Maariv spoke with Arieh Amit, a former senior police official, ahead of a sensitive government meeting on the issue of Ramadan and the Temple Mount issue, which will be attended by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.
Amit points out problematic conduct by Minister Ben-Gvir, and hopes the police will act sensitively.
What do you think Israel should do, and how is the minister in charge of the police conducting himself?
"The minister, as usual, is trying to ignite fires, and this time he is trying to spark a huge blaze. There is no influencing on his thuggish behavior which continues, and now, even more, endangers the situation. There is absolutely no reason to restrict, categorically by age, Arab citizens of Israel from going to the Temple Mount and praying... In my eyes, it's completely unnecessary."
Why?
"From my personal experience, there was one Ramadan, around the year 1996 give or take [when Amit was police commander of the Jerusalem District], when there were 200,000 worshippers on the Temple Mount, and there was no special safety issue with that. It must be said that if we even increase the number of visitors – what will happen is that the very crowded alleyways of the Old City, where there is a very high danger of overcrowding, will be filled with worshippers, by the way, angry that they are not allowed to ascend to the Mount, and this will be a much greater danger than if they allow everyone who wants to ascend and pray. This must be taken into account, I say from a professional standpoint. Many of those who talk about the subject really do not understand the matter."
Where else do you see potential difficulties?
"The restriction of Israeli Arabs, who are explicitly equal-rights citizens in the state of Israel, derives solely from Ben-Gvir's extremism in his hatred of Arabs, even though he has learned over the years to stop saying 'death to Arabs' and start saying 'death to terrorists.' He does that because it's as if it adds points to his [claims of] 'I have changed, see I am no longer what I was.'"
In the context of October 7, should this be noted more significantly in terms of police assessments?
"The Jerusalem Police, you know, is very well versed in all matters related to the Temple Mount in general and Ramadan in particular. What concerns me is that Ben-Gvir has taken an adversarial control over the police command in a very decisive manner and senior commanders have completely lost their professional integrity. They are acting according to his instructions without any authority, and here I am very worried that when he sits and he already said that he intends to be in the command center of the Jerusalem district, the danger is clearly that he will force the district commander to execute things that professionally should not be executed, and since I see how much the district commanders bow down to him – they truly give up their professional integrity out of fear of him, and personally I do not understand where this comes from – I am very concerned that police activity this Ramadan in Jerusalem will be as per his illogical orders. Herein lies a very great danger."