Otzma Yehudit chairman MK Itamar Ben-Gvir arrived Thursday afternoon together with other members of his party for a meeting with President Isaac Herzog as part of the president's consultations with the Knesset parties following last week's election for the 25th Knesset.
The meeting was held a day after President Herzog was caught on a hot mic warning the representatives of the Shas party about partnering with Ben-Gvir.
"There is one issue that I did not mention - you will have a problem with the Temple Mount. It is a critical issue. I know, but you have a partner whom the whole world around us is anxious about. I also told him that [what is said] between us it is really not to be publicized. I do not want to cause trouble. It is really not to be publicized," Herzog said.
Today, Herzog told Ben-Gvir: "Because the things I said came out, it is important for me to say them because I also said them to you before and after the elections - you and your party have a certain image that allegedly, and I say this with the utmost sincerity, causes concern in many places. There are questions that I am asked about. Citizens and leaders around the world people write and ask me about very sensitive issues related to human rights."
Ben-Gvir responded: "This is not the first time I am here and it is not the first time we have talked. It seems to me that during our in-depth conversations I told you my thoughts and my worldview. I do not generalize all Arabs and look at them, G-d forbid, as a unit. I returned from Eilat and now I met students there from Nazareth, You should have seen, one by one they asked for a selfie. I think that when the world hears my positions, people understand that I want to do good for the people and the State of Israel."
"On the other hand, we came to implement a right-wing policy and we will not apologize for that," he added.
Herzog also said: "I remember that you were another fighter for prisoners' rights and now you want to take up the issue of governance - maybe you want to explain things."
Ben-Gvir answered: "I come from the world of law. The legal system is important, but it is more important that we all feel represented there. We will not bulldoze the system with a D9 machine, but we need to change, and we need more judges who have a national Zionist agenda."
The two also talked about the Temple Mount. Herzog said that "in the entire Muslim world, the issue of the Temple Mount raises questions, and since we want peace with our neighbors, this issue is sensitive."
Ben Gvir answered: "We do not come and say that the Temple Mount is not sacred to others, but the Temple Mount is our heart and central to the history of the Jewish people, and I ask the president to remember and mention this in his conversations with world officials. The mountain is also sacred to the people of Israel. You cannot tell a Jew not to go up to the Temple Mount just because he is Jewish, I am in favor of equal rights."