The Temple Mount reopened for Jewish visitors on Sunday morning after it had been closed for such visits for the last 19 days due to Ramadan and the conflict with Hamas in Gaza.
The site was originally closed by police to Jewish visitors starting May 4 for the last days of Ramadan, when large numbers of Muslim worshipers pray in al-Aqsa Mosque and the police seek to avoid friction.
Due to severe tensions surrounding Jerusalem during Ramadan, the government decided to extend the closure of the Temple Mount on Jerusalem Day in an attempt to reduce the possibility for conflict. The effort ultimately failed when Hamas fired rockets at Jerusalem the same day, sparking Operation Guardian of the Walls.
In total, 244 Jewish visitors ascended to the holy site on Sunday, activists said.
Groups of 20 visitors prayed Shacharit at the site, according to the Committee of Temple Organizations.
Formal and open Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount is in practice prohibited by the police. However, in recent years, the police have increasingly turned a blind eye to discreet Jewish prayer, although without tallitot, tefillin and the use of a Torah.
Among the visitors were several rabbis, including Rabbi Yisrael Ariel, founder and head of the Temple Institute; and Rabbi Eliyahu Weber, dean of the Temple Mount Yeshiva, who visits the site and holds daily prayer services there.
The rabbis prayed that “God will lighten the eyes of Israel’s leadership and neutralize the focus of terrorist outbreaks by transferring the Temple Mount mosques to Saudi Arabia or any other Arab country seeking peace,” the Committee of Temple Organizations said.
The committee thanked Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Internal Security Minister Amir Ohana and Israel Police Jerusalem District Cmdr. Doron Turgeman for assisting with the reopening of the Temple Mount.
It also thanked several MKs for working on reopening the site, including Religious Zionist Party leader Bezalel Smotrich, Otzma Yehudit Party head Itamar Ben-Gvir, Yamina MK Matan Kahana and New Hope MK Sharren Haskel.
Ben-Gvir welcomed the reopening of the Temple Mount, but he said Jewish visitors at the site were subject to “unceasing discrimination” due to severely limited visiting times and the ban on formal, open Jewish prayer.
“It is unthinkable that in the Jewish state there should be a racist infraction of rights based on race,” Ben-Gvir said.
Elishama Sandman, chairman of the Yeraeh organization, which encourages Jewish visitation to the site, welcomed the reopening. She lamented its closure due to what she said was “capitulation to terrorism.”
“The next step needs to be increasing the hours for Jewish visitation, opening on Friday and Shabbat and designating a place for prayer with tefillin and a Torah,” Sandman said.
On Saturday night, United Torah Judaism Party chairman Moshe Gafni called on Netanyahu not to reopen the Temple Mount to Jewish visitors due to difficulties in Halacha with such visits.
“The Temple was destroyed because of our sins, and those who go up to the Temple Mount are liable for spiritual excommunication,” he said regarding Halacha that restricts entry to some areas of the site without the appropriate ritual ceremonies.
“Not going up to the mount is the deepest proof of our association with this holy place to which we turn from all over the world when we pray,” Gafni said. “I request from you [Netanyahu] to leave the Temple Mount closed to Jews.”