{"id":942381,"date":"2023-01-02T21:21:38","date_gmt":"2023-01-02T21:21:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/news\/ben-gvir"},"modified":"2023-01-02T21:21:38","modified_gmt":"2023-01-02T21:21:38","slug":"israels-ben-gvir-postpones-visit-to-al-aqsa-amid-warnings-that-people-will-die","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2023\/01\/02\/israels-ben-gvir-postpones-visit-to-al-aqsa-amid-warnings-that-people-will-die\/","title":{"rendered":"Israel’s Ben-Gvir Postpones Visit to Al-Aqsa Amid Warnings That ‘People Will Die’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Israel's far-right national security minister on Monday postponed a planned visit Islam's third-holiest site amid warnings from the country's opposition leader and Palestinian officials that such a trip would have deadly consequences.<\/p>
The Times of Israel <\/a><\/em>reports<\/a> Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir temporarily put off a promised visit to the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem\u2014which sits on what Jews call the Temple Mount, Judaism's most sacred site since biblical times\u2014after speaking with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of the right-wing Likud party.<\/p> The previous day, Ben-Gvir vowed to visit the contested site\u2014which has been illegally occupied by Israel for over half a century\u2014sometime this week, possibly as soon as Tuesday or Wednesday.<\/p> Yair Lapid, who stepped down as Israel's prime minister last week and now leads the opposition, said<\/a> Monday that \"Itamar Ben-Gvir must not go up to Temple Mount. It is a deliberate provocation that will put lives in danger and cost lives.\"<\/p> Lapid, of the liberal Yesh Atid party, added that Netanyahu must tell Ben-Gvir: \"'You are not going to the Temple Mount. People will die.'\"<\/p>\n