Visiting Temple Mount, Ben Gvir again says his policy is to allow Jewish prayer there

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir repeats his message that his policy is to allow Jewish prayer at the Temple Mount, which goes against the unwritten status quo governing the site.

“We are on Tisha B’Av, the Temple Mount, coming to mark the destruction of the Temple,” he says in a filmed message released by his far-right Otzma Yehudit party. “But it needs to be said with sincerity: there is very significant progress here in the governance, in the sovereignty. As I have said, our policy is to enable prayer.”

Jews are heard loudly praying next to him, and footage shows Jews prostrating in his presence.

Ben Gvir from the Temple Mount this morning says he’s “here to commemorate the destruction of the Temple” and that “our policy is to allow prayer.” You can hear Jews praying loudly as he speaks pic.twitter.com/yxUXSZOoTK

— Sam Sokol (@SamuelSokol) August 13, 2024

He also calls for getting Hamas “down on its knees” in Gaza instead of “going to summits in Doha or Cairo.”

In all the previous times Ben Gvir has said he allows Jews to pray at the flashpoint site, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has clarified that the status quo hasn’t changed. He is yet to issue such a statement today.

הר הבית הבוקר, משתחווים ממש מול הקודש pic.twitter.com/ZMs329rpPO

— שיראל ללום נהיר???????? (@shirellaloom) August 13, 2024

Likud MK Amit Halevi, who also visited the site today, says in a statement that he and the over 1,000 Jews who visited the site today did it “in prayer for victory in the war.”

He adds: “This is a war for the Mount, for God, against an enemy that in the name of religion fills the world with murderousness, barbarism and evil in the face of the Israeli culture and its call from the Temple Mount for justice, truth, morality and mercy.”