Minister of National Resilience Yitzhak Wasserlauf spoke with Barak Sari and Yehuda Shlezinger on Radio 103FM on Wednesday and discussed his joint visit to the Temple Mount during Tisha B’Av on Tuesday, along with National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.
“I’ve been going up for 12 years,” said Wasserlauf. “You can ask me every year how it was. In my opinion, there is no better time than now to go up and pray for the people of Israel.”
He then added: “I am tired of us finding excuses for why the enemy wants to destroy us. Yesterday, in reality, it was Jews who were the first to condemn, who pronounced all the condemnations before the enemies or the surrounding countries even reacted. They are afraid of their own shadow.”
According to Wasserlauf, “I coordinated this with everyone with whom coordination was necessary. Two weeks ago, I contacted the prime minister, sent him a letter and asked if I could go up. By the way, I have been doing this since the day I joined the government. I go up on Jerusalem Day and on Tisha B’Av.”
When asked how he could explain his letter to the Prime Minister requesting permission to climb the Temple Mount, he replied: “We are not asking, we are informing. You received the letter, everything was fine and everything was coordinated with the security. I can send you the letter if you want.”
Netanyahu’s office denies prior approval
He also commented on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s reaction: “I don’t know, ask him. He probably won’t come for an interview, but I’ll tell you what I did. I don’t know how other offices work: I act in an orderly manner. I think I did something basic, which I do every year.”
On Tuesday, Maariv revealed that the mandate to set security policy is subject to the decisions of the Security Cabinet, which has already taken decisions that run counter to the position of the National Security Minister.
In addition, sources in the Prime Minister’s Office stress that they are not aware of any prior coordination or approval from the Prime Minister for Ben-Gvir’s ascent of the Temple Mount on Tisha B’Av.
The Office of the Minister of National Security stated: “The policy of the Minister of National Security is to grant freedom of worship to Jews everywhere, including on the Temple Mount, and Jews will continue to do so. The Temple Mount is a sovereign territory in the capital of the State of Israel. There is no law that allows discriminatory treatment of Jews on the Temple Mount or anywhere else in Israel.”
