LONDON: Jordan condemned an Israeli far-right minister who stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque alongside Jewish extremists in the walled city of occupied East Jerusalem on Wednesday.
Jordan’s Ministry of Foreign and Expatriate Affairs warned that the action constitutes a blatant violation of the historical and legal status quo at the site, according to the Petra news agency.
Minister of the Negev, Galilee and National Resilience Yitzhak Wasserlauf toured the site ahead of Jerusalem Day, which commemorates Israel’s military control over the eastern part of the city, on Thursday evening and into Friday.
The Al-Aqsa compound, Islam’s third-holiest site, also known as Al-Haram Al-Sharif, has been the site of frequent conflicts, including raids by settlers and restrictions on Muslim worshippers, since East Jerusalem was occupied in June 1967.
The 144 dunum (14.4 hectares) area is administered by Jordan’s Ministry of Awqaf, which has the legal authority to manage the compound and control access.
The Foreign Ministry also warned against inflammatory calls by Wasserlauf for Jews to carry out incursions into Al-Aqsa, Petra added.
Wasserlauf said that Itamar Ben-Gvir, a prominent settler and Israel’s far-right national security minister, is leading a “revolution” at the site.
“Jews no longer walk around the mount like thieves and no longer need to hide. It is moving every single time to see many Jews praying and prostrating on the Temple Mount,” he said, using the biblical name for the site, according to the Times of Israel.
Ben Gvir and Wasserlauf belong to the far-right Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power) party.
Ben Gvir has repeatedly called for greater access to the Al-Aqsa compound for Jewish worshippers. Since taking office in 2023, he has stormed the place at least 15 times, sparking anger and condemnation.
Separately, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich led thousands of settlers in storming Joseph’s Tomb, east of Nablus, in the early hours of Wednesday.
Israeli forces were heavily deployed in the northern West Bank as more than 5,000 settlers entered the area, according to Wafa news agency.
Smotrich, the leader of the Religious Zionist party, is a close ally of Ben Gvir. Both were active settlers in the West Bank and shared the same ideology of Kahanism, which advocates for Jewish supremacy.
