Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir on Thursday raised the Israeli flag on the Temple Mount as he visited Judaism’s holiest site ahead of Jerusalem Day, which commemorates the city’s reunification during the 1967 Six-Day War.
Ben-Gvir, whose office oversees the Israel Police, was among the hundreds of Jewish worshipers who visited the Temple Mount throughout the day on Thursday, the Beyadenu—Returning to the Temple Mount group said.
According to the Israeli NGO, some 200 Jews visited during the morning hours alone.
“Beyadenu guides are present on the Mount in reinforced numbers, accompanying the many visitors who came up early today amid indications that the Temple Mount would be closed on Jerusalem Day,” the organization stated.
Beyadenu earlier this week had called on the Israel Police to allow Jews to visit the Mount on Friday to mark Jerusalem Day. The site is routinely closed to Jewish visitors on Fridays under arrangements with the Jordanian-run Islamic Waqf.
“It is unacceptable that on the very day marking the liberation of Jerusalem and the Temple Mount, Jewish access to the holiest site in Judaism would be completely denied due to a standing arrangement that fails to address this unique circumstance,” Beyadenu wrote in a letter to Israel Police Commissioner Daniel Levy and Jerusalem District Cmdr. Avshalom Peled.
The 1967 status quo agreement with the Waqf has increasingly been tested in recent years, with Jewish rights activists pushing the boundaries and police at times appearing to tolerate visible prayer, in particular since Ben-Gvir took office in 2022.
Knesset member Yitzhak Kroizer, a lawmaker for Ben-Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit Party, on Thursday praised the minister “for the blessed change in sovereignty and governance on the Temple Mount.”
“I came this morning to the Temple Mount to pray and celebrate the reunification of our eternal capital. From here, the holiest place for the Jewish people, we pray for the success of the security forces in the various arenas, and for the healing and speedy recovery of those wounded in body and soul,” he said in a video recorded at the site.
“We pray for a great victory for the right and the bloc of believers in the upcoming elections. And with God’s help, in the next term we will ascend and celebrate the reunification of Jerusalem without these mosques, and work toward the building of the Holy Temple,” he added.
Likud Party MK Ariel Kallner also visited the Temple Mount on Thursday.
“The situation here is changing thanks to those who persevere,” he said following the visit. “Those who persevere and those who believe are the ones who prevail.”
On Wednesday, Yitzhak Wasserlauf, Israel’s minister for the development of the periphery, the Negev and the Galilee, prayed at the Temple Mount and called on Israelis to visit the site.
The Otzma Yehudit lawmaker in his remarks urged the public to visit the Temple Mount to experience what he described as a “revolution” led there by Ben-Gvir.
“Jews no longer walk around the Mount like thieves and no longer need to hide. It is moving every single time to see many Jews praying and prostrating on the Temple Mount, the holiest site for the Jewish people,” the right-wing minister stated.
