Ben Gvir visits Al-Aqsa mosque ahead of Jerusalem rally
JERUSALEM : Israeli far-right national security minister Itamar Ben Gvir visited the Al-Aqsa mosque compound on Monday, known to Jews as the Temple Mount, ahead of an annual rally marking Israel's capture of East Jerusalem in a 1967 war.
'Many Jews flooding the Temple Mount, what a joy to see it. Today, thank God, it is already possible to pray on the Temple Mount,' Ben Gvir said.
Ben Gvir has long pushed for Jewish prayer rights at the flashpoint site, which is sacred to both Muslims and Jews. Under a decades-old arrangement, the compound is administered by a Jordanian Islamic trust. Jews are allowed to visit but not pray there. The Al-Aqsa mosque is Islam's third holiest site.
Tens of thousands of Jewish Israelis were expected to participate in the Flag March, an annual rally through Jerusalem that attracts many Israeli ultranationalists.
The march frequently stokes tension as ultranationalists stream into Palestinian areas of Jerusalem's walled Old City en route to the Western Wall, one of Judaism's holiest sites.
Ahead of the rally, Palestinian shopkeepers shuttered their stores. Those who stayed past noon were harassed by marchers before having to close, a Reuters witness said, adding that in one case, Israeli police pushed marchers away from a storefront.
The marchers, mostly young Israelis who live in settlements in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, were also seen harassing and assaulting some Palestinians, journalists and left-wing Israeli activists, the Reuters witness said.
Israel captured East Jerusalem, including the Old City, from Jordan in the 1967 Middle East war. Palestinians seek East Jerusalem as the capital of a future state that would include the West Bank and Gaza.
Most countries consider East Jerusalem to be occupied territory and do not recognise Israeli sovereignty over it. Israel deems Jerusalem as its eternal, indivisible capital.
In 2017, US President Donald Trump recognised all of Jerusalem as Israel's capital and moved the US embassy there from Tel Aviv. On Sunday, US ambassador Mike Huckabee, an evangelical Christian, congratulated Israel on what he called the reunification of the city 58 years ago.
This year's rally again coincides with continued war in Gaza, now in its 20th month, and an escalating Israeli military campaign against Palestinian militants in the West Bank, where violent settler attacks targeting Palestinians are on the rise.
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