Israel National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said on Wednesday that he has prayed atop Jerusalem’s Temple Mount and intends to allow all Jews to openly pray at Judaism’s holiest site, changing the status quo that has existed there since 1967.
“I was at the Temple Mount last week. I prayed on the Temple Mount, and we pray on the Temple Mount,” Ben-Gvir declared during a summit on the issue hosted at the Knesset, adding, “I am the political echelon, and the political echelon permits prayer on the Temple Mount.
In response to Ben-Gvir’s statement, the Israel Police declared that Jewish prayer remains prohibited on the Temple Mount.
“We do not allow [Jewish] prayer at the Temple Mount,” said Ch. Supt. Eyal Avraham, the commander of the police’s Holy Sites Unit.
The Prime Minister’s Office also disavowed Ben-Gvir’s words, issuing a statement saying that “Israel’s policy of maintaining the status quo on the Temple Mount has not changed and will not change.”
Ben-Gvir said: “There is still progress to be made, but I remember that there were days when they shouted ‘Allahu Akhbar’ and I yelled back ‘Shema Yisrael’ and was arrested. Today, it is different: Many people enter the site, proudly walk around and pray. This is how it should be.”
Thanking the police, he reiterated that “there will be no discrimination against Jews on the Temple Mount; that’s what I am striving for.”
Wednesday’s conference, titled “Israel’s Return to the Temple Mount,” was also attended by Israeli Energy Minister Eli Cohen (Likud) and Knesset members Ariel Kellner (Likud), Keti Shitrit (Likud), Nissim Vaturi (Likud), Yitzhak Kroizer (Otzma Yehudit), Limor Son Har-Melech (Otzma Yehudit) and Zvi Sukkot (Religious Zionism).
Under a status quo arrangement reached with Jordan in the wake of the 1967 Six-Day War, Jews may visit the Temple Mount but not pray there.
However, Israel’s haredi-dominated Chief Rabbinate opposes visits to the Mount by Jews due to the concern that they may inadvertently set foot in an area that, according to Jewish law, is forbidden to enter unless one is ritually pure.
On the other hand, prominent Religious Zionist rabbis have permitted—and even encouraged—Jews to visit the holy site. They argue that measurements taken after 1967 have determined the boundaries of the area Jews may enter following immersion in a ritual bath.
According to a 2022 survey, most ultra-Orthodox Jews living in Israel, nearly 87%, oppose Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount.
Conversely, more than half of Jews who identify as either National Religious or traditional religious support prayer on the Mount, as do nearly half of all “traditional non-religious,” who say Jewish prayer bolsters Israel’s sovereignty at the contested site.
During his visit to the Mount last week, Ben-Gvir prayed for the return of the remaining 120 hostages held by the Hamas terrorist group in Gaza.
“I went up to the Temple Mount this morning to pray for the return home of the captives—without a reckless deal, but through increasing military pressure against Hamas and continuing to crush it,” the Otzma Yehudit Party leader said in a video statement posted to X.
During the year 2023, 50,098 Jews visited the Temple Mount, down from 51,483 in 2022, according to data compiled by Beyadenu, an Israeli NGO dedicated to strengthening the Jewish connection to the site.
