After Ben Gvir ascends Temple Mount on Tisha B’Av, Netanyahu condemns ‘violation of status quo’

Ben Gvir says his 'policy is to allow freedom of worship for Jews everywhere'

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Over 1,500 Israeli Jews ascended the Temple Mount in Jerusalem on Tuesday morning in commemoration of the extra-biblical fast of Tisha B’Av, including National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and Knesset Member Yitzhak Wasserlauf, Israel's Negev, Galilee and National Resilience minister.

They were filmed walking among Jewish worshippers fully prostrating themselves on the ground in the direction of the Dome of the Rock, the former location of the ancient Jewish temples.

הר הבית בידינו. יום היסטורי דרמטי: השתחוויות, שירה בקול ותפילה בנוכחות השרים בן גביר ווסרלאוף. היינו כחולמים pic.twitter.com/RqbyNYdKCk
— ארנון סגל (@arnonsegal1) August 13, 2024

Under the status quo established since Israel captured East Jerusalem during the Six-Day War in 1967, only Muslims are permitted to pray or conduct religious ceremonies on the Temple Mount.

Shortly after the event, the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu slammed Ben Gvir and Wasserlauf for their actions.

“Policymaking on the Temple Mount is directly subordinate to the government and its leader. There is no private policy of any minister on the Temple Mount – not the minister of national security or any other minister. This morning's incident on the Temple Mount is a deviation from the status quo. The policy has not changed – it has been and will remain.”

Along with Ben Gvir and Wasserlauf, hundreds of Israeli Jews who ascended the Temple Mount engaged in Jewish prayers at the site.

Ben Gvir’s office responded with a statement to justify his action and doubled down on the seeming change of the status quo on the Temple Mount.

“The minister's policy is to allow freedom of worship for Jews everywhere, including on the Temple Mount,” the statement said.

“There is no law that permits racist discrimination against Jews on the Temple Mount or anywhere else in the country.”

According to an N12 report, the Jewish organization Beyadeinu (In Our Hands) recorded around 1,500 people ascending the Temple Mount, initially in groups of 100. That number was reduced to 50 people per group after previous groups violated the instructions not to engage in prayer while on the site.

N12 quoted Beyadeinu Executive Director Tom Nissani as saying, “It is moving to see Jews praying, singing, and bowing on Tisha B'Av on the Temple Mount. Anyone who wanted to see an Al-Aqsa Flood, [instead] received over 40,000 Jews this year, who are strengthening sovereignty on the Temple Mount.”

The Hamas terrorist organization named the Oct. 7 invasion and attack on southern Israel "Al-Aqsa Flood."

Ben Gvir’s Jewish Power party said the ministers “went up to the Temple Mount and prayed for the return of the hostages, the safety of the soldiers and victory in the war.”

Opposition leader Yair Lapid said Ben Gvir’s visit to the Temple Mount during a time of war “endangers the lives of Israeli citizens and the lives of our soldiers and policemen.”

He accused Ben Gvir and his colleagues of “trying hard to drag Israel into an all-out regional war.”

Ultra-Orthodox political parties Shas and United Torah Judaism also strongly condemned the visitation and prayers at the Temple Mount. Most ultra-Orthodox believe that Jews should not ascend the Temple Mount until the restoration of the Jewish priesthood and until ritual purification – using the biblical water of purification made from the ashes of a red heifer – is possible again.

Religious Affairs Minister Michael Malkieli of the Shas party, said: "For generations, the leaders and chief rabbis of Israel have stressed the importance of the ban on going to the Temple Mount. In addition to having broken the ban, these actions serve as an unnecessary provocation in the eyes of the world.”

On Tuesday, Hamas issued a statement condemning Ben Gvir and other politicians who visited the Temple Mount.

“The storming of the courtyards of the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque by the extremist terrorist ministers Ben Gvir and Goldknopf and the provocative tour of them after emptying them of worshipers and retreaters is a continuation of the extended aggression against our Palestinian people, their land, and their holy sites, and a provocation to the feelings of Muslims everywhere, by desecrating the first of the two qiblas and the third of the Two Holy Mosques,” the statement said.

Hamas apparently mistook Wasserlauf, who is a member of Ben Gvir’s party, with Minister Yitzhak Goldknopf, of the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism party. Goldknopf is opposed to Jews ascending the Temple Mount.