Jews can pray openly on Temple Mount, Ben-Gvir declares

Jordan denounces “storming of Al Aqsa Mosque;” Hamas calls for “masses” to “confront the settlers’ intrusion.”

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

Jews are allowed to pray openly and even fully prostrate themselves in prayer on the Temple Mount, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir announced on Monday upon his ascent to Judaism’s holiest site during Jerusalem Day celebrations.

In addition to saying that “Thank God, today it’s possible to pray… and bow down on the Temple Mount,” Ben-Gvir said he had prayed “for the well-being of the hostages, that they will all come back  safely, [and] for victory in the war.”

He also prayed “for the success of the new Shin Bet head” in destroying the enemy and that he will “understand the difference between an enemy and a friend.”

His statement about prayer is considered controversial, despite the Supreme Court ruling numerous times that freedom of religious practice also applies to Jews on the Mount as long as the police do not declare the actions a danger to public order due to Arab threats to riot, which they often do, considering it an affront to the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the third-holiest site in Islam, which is located there.

After Ben-Gvir’s walk and prayer on the Mount, Jordan, which is formally considered the site’s Islamic custodian, accused the religious nationalist minister of “storming Al-Aqsa Mosque along with a large group of extremist settlers, coinciding with the so-called flag march.”

Hamas denounced the visit as well, calling it “a violation” of the mosque’s holiness and “a desperate attempt by the occupation to enforce the complete Judaization of the mosque.”

The Gazan terrorist organization also called upon the “masses” to “defend” the mosque from the “aggression” of “the settlers,” and their “intrusions and rampages.”

Hamas called its October 7, 2023 invasion of Israel “Al Aqsa Flood” to link it directly to Jerusalem when it led thousands of terrorists in massacring 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages, sparking the ongoing war.

Ben-Gvir has gone several times to the Temple Mount since assuming his position, both as a show of his faith and as a political statement of Jewish sovereignty over the site which Israel liberated from Jordan 58 years ago in the Six Day War, joining both halves of Jerusalem together.

The feat was marked on Monday, as it is every year, by thousands converging on the Old City’s Western Wall Plaza, alongside the Mount, while waving Israeli flags, singing, dancing, and praying.

Only some ascended to the place where the two ancient Jewish holy Temples once stood and, as required by Jewish law, stayed away from the Al Aqsa compound that was built over their actual location, only skirting its edges.

Over the last several years, more and more Jews have been permitted to pray quietly and unobtrusively on the Mount by the police stationed there. Previously, Jews had been arrested for making motions that could be interpreted as prayer.

Once Ben-Gvir assumed responsibility over law enforcement, open prayer was allowed, even while the Prime Minister’s Office repeatedly affirmed that the political “status quo” has not changed, meaning that Jews could visit, but not commune with God on the site.

After going there last July, Ben-Gvir had commented, “I was at the Temple Mount last week. I prayed at the Temple Mount and we are praying at the Temple Mount. I am in the political echelon, and the political echelon allows Jewish prayer at the Temple Mount.”