Members of the UN Security Council expressed concern and stressed the need to maintain the status quo at the Al Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem, but did not commit to taking action days after the new Israeli far-right security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir made a controversial site visitwhat Palestinian leaders called an “unprecedented provocation”.
The decades-old status quo in Al Aqsa Mosque Complex only allows Muslim worship at the site, which is the third holiest site in Islam after Mecca and Medina.
But the site is also revered by Jews, who call it the Temple Mount. Israeli far-right groups have long tried to change the status quo and allow Jewish prayer at the site. The far right has also called for the construction of a Jewish temple in place of the Al-Aqsa Mosque.
Palestinian UN envoy Riyad Mansour on Thursday urged the Security Council to take action against Israel over Ben-Gvir’s provocative actions. Israel’s new security minister is well known for his racist incitement against Arabs, his opposition to a Palestinian state and for carrying out settler raids in the Al Aqsa Mosque compound and the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of Jerusalem -Is busy.
“What red line does Israel have to cross for the Security Council to finally say, enough is enough?” Mansour called on the 15-member council, accusing Israel of showing “utter contempt”.
Al Jazeera’s diplomatic editor James Bays, reporting from UN headquarters in New York, said members of the Security Council had expressed concern about the situation in the Al Aqsa compound and the dangers of escalation “but their words were measured and limited, with little direct criticism of Israel”. “.
The Palestinian ambassador, Bays said, expressed dismay that the council was not taking any action and warned the council that the situation could turn into an uprising.
“The 15 members of the Security Council reaffirmed, as they always do, their commitment to a two-state solution. However, in recent days, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has stated that his new government supports continued settlements in the Palestinian territory, further undermining the outcome desired by the international community,” Bays said.
A senior UN political affairs official, Khaled Khiari, told the council meeting that this was the first visit to the site by an Israeli minister since 2017.
“Although the visit was not accompanied or followed by violence, it is considered particularly inflammatory given Mr. Ben-Gvir’s past advocacy for changes to the status quo,” he said.
Ben-Gvir once called for an end to the ban on Jewish prayers at the site, but he has not made a commitment on the issue since aligning himself with Netanyahu. Other members of Ben-Gvir’s Jewish Power party still advocate such a move.
Israel’s UN ambassador called the Security Council meeting “pathetic” and “absurd”.
Before the session, the Israeli representative, Gilad Erdan. told reporters there was “absolutely no reason” for the meeting to take place.
“Holding a Security Council session on a non-event is truly absurd,” he said.
Erdan said Ben-Gvir’s visit was “in line with the situation quo and anyone claiming otherwise only escalates the situation”.
“To argue that this brief and entirely legitimate visit should lead to an emergency session of the Security Council is pathetic,” he said.
Egypt, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates, which have peace treaties with Israel, condemned what they called Ben-Gvir’s “storming” of Al-Aqsa.
Amman summoned the Israeli ambassador and said the visit violated international law and “the historical and legal status quo in Jerusalem”.
Saudi Arabia, with which Netanyahu wants to strike a peace deal, also criticized Ben-Gvir. Turkey, which recently ended a long-running diplomatic rift with Israel, also condemned the visit as “provocative”.
The United States, which is committed to a two-state solution to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, said it was “concerned about any unilateral act that heightens tensions or undermines the viability of a two-state solution”, said US Vice President at the UN. the ambassador, Robert Wood, told the council on Thursday.
We note that Prime Minister Netanyahu’s government platform calls for the preservation of the status quo with regard to holy sites. We expect the Israeli government to honor this commitment,” Wood said.
The UN Security Council has passed several resolutions on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict over the years and supports the two-state solution for peace in the Middle East.
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