Lawmaker prostrates himself at Temple Mount, lauds ‘tremendous change’ in Jewish access
Religious Zionism’s Zvi Sukkot recalls arrest 14 years ago for doing the same thing; Minister Ben Gvir boasts of achieving new status quo
Religious Zionism MK Zvi Sukkot visited the Temple Mount in Jerusalem on Thursday, where he participated in a prayer service and prostrated himself on the ground in worship — activities that are nominally prohibited for Jews at the flashpoint holy site.
Sukkot hailed the “tremendous change” since he was arrested for the same act 14 years ago. Meanwhile, allied far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who oversees the Israel Police, which enforces law and security on the Mount, boasted that a shift in the unwritten status quo that governs the site was a result of his policies.
The fragile arrangement has long seen non-Muslim visitors being banned from praying on the site that also houses the al-Aqsa Mosque, and which is known to Muslims as the Haram al-Sharif.
The Temple Mount is the holiest site in Judaism and the third-holiest site in Islam. Perceived changes to the status quo on the Temple Mount evoke strong emotions and are frequently cited as a Muslim motivation for religious violence.
There has been a years-long de facto loosening of the rules for Jewish visitors, particularly since ultranationalist Ben Gvir became the minister overseeing the police in December 2022. Ben Gvir says he has led an overhaul of policy at the Temple Mount and that Jews are now allowed to pray there.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly denied that it is the case, but visitors have time and again been filmed and photographed doing so without police interference, leading to backlash from countries in the region.
In a statement from his office, Sukkot said that during a visit 14 years ago to the Temple Mount, he prostrated himself but was immediately seized by cops and arrested. The charges were later dropped.
“Today, Jews prostrate themselves, pray, with a minyan [quorum of 10 adult Jews], and don’t let the Arabs come near us. The Waqf doesn’t come near us,” he said, referring to the Jordanian religious trust that administers the site.
“I’m seeing this [change] with tears in my eyes,” he added, saying that while on the Mount, he prayed for the IDF’s success in the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip and the return of hostages held in the Palestinian territory Hamas led an invasion of Israel on October 7, 2023, triggering the war.
לאחר 14 שנה שלא עלה: ח"כ צבי סוכות עלה הבוקר להר הבית והתפלל להשבת החטופים וניצחון המלחמה והשתחווה במקום הקדוש pic.twitter.com/aSL9rAqv4K
— חזקי ברוך (@HezkeiB) April 17, 2025
Sukkot visited the Mount with Rabbi Shimshon Elbaum, head of the self-proclaimed Temple Mount Administration, a far-right outfit that campaigns for Jewish rights at the site.
Ben Gvir, leader of the Otzma Yehudit party, welcomed Sukkot’s visit and open prayer, taking credit for the change in the status quo at the site that enables Jews to pray there.
“I’m happy to see that MK Zvi Sukkot, like many thousands, is prostrating himself and praying at the Temple Mount,” Ben Gvir said in a statement. “What wasn’t done for 30 years is being done on my watch, and I’m glad to have the honor, by the grace of God, to lead this huge change.”
Ben Gvir has made numerous visits to the Temple Mount, including two weeks ago.
Thousands of observant Jews visited the Temple Mount this week to mark the festival of Passover.
On Tuesday, police reportedly allowed a group of roughly 180 Jews to ascend the Mount together, far exceeding the number usually permitted, which stands at around 30.
Police told Haaretz that they “secured visits to the Temple Mount as usual, in accordance with visitation rules and the number of visitors.”
It was not clear from the Haaretz report whether the 180-strong Jewish group prayed at the site, but a video posted to X on Tuesday by journalist Yinon Magal showed a group performing the priestly blessing on the Mount.
ברכת כהנים במוסף של חג על הר הבית pic.twitter.com/7bfu1sxO6d
— ינון מגל (@YinonMagal) April 15, 2025
Ben Gvir has said repeatedly that his policy is to allow Jewish prayer there, drawing rebukes from international officials, as well as warnings from the security establishment that renewed conflict over the site could pose a risk to national security.
The far-right minister has also rebuffed Netanyahu’s repeated insistence that the decades-old status quo remains in force.
Ben Gvir’s influence over Jewish activities on the Temple Mount inadvertently became the catalyst for a recent politically charged affair in which a Shin Bet security service official was arrested for leaking classified material to a government minister and two journalists.
The agent passed on to Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli, of Netanyahu’s Likud party, information about a covert Shin Bet probe into possible extremist far-right Kahanist ideology taking root in the police force.
Channel 12 news reported last month that the probe, for the suspected undermining of governance protocols in Israel, focused on alleged intervention by Ben Gvir’s office in police instructions regarding Jewish prayer at the Temple Mount on the Jewish mourning day of Tisha B’Av in August 2024. It was apparently launched without the knowledge of the political echelon.
The arrest of the agent further increased tensions between the political echelon and the country’s security and judicial system, already at a boiling point with the government’s moves to fire Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara and Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar. Coalition members, including Chikli, have hailed the agent as an “Israeli hero” who exposed corruption.
Kahanism is the ideology espoused by extreme-right leader Rabbi Meir Kahane, a former Knesset member who headed the banned ultranationalist group Kach before his death at the hands of an assassin in New York in 1990. Ben Gvir’s far-right Otzma Yehudit party is seen as a successor to the proscribed racist Kach party founded by Kahane, though Ben Gvir has claimed to have moderated his views.
The Times of Israel Community.