JNS
Netanyahu spoke as the Security Cabinet met to discuss the rise in Palestinian terrorism in Judea and Samaria.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday reiterated a formal ban on government ministers entering Judaism's holiest site, the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, without coordination with his office.
"Last night, at the start of the Security Cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Netanyahu declared that on the issue of the Temple Mount there is no change in the status quo, nor will there be," the Prime Minister's Office said.
The Security Cabinet, which is responsible for defense-related decisions and composed of senior ministers, met on Sunday evening to discuss solutions to stem the rise in Palestinian terrorism in Judea and Samaria.
"The prime minister repeated his directive that government ministers not visit the Temple Mount without his approval in advance via his military secretary," said the Prime Minister's Office in the statement.
In the wake of the 2015 "knife intifada," Netanyahu banned all ministers and lawmakers from entering the holy site. In 2016, police advised him that the ban could be eased, listing 14 conditions for elected officials to visit, including advance notification that they plan to ascend and arriving without a security detail or press accompaniment.
Moshe Feiglin, a former Knesset member for Netanyahu's Likud Party, tweeted on Monday morning, "The prime minister announced that ministers' ascension to the Temple Mount will now require his approval.
"I call on all government ministers to ignore this clearly illegal order of the prime minister and to take the only strategic step on the way to victory and calm—to immediately go up to the Temple Mount," he said.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who heads the Otzma Yehudit Party, has visited the Temple Mount repeatedly since taking office following the November 2022 general election.
An inquiry by JNS to Ben-Gvir's office asking the minister whether he would comply with Netanyahu's order went unanswered at press time.
On Sunday, lawmaker Yitzhak Kroizer, a member of the coalition on behalf of Ben-Gvir's party, ascended the Temple Mount in prayer.
Under a status quo arrangement reached with Jordan in the wake of the 1967 Six-Day War, Jews may visit the Temple Mount but not pray there.
Ben-Gvir said in an interview with Israel's Army Radio on Aug. 26 that Jewish prayer is allowed on the Temple Mount. The remarks prompted a denial from the Prime Minister’s Office, which stated that policy at the site is determined by the government and Netanyahu himself.
During the interview with Army Radio, Ben-Gvir was asked repeatedly if he would build a synagogue on the Temple Mount. He replied, "Yes."
After a State Department spokesman accused Ben-Gvir of showing "blatant disregard for the historic status quo," Israeli President Isaac Herzog assured U.S. Ambassador Jack Lew that the government in Jerusalem is committed to upholding the agreement with Amman.
During a meeting on Sunday, Herzog expressed Israel's "commitment to preserving the status quo at the holy site—in accordance with political agreements laid down since 1967, and in the spirit of the rulings by leading rabbis and religious figures over the last 100 years."
Israel signed a peace treaty with Jordan in 1994, but the Arab kingdom has a majority Palestinian population and its government has taken an increasingly hostile tone since the Hamas-led Oct. 7 massacre of some 1,200 people in southern Israel and during the ensuing war in the Gaza Strip.
