Israeli minister makes ‘provocative’ Al-Aqsa visit
Jerusalem – Ma’an – Israel’s Internal Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch visited the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem’s Old City under heavy guard on Tuesday morning in what Palestinian officials condemned as a provocation.
Aharonovitch, a member of the ultra-right-wing Israel Beitenu Party, toured the compound accompanied by Police Commissioner Dudi Cohen and Jerusalem District Police Chief Aharon Franco.
The Al-Aqsa Mosque is the third holiest site in Islam and also a major symbol of Palestinian nationalism. A visit by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in 2000 sparked the second Palestinian uprising, the Al-Aqsa Intifada.
Israeli officials entered the compound at 8:20am surrounded by security guards. They walked to the eastern wall of the mosque, and then stopped to listen to a report about the situation at the holy site.
Aharonovitch and his delegation then moved to the Dome of the Rock, where the Islamic Waqf is currently performing maintenance work. Recently some of the maintenance work was ordered to stop by the Israeli police.
The Al-Aqsa Foundation for Heritage said in a statement that the Israeli minister also barged into the Marwani mosque and into the Dome of the Rock, and circled the Al-Aqsa Mosque.
The organization said, “This visit shows that the Israeli institution are targeting Al-Aqsa,” and it asked, “is this incursion a provocation only or is there something else behind the visit?”
Shiekh Azzam Khatib, the director of Jerusalem Waqf (Endowment) said the visit was carried out without a coordination with the Waqf, which has jurisdiction over the compound. He said he did not know the reason for the visit.
Israeli minister’s visit to mosque sparks anger
Tue Jun 23, 2009
JERUSALEM, June 23 (Reuters) – An Israeli cabinet minister who made headlines last week for racist remarks about Arabs paid a rare visit to Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa mosque on Tuesday, prompting condemnation from Palestinian religious leaders.
Nine years ago, a similar visit sparked a bloody uprising.
Internal Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch, a member of Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman’s ultranationalist Yisrael Beitenu party, went to Islam’s third holiest site to review police deployments in the flashpoint area, his spokesman said.
He said the visit was coordinated with Muslim authorities, a remark contradicted by the city’s leading cleric.
During the 90-minute visit, Aharonovitch entered the mosque, which sits in a complex in the Old City known to Muslims as al-Haram al-Sharif (Noble Sanctuary) and to Jews as the Temple Mount. The area also houses the gilded Dome of the Rock shrine.
Israel captured the site in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed it with the rest of East Jerusalem, in a move not recognised internationally.
Visits to the compound by Israeli officials are rare and extremely sensitive. A Palestinian uprising, known as the Al-Aqsa Intifada, erupted in 2000 following a visit to the compound by right-wing politician Ariel Sharon. He later became Israel’s prime minister.
“The intention of the visit was to see how the police would deploy in case of an emergency,” Aharonovitch’s spokesman Tal Harel said. He said the visit was coordinated with Muslim custodians of the site, known as the Waqf, or endowment.
“We went everywhere. We were accompanied by the Waqf, who were fully aware of our presence, and this was planned in coordination with them well ahead of the visit,” Harel added.
The Palestinian-appointed Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Mohammed Hussein, said the visit was not coordinated in advance.
“He does not have the right to visit al-Aqsa because it is an Islamic site and not a Jewish site, and it could ignite violence because the visit provokes the feelings of Muslims… It is an assault on an Islamic place,” Hussein said.
It was Aharonovitch’s first visit as minister.
Last week, Arab opposition members of Israel’s parliament called for Aharonovitch to resign over comments he made during a meeting with police officers.
In television footage, the minister, responding to an undercover police agent who apologised for his dirty clothes, said with a laugh: “What do you mean dirty? You look like a real ‘Araboosh’”, a derogatory term for an Arab in Hebrew slang. Aharonovitch apologised for the remark.
(Reporting by Ori Lewis in Jerusalem and Mohammed Assadi in Ramallah; Editing by Dominic Evans).
