, and intentionally targeted civilians in Israel’s campaign against Hamas in Gaza — charges that Israeli officials deny.
The ICC has criticized Hungary’s decision to defy its warrant for Netanyahu. The court’s spokesperson, Fadi El Abdallah, said that it’s not for parties to the ICC “to unilaterally determine the soundness of the Court’s legal decisions.”
Participating states have an obligation to enforce the court’s decisions, El Ebdallah told The Associated Press in an email, and may consult with the court if they disagree with its rulings.
“Any dispute concerning the judicial functions of the Court shall be settled by the decision of the Court,” El Abdallah said.
Orbán, who has been the EU’s most intransigent spoiler in the bloc’s decision-making, is seen as a pioneer of some of the same tactics that Netanyahu has been accused of employing in Israel: subjugation of the judiciary, antagonism toward the European Union and cracking down on civil society and human rights groups.
Longtime allies and fellow practitioners of “illiberal” governance — a term adopted by Orbán that denotes a rejection of the tenets of liberal democracy — the two leaders are also allied with US President Donald Trump, who signed an executive order in February imposing sanctions on the ICC over its investigations of Israel.
Orbán’s government has said that Trump’s return to the White House has enabled it to take measures it was unable to during the administration of former US President Joe Biden — such as passing legislation to ban LGBTQ+ Pride events in Hungary.
Erika Guevara-Rosas, the head of Global Research, Advocacy and Policy of human rights group Amnesty International, said in a statement that Hungary “must arrest (Netanyahu) if he travels to the country and hand him over to the Court.”
“Hungary’s invitation shows contempt for international law and confirms that alleged war criminals wanted by the ICC are welcome on the streets of a European Union member state,” Guevara-Rosas said.
Liz Evenson, international justice director at rights group Human Rights Watch, said that Hungary allowing Netanyahu’s visit was a breach of Hungary’s ICC obligations, and “would be Orban’s latest assault on the rule of law, adding to the country’s dismal record on rights.”
“All ICC member countries need to make clear they expect Hungary to abide by its obligations to the court, and that they will do the same,” Evenson said.
In March 2023, the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin for war crimes, accusing him of personal responsibility for the abductions of children from Ukraine. Putin visited Mongolia, which is also a member of the ICC, in September last year, but he wasn’t arrested. Last year, judges found that the country failed to uphold its legal obligations and referred the matter to the court’s oversight body.


Far-right Israeli minister visits Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque compound: spokesperson

Far-right Israeli minister visits Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque compound: spokesperson
Updated 02 April 2025
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Far-right Israeli minister visits Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque compound: spokesperson

Far-right Israeli minister visits Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque compound: spokesperson
  • The Saudi Foreign Ministry strongly condemned Gvir's visit
  • The Jordanian Foreign Ministry condemned Wednesday’s visit as a “storming” and “an unacceptable provocation“
  • Hamas called it a “provocative and dangerous escalation,” saying the visit was “part of the ongoing genocide against our Palestinian people“

JERUSALEM: Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir visited the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem’s Old City on Wednesday, his spokesperson said, prompting strong condemnation from  Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Palestinian militants Hamas.
The firebrand politician was visiting the site, which is sacred to Jews and Muslims, in occupied east Jerusalem after returning to the Israeli government last month following the resumption of the war against Hamas in Gaza.
Ben Gvir had quit the cabinet in January in protest at the ceasefire agreement in the Palestinian territory.
Since the formation of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government at the end of 2022, Ben Gvir has made several trips to the Al-Aqsa compound, each time triggering international outcry.

In a statement, the Saudi Foreign Ministry strongly condemned Gvir's visit of the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound.
The Jordanian Foreign Ministry also condemned Wednesday’s visit as a “storming” and “an unacceptable provocation.”
Hamas called it a “provocative and dangerous escalation,” saying the visit was “part of the ongoing genocide against our Palestinian people.”
“We call on our Palestinian people and our youth in the West Bank to escalate their confrontation... in defense of our land and our sanctities, foremost among them the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque,” it said in a statement.
The site is Islam’s third-holiest and a symbol of Palestinian national identity.
Known to Jews as the Temple Mount, it is also Judaism’s holiest place, revered as the site of the second temple destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD.
Under the status quo maintained by Israel, which has occupied east Jerusalem and its Old City since 1967, Jews and other non-Muslims are allowed to visit the compound during specified hours, but they are not permitted to pray there or display religious symbols.
Ben Gvir’s spokesperson told AFP the minister “went there because the site was opened (for non-Muslims) after 13 days,” during which access was reserved for Muslims for the festival of Eid Al-Fitr and the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
In recent years, growing numbers of Jewish ultranationalists have defied the rules, including Ben Gvir, who publicly prayed there in 2023 and 2024.
The Israeli government has said repeatedly that it intends to uphold the status quo at the compound but Palestinian fears about its future have made it a flashpoint for violence.