00:00Other news from the region, then. Israel's far-right national security minister,
00:03Itamar Ben-Gvir, visited the highly sensitive Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem Sunday
00:08and also claimed that he prayed there. Well, the foundation that administers the complex said that
00:14Ben-Gvir was actually among an additional 1,250 people who also visited the site there and prayed
00:20as well. Under a decades-old arrangement that was reached with Muslim authorities, Jews are permitted
00:26to visit the site but prohibited from praying there. The Jordanian foreign ministry swiftly
00:33described that visit then as a flagrant violation of international law. For more on this story,
00:38we're going to cross to our Israel correspondent Noga Tarnopolski. Hi, Noga. So this is a developing
00:44story, but I mean, what more do we know about this visit and in particular the praying part? Is this
00:50a first? Hi, Erin. This, taking Jews up to pray on the Temple Mount, as Jews call it, at the Al-Aqsa
01:01compound or the esplanade of the mosque, as Muslims call it, this is not a first. In fact, Israel's
01:07national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, who went up flagrantly this morning with cameras showing
01:14himself loudly, he has made it his policy as the minister in charge of police to ignore and even trample
01:24upon this status quo agreement between Israel and Jordan. Now, it's an international agreement and it's part
01:31of the armistice signed between Israel and Jordan at the end of the 1967 Six-Day War. So this is not an
01:40insignificant thing. And it even puts in question the status of the peace agreement between Israel
01:46and Jordan. The only authority over this Muslim holy place is the Waqf, a Jordanian controlled
01:55religious organization. And as you said, Jews have the right to go up to visit as other people do,
02:01but not to infringe upon the Muslim sanctity of the place. This is what this minister, Ben-Gvir,
02:09who I should add, has been a racist hooligan in Israel for more than 25 years, three times convicted
02:17of hate crimes and of terror. He's a well-known figure in this world. And it remains jarring that
02:24he is the minister in charge of the same police who were chasing him for so long. He has made it his
02:30business to say that the status quo, in other words, this agreement no longer exists, always forcing
02:36the Israeli prime minister to now to say, of course not, we respect the status quo. But he has never
02:41been reprimanded. His job has never been threatened. And he's continuing to try and poke an eye in the
02:46face of Muslims worldwide, but also of the Israeli prime minister is trying to keep his government
02:51together. So, Noga, I mean, what do you think his objective is there? Is it pure provocation? Or do you
02:58think there's a longer term or clear political objective here?
03:05Well, both. I think he, long term, he is trying to provoke. I think he's trying to cause a
03:10conflagration. I think he sees that as part of his more longer term plan to cause a religious war
03:17in this region that will eventually, in his view, allow Jews to take over the entire territory of this
03:24region, including Gaza and including the West Bank. I want to mention that while he was there,
03:29he filmed himself, not just praying, also making a statement. And he said that the videos that you
03:35mentioned, truly horrific videos showing two Israeli hostages clearly near death. He said that the
03:43response to those videos, he said this up on the Temple Mount, he said the response is to occupy Gaza,
03:48to destroy Hamas, and to encourage the emigration of Palestinians. That's the ethnic cleansing plan
03:55that he is advancing. Things are so fiery right now in Israel, that even a supporter of the prime
04:03minister, not just those protesters who you showed earlier, but a supporter of the prime minister,
04:08the mother of another hostage who actually was killed in Gaza in a mistake. Her name is Iris Chaim.
04:16She employs the same language used by the prime minister, that any agreement with Hamas to free
04:24the hostages would be a surrender, would be akin to a surrender. And she said today, having seen those
04:29videos, that it is preferable that Israel surrender, that surrender will be less painful than seeing
04:35more videos of these young hostages close to death. And that was her way of countering what this minister
04:44was saying. But this is already a fight within the extreme right wing of Israel, who is in power in
04:50this government.
04:51Noga Tarnopolski, our correspondent. Thank you so very much.
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