Yemen’s foreign ministry condemns Ben-Gvir’s entry into Al-Aqsa compound
Yemen Herald News 
ADEN, Yemen — Yemen’s foreign ministry condemned a visit by Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir to the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound on Monday, calling it a violation of international law.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates said Ben-Gvir entered the site with settler groups and under the protection of Israeli police.
It called the entry a flagrant violation of international law, an unacceptable provocation and a desecration of the site’s sanctity.
The visit breached the historical and legal status quo at the compound, the ministry said.
It urged the international community to assume its responsibilities and take firm measures to halt such violations.
Continued violations would affect regional security and stability, it said.
The ministry reaffirmed what it called Yemen’s rejection of attempts to alter the status quo.
The statement named no international body. It referred only to the international community.
Saba, the state news agency of the internationally recognised government, carried the statement from Aden. The account of the Yemeni statement rests on that single report, and Yemen Herald found no independent confirmation of its text.
The visit itself was reported by several international outlets.
Ben-Gvir entered under heavy police protection, those reports said. The Jerusalem Governorate said Knesset member Moshe Feiglin went with him.
Egypt’s foreign ministry said hundreds of settlers took part. No other account gave a number, and Saba referred only to settler groups.
Ben-Gvir said during the visit that Israelis were the sovereigns at Al-Aqsa that day.
He later posted a photograph of himself at the Western Wall. The caption asked for the victory of the right and the safety of the people of Israel.
The visit was not announced beforehand. Many of his earlier entries since he took office at the end of 2022 had been.
He has entered the compound at least 16 times since 2022, the broadcaster TRT World reported. He last did so on Sept. 28, during Sukkot, with Defence Minister Israel Katz.
Israeli general elections were scheduled for Tuesday, the day after the visit.
Palestinian movements said Ben-Gvir was using measures against Palestinians and their holy sites as electoral propaganda, and that the visit was meant to intimidate Palestinian voters in Israel.
Palestinian officials said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government had used Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa for electoral purposes, pointing to settlement expansion, home demolitions and tighter restrictions on residents.
The Jerusalem Affairs Department said his remarks reflected an effort to impose new facts on the ground.
The Palestinian foreign ministry condemned the repeated entries. It said they were meant to normalise settler incursions and to divide the mosque and its courtyards by time and space.
Jordan’s foreign ministry called the visit a desecration of the site’s sanctity, a condemnable escalation and an unacceptable provocation. It said the move violated the status quo at the Haram al-Sharif and sought to impose new realities.
Egypt’s foreign ministry condemned the entry the same day, saying it violated the sanctity of Islamic holy sites and the status quo in occupied East Jerusalem.
Egypt warned that continued violations could escalate tensions and threaten regional stability. It rejected any attempt to divide the site by time or area and called on the international community to respect relevant UN resolutions.
No clashes, injuries or detentions were reported.
The arrangement the three ministries invoked dates, in Israel’s reading, to 1967, when Israel occupied East Jerusalem and the defence minister of the day, Moshe Dayan, proposed terms modelled on Ottoman practice. Palestinians and the Waqf trace it to the Ottoman period itself.
Under that arrangement the Waqf, a body appointed by Jordan, runs the compound day to day. Israeli police control access and security.
Only Muslims may pray at the site under the 1967 terms. Non-Muslims were admitted as ticketed visitors until 2000, when the Waqf closed the compound after a visit by Ariel Sharon and the start of the second Intifada. It reopened to them in 2003, with police limiting visits to set hours and days.
In 2015 Israel, the Palestinians, Jordan and the United States reaffirmed the 1967 terms.
No Israeli law bans Jewish prayer at the compound, but the Supreme Court has upheld the restriction as justified to keep the peace. Jews have tacitly been permitted to pray there since 2017.
A sign at the entrance states that the Chief Rabbinate forbids Jews from entering the compound because of its holiness.
Shmuel Berkovits, an Israeli legal scholar, has written that Dayan set the arrangement up without government authority, and that no Israeli law protects it.
Khaled Zabarqa, a Palestinian legal expert, argues that Israel holds no sovereignty over East Jerusalem and so cannot impose any status quo there. International law does not recognise the annexation of occupied territory.
Egypt also described the entry as a flagrant violation of the sanctities.
A separate condemnation came from the foreign ministry of the Houthi authorities in Sanaa, which is not part of the internationally recognised government. The two statements were issued by rival administrations that each claim to speak for Yemen.
The Aden-based government operates under the Presidential Leadership Council, chaired by Rashad al-Alimi.
Yemen has no diplomatic relations with Israel.
The ministry issued its statement as the government in Aden was dealing with a Houthi military escalation that began in July.
About the Author
