What if the Temple Mount is the foundation of peace – not conflict?

The Temple Mount is stirring.

In recent years – and with noticeable momentum since the war – more and more Jews have ascended Judaism's holiest site, the Temple Mount. Once a rare and highly restricted practice, Jewish prayer on the mount has quietly surged. While this rise is often portrayed as provocative or dangerous, what if it's a sign of something hopeful or even redemptive?

The prophets envisioned the Temple Mount not as a flashpoint for conflict but as the foundation of peace. As the prophet Isaiah declared, "For My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations."

Yet today, Jewish and Christian access is tightly limited, and Muslim authorities wield disproportionate control. 

If Israel fully embraced the mount as the spiritual center of Jewish life – and if Jews, Christians, and Muslims were all permitted to pray there freely – could this embattled hilltop finally fulfill its ancient promise? Could the rebuilding of sacred space become the blueprint for regional peace, rather than the trigger for war?

This past Sunday, on Tisha B'Av, more than 3,500 Jews ascended the Temple Mount, according to the Temple Mount Administration. This marked a 32% jump from the previous record.   

According to data collected by the NGO Beyadenu, the average monthly number of Jewish visitors has grown from around 60 in 2013–2014 to more than 4,000 today. This year alone, more than 60,000 Jews have gone up to the mountain, and by the end of the year, that number is expected to approach 70,000.

In comparison, only around 36,000 climbed the mount last year.

"When I started going up, it was really considered something peculiar," Rabbi Yehudah Glick, president of the Shalom Jerusalem Foundation, told ALL ISRAEL NEWS. "Nobody agreed to go up. Nobody thought it was permitted." 

However, his organization and others have been working to change that attitude for at least the past decade.

Their efforts and broader shifts in Israeli society have had a significant impact.

For starters, since the October 7 Hamas massacre and the ongoing war, Glick believes the people of Israel are searching for something greater – something spiritual – and are therefore turning to the Temple Mount.

In addition, while the Chief Rabbinate of Israel and some ultra-Orthodox rabbis still maintain that entering the Temple Mount is forbidden due to concerns about ritual purity and the potential desecration of the site's sanctity, more rabbis – especially from the fast-growing Religious Zionist community – are beginning to permit it.

Politically, the Temple Mount has also become a growing symbol.

In the past, only a small number of extreme Religious Zionist MKs, such as National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, would visit the site. Today, however, a broader spectrum of lawmakers is joining them. 

This year, on Tisha B'Av – commemorating the destruction of the First and Second Temples – many more moderate Members of Knesset ascended the mount, including Likud Knesset Member Osher Shekalim and Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel.

Meanwhile, on the battlefield in Gaza, IDF soldiers have reported finding images of the Dome of the Rock in many Hamas households. Hamas even named its war against Israel "Operation al-Aqsa Flood," referring to the al-Aqsa Mosque that sits atop the Temple Mount.

"Why is it that in every house in Gaza, there are pictures of the Dome of the Rock, and we don't have it in the center?" Glick asked. "This has really raised awareness."

Finally, there has been a shift in how the Israel Police handle Jewish visitors to the mount. Glick said this change began when Gilad Erdan served as Public Security Minister in the 34th government. He outwardly opposed the harassment of Jewish visitors by the Waqf guards and Muslim worshippers. Once those individuals began to be arrested – and Jewish ascension, though not open prayer, became more accepted – Glick said the police attitude also evolved.

Today, despite Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's repeated claims that the status quo on the Temple Mount has not changed, and although the Jordanian Waqf still formally administers the site, viral videos on social media show Jews visibly present, praying, and even prostrating on the mount.

"The Temple Mount guards that I have spoken to – they don't want to stop Jews from doing this stuff," Eliyahu Berkowitz, a journalist who has been covering the Temple Mount for nearly a decade, told ALL ISRAEL NEWS. "I saw the other day some cops who took part in a minyan [Jewish prayer quorum].”

A poll published by the Jerusalem Institute for Strategic Studies back in 2017 found that 68% of Israelis believed Jews should be allowed to pray on the Temple Mount. Berkowitz said it's likely that number has only increased.

Glick noted that even more people would have ascended this year without the current restrictions. For example, police only allow around 70 Jews to enter the mount at any given time. On Tisha B’Av, many stood for hours in the blistering sun waiting for access. Glick arrived at 6:30 a.m. but wasn't allowed in until 9:00.

"There is much more potential," he said.

As a next step, Glick said he would like to see Jews and Christians permitted to bring religious objects onto the mount, such as Torah scrolls or Bibles. He also believes that more of the 11 gates to the Temple Mount should be open to all types of visitors. Currently, Muslims can enter through any of the gates, but Jews are limited to a single entry: the Mughrabi Gate.

Both Glick and Berkowitz argued that Jews should begin to think seriously about reviving some Temple rituals – even before the Temple itself is rebuilt. They pointed to Jewish history for precedent. When the exiles returned from Babylon, they resumed Temple service long before they had the resources or permission to reconstruct the Temple itself. 

Today, some organizations are already preparing to carry out these rituals and, in some cases, practice them elsewhere – just not on the mountain.

The idea may sound radical or even dangerous in today's climate. But Berkowitz noted that if you had asked him a decade ago whether Jews could pray on the Temple Mount, he would have said no. And yet, it's happening now.

For centuries, Jews believed they had to wait for the Messiah to bring them to Israel on "eagles' wings." But the Zionist movement changed that mindset, teaching that Jews must take their destiny into their own hands. Glick said the same holds for the Temple Mount. 

"We should not wait for it to fall from the heavens," he said, "but take advantage of the fact that it is already in our hands."

"We have the ability, and we can go up and pray at the holiest place in the world—the only place that Hashem [God] chose to rest His divine presence," Glick said. "If you really want to be Zionistic, you have to have Zion. The Temple is the center of Zion."

Glick took it one step further: every world leader who visits Israel, he said, should go to the Temple Mount. 

"In America, diplomats visit the White House. In Paris, they go to the Eiffel Tower. In Israel, they should go to the Temple Mount,” he told ALL ISRAEL NEWS.

"They go to Yad Vashem," Glick continued. "It is as if our claim to fame is that they put us in gas chambers – instead of bringing them to the Temple Mount, which is the core of our nationality, the core of our culture, the core of our religion, the core of our identity."

"Yad Vashem expresses what our enemies did to us," he added. "If you want to know what expresses who we are, take people to the Temple Mount."

It may sound like a pipe dream – or a flashpoint that could trigger another war if this one ever ends. But the facts on the ground are shifting. And if you ask those who visit the mount today, many will say: something is changing.

According to Jewish belief, the Temple stood on the Temple Mount for thousands of years. Rebuilding it physically may not be the goal right now. But rebuilding it spiritually – restoring the mount as a place of unity, holiness, and peace – could be the best thing ever to happen to this region.

It may be time to find out if the prophets were right: peace really does begin on the mount.