The Israel Police told JNS on Tuesday that there has been “no change” to the decades-old status quo at Jerusalem’s Temple Mount, after activists raised Israeli flags at the site.
“A police officer approached the individuals after they began singing and requested that they put away the flags. They complied and left the Temple Mount complex, where their details were taken and they were briefed on the relevant rules,” the Israel Police Spokesperson’s Unit said in a response.
“The matter will be reviewed and appropriate action will be considered,” the statement added.
The incident occurred on Sunday, when a group of six Jewish rights activist raised flags while singing Israel’s national anthem in front of the Dome of the Rock, an Islamic shrine built on top of Judaism’s holiest site.
According to the Army Radio outlet, police earlier prevented activists carrying Israeli flags openly from entering the compound, but the group managed to smuggle some flags inside.
יהודים שרים את התקווה עם דגל ישראל בהר הבית - על אף איסור המשטרה. מדובר בשינוי דרמטי של הסטטוס קוו@GLZRadio https://t.co/EDHS9jBFRi pic.twitter.com/FtuILhRHLR
— נועם נקש || Noam Nakash (@nakash_noam) May 31, 2026
A swath of Arab and Muslim-majority nations—including Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Malaysia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates—condemned Israel over what they collectively described as the “storming” by “settlers” of the Al Aqsa Mosque on the Mount.
“The General Secretariat of the League of Arab States, through its Palestine and Occupied Arab Territories Sector, condemns in the strongest terms the incursions carried out by extremist settlers, under the protection of the Israeli occupation forces, into the blessed Al Aqsa Mosque/Al-Haram al-Sharif,” the organization stated on Tuesday.
The Arab League said the incident constituted “a dangerous escalation and a provocation to the feelings of Muslims throughout the world.”
The flag-raising also infringed on “the existing historical and legal status of the blessed Al Aqsa Mosque, which, in its entirety and across its full area of 144 dunams, is an exclusively Muslim place of worship,” it claimed.
The 1967 status quo agreement with the Jordanian-run Islamic Waqf that administers parts of the Temple Mount 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 Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir took office in 2022.
On May 14, Ben-Gvir himself raised the Israeli flag on the Temple Mount as he visited the holy site ahead of Jerusalem Day, which commemorates the city’s reunification during the 1967 Six-Day War.
“Fifty-nine years after the liberation of Jerusalem, I raised the Israeli flag on the Temple Mount, and I can proudly say: We have restored governance on the Temple Mount,” Ben-Gvir tweeted following the visit.
“Today, more than ever, the Temple Mount is in our hands,” added the senior minister.
