For first time, police allow Jewish worshipers to bring printed prayer to Temple Mount

Police are now allowing Jewish worshipers to ascend the Temple Mount with printed prayers, another blow to the long-held regulations barring non-Muslim prayer at the flashpoint site.

This morning, Jewish visitors were handed liturgical material printed on flyers while waiting to go up to the site. The sheets include religious guidelines for visiting the Temple Mount, a prayer to recite before ascending and the Amidah (standing) prayer, said thrice-daily in Jewish tradition.

Non-Muslim prayer is nominally forbidden at the Temple Mount site — known by Muslims as the Al-Aqsa Compound — due to a string of unwritten agreements between Israel and Jordan, which administers the site through the Jerusalem Islamic Waqf.

The hotly disputed site, holy in both Judaism and Islam, was the location of both Jewish temples and since the 7th century has housed the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock shrine.

While in the past, police would eject or detain Jewish visitors caught praying on the Temple Mount, this policy has largely fallen to the wayside over the past three years under National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who has repeatedly called on law enforcement to allow Jewish prayer there.

In recent years, Jewish visitors have been permitted to pray and prostrate themselves in the eastern part of the complex, but were still barred from bringing prayer items, such as tefillin, prayer shawls and printed liturgy to the site.

“It’s official right now. From what I understand they [police] have permitted the flyers,” says a spokesman for Beyadenu, which represents Temple Mount activists.

Speaking to The Times of Israel, he stresses the significance of the change, saying such printed material is “something that they [Israeli security] used to check for, to make sure you weren’t bringing” to the site.

The shift comes two weeks after Deputy Commissioner Avshalom Peled, an associate of Ben Gvir, was appointed to the sensitive position of Jerusalem District commander, replacing Deputy Commissioner Amir Arzani, who went on leave. Peled formerly served as deputy police chief.

Haaretz reports that Arzani departed under duress after he pushed back against the far-right Ben Gvir’s attempts to further relax restrictions on the Temple Mount.

Police said they accepted a request from the Temple Mount Yeshiva — which encourages Jews to ascend and pray at the site — urging law enforcement to allow visitors to carry up “guidance sheets” to the complex.

“In order to maintain the existing order, it was determined that the use of these sheets would be limited solely to specific areas defined by the police,” law enforcement added.

רגע מרגש בתולדות המאבק היהודי להשבת הר הבית לתפארתו. כעת המשטרה מתירה ליהודים להתפלל מתוך דף תפילה (ביום כיפור האחרון יהודים נעצרו והורחקו בגלל דפים כאלה). שימו לב במיוחד לנוסח ה"לשם ייחוד".
אשרינו שזכינו. תודה לשר בן גביר שמחולל בהר שינוי היסטורי בלתי נתפס.
צילום: אלקנה וולפסון pic.twitter.com/ACS4K85Ycb

— ארנון סגל (@arnonsegal1) January 21, 2026

The statement appeared to confirm the police’s official sanction of non-Muslim prayer, stressing that officers work to “enable freedom of worship and visitation at the Temple Mount for all religions and communities.”