National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir visited the Temple Mount Wednesday morning, in contravention of the status quo and in the midst of negotiations in Egypt on a hostage deal and an end to the war.
Ben-Gvir said he was going up “to pray for victory in the war, the destruction of Hamas and the return of the hostages.”
Itamar Ben-Gvir heads to the Temple Mount
(Video: Shilo Freid)
In late August, the minister also visited the Temple Mount, then watching dozens of Jews praying and prostrating there, days after the police replied to an inquiry on the matter and ruled that “the rules on the Mount have not changed.” At the time Ben-Gvir said that “we must also say honestly: there is very significant progress in governance, in sovereignty. Pictures of Jews praying here. Our policy is to allow prayer.”
However, the Prime Minister’s Office distanced itself from the minister’s remarks and said at the time that the visit was “a deviation from the status quo,” Adding that: “Determination of policy on the Temple Mount is subject directly to the government and its head."
“There is no private policy of any minister on the Temple Mount — not of the Minister of National Security nor of any other minister. That has always been the case in every Israeli government. This morning’s event on the Temple Mount is a deviation from the status quo. Israel’s policy on the Temple Mount has not changed — it was and it will be so,” the PMO said at the time.
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Itamar Ben-Gvir on the Temple Mount in August 2024, where worshippers prostrated themselves in prayer
(Photo: Arnon Segal)
A month earlier, in July, Ben-Gvir declared in the Knesset that “I am the political echelon, and the political echelon permits Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount.” He made the remarks, which contradict the status quo, during a Return of Israel to the Temple Mount conference in the Knesset. “I was on the Temple Mount last week. I prayed on the Temple Mount and we pray on the Temple Mount,” he said then.
In June as well Ben-Gvir proudly declared he was violating the status quo on the Temple Mount — and the Prime Minister’s Office quickly contradicted him then too.