A senior haredi lawmaker on Wednesday condemned the National Security Minister’s visit to the Temple Mount a day earlier, claiming the visit “caused only damage.”
MK Moshe Gafni, chief of the non-Hasidic Degel HaTorah faction within the United Torah Judaism party, claimed that under Jewish law, it is forbidden to visit any part of the Temple Mount.
“My position – and I said this to Minister Ben-Gvir this morning – is that it is forbidden under Jewish law to visit the Temple Mount,” Gafni tweeted Wednesday morning.
“For generations, the great rabbis from all the communities and movements prohibited this, saying it is worthy of karet,” or spiritual extirpation.
“I hope that Minister Ben-Gvir pays attention to this, because this caused only damage, with no benefit whatsoever.”
Earlier on Wednesday, the Yated Ne’eman newspaper, which is affiliated with Degel HaTorah, castigated Ben-Gvir over his Temple Mount visit, calling it an “unnecessary and dangerous provocation.”
“The Arab world and countries of the world are not, of course, protesting over the issues related to Jewish law when a yarmulke-wearing Jew goes into a place that the great rabbis of recent generations… have said is forbidden, under the greatest prohibition that exists in Jewish law.”
The article went on to accuse Ben-Gvir of “playing into the hands” of terrorist groups including Hamas and Islamic Jihad, who “use these pointless actions…to convince many Palestinians that ‘the Jew’ is going to remove Al Aqsa from its place.”
Ben-Gvir’s visit to the Mount Tuesday took place without incident, but drew condemnations from Arab countries, and criticism from the US State Department and the British consulate in Jerusalem.
On Sunday, the Hamas terrorist organization threatened Israel in response to Ben Gvir's planned visit.
"The extremist Ben Gvir is trying to convince his voters that he is implementing his promises by breaking into Al-Aqsa (Mosque)," said Harun Nasser El-Din, the Hamas official responsible for the issue of Jerusalem.