Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has instructed Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely to call off a planned briefing for the foreign press corps in Israel, following her statement Monday on the Knesset Channel that she would like to see the Israel flag fluttering on the Temple Mount.
According to daily newspaper Israel Hayom, Netanyahu told Hotovely that she must not speak about the Temple Mount any more, and then published a statement that stressed, without mentioning Hotovely specifically, that "the Israeli government's policy about the Temple Mount was expressed by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in his statement Saturday night, and it remains unchanged. Prime Minister Netanyahu clarified that he expects that all members of the government to act in accordance with it."
Hotovely herself also published a clarification and said: "My privately held views are not the government's policy, and I am most certainly committed to its policy, as expressed by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu Saturday night, when he declared that there will be no change in the status quo on the Temple Mount."
Netanyahu was reportedly especially irked by the timing of Hotovely's statement, which followed the announcement of understandings brokered by US Secretary of State John Kerry, between Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority (PA).
Hotovely was to speak with the foreign press corps at the Journalists' Club at Mishkenot Sha'ananim in Jerusalem. The deputy foreign minister's bureau said that the decision to call off the briefing was reached after her conversation with the prime minister.