Temple Mount status quo continues to erode as Jews are seen using prayer books for first time

The status quo on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem has prevented any type of non-Muslim religious ritual, particularly prayers by Jews and Christians, since 1967.

However, over the past years, especially during the period of right-wing firebrand Itamar Ben Gvir as National Security Minister, this status quo has eroded steadily, as Jewish visitors to the mount started praying, singing, and even fully prostrating themselves without being arrested.

In the past, even lips moving silently in prayer had been enough to cause the removal of worshippers, and non-Muslims ascending the mount were subject to intense searches that removed any item with religious affiliation, such as tefillin (phylacteries) and prayer shawls.

On Sunday, Israel Police for the first time apparently allowed Jewish worshippers to bring Jewish prayer books, with right-wing journalist Arnon Segal uploading a picture showing Jews praying openly.

הבוקר בהר הבית: יהודים מתפללים עם סידורים. עדיין לא היתר גורף אבל ניסוי ראשוני במטרה לוודא שהמזרח התיכון לא יוצא מדעתו בגלל זה. היסטוריה pic.twitter.com/MduyD0YKmm

— ארנון סגל (@arnonsegal1) August 16, 2026

The left-wing newspaper Haaretz cited worshipers saying that the police allowed them to bring the prayer books, adding that police had approved bringing prayer sheets, but not books, to the mount since January.

“Still no blanket permit but a first try to make sure the Middle East doesn’t lose its mind over this,” Segal wrote under his post on 𝕏, praising this as a “historic” event.

The police only told Haaretz that the Temple Mount is managed “in accordance with the instructions of the political leadership, standard practices at the site and based on an operational assessment.”

A slow trend toward allowing Jews more rights on the holy site was significantly accelerated when Ben Gvir took office. He has since ascended the site several times despite strong international condemnation, leading prayers and marches.

In September of last year, Temple Mount activist and Rabbi Yehuda Glick led a mixed Jewish-Christian group to the mount to pray in memory of Evangelical Christian and conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

In July of this year, several thousand Jews visited the Temple Mount for the Tisha B'Av holiday, including Ben Gvir and several other politicians, triggering another wave of condemnations.

Jewish worshipers ascend Temple Mount on Tisha B'Av, pray and seen here performing the priestly blessing in massive departure from the status quo w/ Jordan, which ostensibly administers the site pic.twitter.com/PkQkuUpkr9

— charlie summers (@cbsu03) July 23, 2026

Despite this trend, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has routinely claimed in statements that his government had not and would not change the Temple Mount status quo.

Meanwhile, Ben Gvir drew outrage across the Arab world again on Sunday, this time by urging that “30 to 40” people in the Gaza Strip should be killed with airstrikes each night. Italy's Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani quickly condemned the remarks, claiming that "no one can arrogate to themselves the right to take someone’s life."

The controversial comments, which were widely circulated by Arab-language media, came as Ben Gvir was a guest on the inaugural episode of a new podcast by Rom Braslavski, who was held captive by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Gaza for some two years.

Ben Gvir told Braslavski that he disagreed with Netanyahu’s apparent policy to scale back targeted assassinations of terrorists in the Gaza Strip as part of the negotiations over the U.S.-backed Gaza peace plan.

Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir:

I think targeted eliminations should be carried out in Gaza every night — take out 30, 40. Not only those who endanger you at that particular moment.

There are people there who shouldn’t be alive. They shouldn’t live.

I’m… pic.twitter.com/IAT9LEJSb3

— Clash Report (@clashreport) August 15, 2026

“I think we should carry out targeted assassinations in Gaza, taking down 30 to 40 every night,” Ben Gvir said, stressing that this number doesn’t include only “those who pose an immediate threat. No, there are people there who are not worthy of life.”

“They shouldn’t live,” Ben Gvir continued. “They’re not even people.” He later cited as examples Gazan civilians who helped keep Braslavski in captivity even through ostensibly innocent acts, like bringing him food.

The minister added that he sees “all of Gaza as ours,” and that Israel should build settlements throughout the enclave while “encouraging as much emigration as possible, sending them to their countries, and for the terrorists, no emigration, nothing, just to kill them one by one.”

Former Israeli captive Rom Braslavski asked Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir to allow him to execute Palestinian prisoners.

Ben Gvir said he would work to fulfill the request, stating that executing Palestinian prisoners is one of his “greatest dreams”. pic.twitter.com/UgG65BhCLp

— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) August 16, 2026

Later in the podcast, Braslavski asked Ben Gvir, who wore a golden pin with a noose symbolizing his trademark demand to execute terrorists, to be allowed to “execute every terrorist in Israel” personally.

“Let me be the one who hangs them,” Braslavski requested, adding that he would kill them with his own hands.

Ben Gvir responded that he would “turn the world upside-down to make that happen,” adding that it is one of his “greatest dreams” to execute them “one by one.”