Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu clashed on Tuesday with his far-right coalition partner National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir over who had the right to set policy on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount, known to Muslims as Al Haram Al Sharif.
Ben-Gvir attempted to assert that the status quo which has governed the site since 1967, under which Jews can visit but not pray there, no longer exists.
“Our policy is to allow prayer” on the Temple Mount, Ben-Gvir said as he made a visit to the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound at that religious site which is the holiest in Judaism and the third holiest in Islam. Ben-Gvir was joined by Minister for the Negev and the Galilee Yitzhak Wasserlauf (Otzma Yehudit).
He linked his declaration of a policy change to the ongoing negotiations for a hostage agreement, which he has opposed and views as dangerous, preferring instead to solve the issue through a complete IDF victory over Hamas in Gaza.
“We have to win in this war. We have to win; We shouldn’t be going to a summit in Doha or Cairo. But to win and to bring [Hamas] to its knees,” he stated in a video filmed as he walked across the compound.
To underscore his point, both he and Wasserlauf prayed there for the return of the hostages, the well-being of the soldiers, and victory in the war.
He made his visit on Tisha Be’Av, the day on which Jews annually fast and mourn for the destruction of the Temples that once stood on that site over 2,000 years ago.
The visit took place 48 hours before the US was set to hold critical negotiations for a deal in Doha, along with the representatives of the main mediator countries for the deal, Qatar and Egypt.
Last month, Ben-Gvir, similarly, announced that he had the authority as the minister in charge of domestic security, including for that holy site, to set policy there.
His visit to the Temple Mount on Tuesday has the potential to sabotage the Doha talks and spark a violent political and diplomatic crisis for Israel.
Controversy and criticism
The Prime Minister’s Office issued a harsh message asserting that the status quo on the Temple Mount had not changed and that the morning’s event at the site “deviated from the status quo.”
It also clarified that policy decisions regarding the site were under the sole purview of the government and the prime minister.
“Policymaking on the Temple Mount is directly subordinated to the government and its leader,” the Prime Minister’s Office said.
“There is no private policy of any minister – not the National Security Minister or any other minister – on the Temple Mount. Thus it has been under all governments of Israel,” it stated.
“Israel’s policy on the Temple Mount has not changed; this is how it has been and this is how it will be,” the PMO stressed.
Ben-Gvir’s office told Netanyahu he was wrong and that as National Security Minister he could set policy on the Temple Mount and had determined that Jews could pray there.
“The policy of the national security minister is to allow freedom of worship for Jews everywhere, including the Temple Mount, and Jews will continue to do so in the future as well,” Ben-Gvir stated.
“The Temple Mount is a sovereign area in the capital of the State of Israel. There is no law that allows racial discrimination against Jews on the Temple Mount, or anywhere else in Israel,” he stressed.
Ben-Gvir wrote in a social media post later on Tuesday that at the request of a “senior security official,” he had refrained from visiting the Temple Mount on Sukkot in early October. The Hamas massacre days later showed that visiting the site had nothing to do with terror, and that terror organizations do not need an “excuse to slaughter us,” he added.
“My security position as national security minister is clear: no backing down. Projecting sovereignty at full strength, especially in our holiest and most important place. And if the enemies threaten – [we] do not lower our heads, but rather remove their heads,” Ben-Gvir wrote.
Last month Ben-Gvir said, “I am the political echelon and the political echelon allows Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount.”
Opposition leader MK Yair Lapid [Yesh Atid] posted on X, “Ben-Gvir’s campaign on the Temple Mount, in complete opposition to the position of the security forces, during a war, endangers the lives of Israeli citizens and the lives of our soldiers and policemen.
“The group of irresponsible extremists in the government is trying hard to drag Israel into an all-out regional war. These people cannot run the country.”
Fellow opposition member and National Unity chairman MK Benny Gantz added in a post on Telegram, that Netanyahu’s ministers were publicly acting against his policy. Gantz wrote that Netanyahu had “no trust in his ministers, and they have no trust in you,” and called on the prime minister to remove Ben-Gvir from his position.Religious Affairs Minister Michael Malchieli [Shas] 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.”
MK Moshe Gafni [United Torah Judaism] added that “the damage [Ben-Gvir] is causing to the Jewish people is too great to bear. He is causing gratuitous hatred on the day of the destruction of the Temple.”
The Hostage Families Forum released a statement saying that Ben-Gvir has “repeatedly thwarted a deal to return the hostages, and endangers them with his actions and words.”
Nabil Abu Rudeineh, who is the spokesperson for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, called on the United States to “intervene” and “stop these provocations,” according to a statement on WAFA, the Palestine News & Information Agency.
Ben-Gvir has made controversial statements about the Temple Mount since taking office at the start of 2023. Despite the public clash between him and the prime minister, Netanyahu is unlikely to take steps to sanction Ben-Gvir or fire him altogether, since he would lose his coalition majority, and this in turn could topple the government.
Eve Young contributed to this report.