Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir declared Monday that Jewish prayer, including full prostration, was allowed at the Temple Mount during a Jerusalem Day visit, a move that would upend a delicate status quo at the contested holy site. In response, the Prime Minister’s Office announced there was no change to existing norms.
Flanked by Negev, Galilee, and National Resilience Minister Yitzhak Wasserlauf and MK Yitzhak Kroizer, both members of his ultra-nationalist Otzma Yehudit party, Ben Gvir said that “many Jews are flooding the Temple Mount.�
“Today, thank God, it is possible to pray on the Temple Mount, to bow down on the Temple Mount — we thank God for that,� the far-right minister declared, adding that he and his colleagues had come to “pray for the safety of the hostages� and “for victory in the war.�
The Temple Mount is the holiest place in Judaism, as the site of the two biblical Temples. Known to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary, it is home to the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the third-holiest site in Islam.
Photos from the scene showed Kroizer prostrated on the Mount alongside other Jews, as police looked on.
Meanwhile, MK Zvi Sukkot, of the far-right Religious Zionism party, was filmed walking across the holy site with an Israeli flag, repeatedly declaring, “The Temple Mount is in our hands.�
Ben Gvir says he also prayed for the success of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s contentious pick to head the Shin Bet security agency, Maj. Gen. David Zini, stating that “he will pursue our enemies” and “mow [them] down.”
Ben Gvir has long rebuffed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s repeated insistence that the decades-old status quo, which bans Jewish prayer on the site, remains in force — and has made a habit of publicizing his visits to the holy site since initially joining the government in 2022.
He has repeatedly stated that his policy is to allow Jewish prayer there, drawing rebukes from US and international officials, as well as warnings from the security establishment that renewed conflict over the site could pose a risk to national security.
Perceived changes to the status quo on the Temple Mount evoke strong emotions and are frequently cited as a Muslim motivation for religious violence. Hamas termed its invasion and massacre in southern Israel on October 7, 2023, “Operation Al-Aqsa Flood.�
While the PMO did not send out a statement repudiating Ben Gvir’s comments on Monday, it did tell The Times of Israel, when asked, that “Israel’s policy concerning the Temple Mount has not changed.”
The PMO’s response did not address the relaxation of restrictions on Jewish worship in recent years.
A vague, unwritten status quo in place for decades at the site prohibits Jews from worshiping on the Temple Mount, but the Israel Police, which comes under the purview of Ben Gvir’s ministry, has increasingly tolerated limited prayer there.
Ben Gvir last visited the Temple Mount in early April, eliciting criticism from the coalition’s ultra-Orthodox members, as Haredim believe it is forbidden to tread in the holy site due to its sanctity.
Ben Gvir’s ascent and statement on Monday drew harsh condemnations both abroad and domestically, including from Netanyahu’s own political allies.
“I strongly condemn and denounce the provocative ascent to the Temple Mount,” which is strictly prohibited by Jewish law and constitutes “a severe blow to the Jewish people and its holy places and causes irreparable damage,” said MK Moshe Gafni of the coalition’s United Torah Judaism party.
“The convicted criminal Ben Gvir continues to incite, set fire to, and desecrate the holy places,” Hadash-Ta’al chair Ayman Odeh told The Times of Israel in a statement.
“A person who hung the picture of terrorist Baruch Goldstein in his home cannot preach about prayer. His every performance is a provocation aimed at encouraging violence and eliminating any chance of peace between nations,” Odeh said — condemning attacks on Arabs in Jerusalem’s Old City by far-right activists during this morning’s Jerusalem Day march.
“Ben Gvir is not the Minister of National Security. He is the national security terrorist.”
Ben Gvir’s visit was also condemned by Jordan, whose foreign ministry stated that “East Jerusalem is an occupied city over which Israel has no sovereignty,” and the Palestinian Authority, which condemned what it described as “the extremist Ben Gvir’s storming of Al-Aqsa Mosque.”
Ben Gvir’s and Sukkot’s visit, as well as Monday’s flag march, are “part of the genocide, displacement, Judaization, and annexation to which the Palestinian people are subjected,” the Palestinian foreign ministry claimed, calling for “urgent international intervention to halt them immediately.”