1,500 Jews Visit Temple Mount During Jerusalem Day Celebrations

On Wednesday, Jerusalem Day witnessed a significant increase in the number of Israeli Jews visiting the Temple Mount, with approximately 1,500 ascending to Judaism’s holiest site. This marks a 26% rise from last year, as announced by the Temple Mount Administration NGO.

In 2023, just days after a truce with the Gaza-based Palestinian Islamic Jihad, 1,146 Jews visited the Mount. This year, despite the ongoing conflict with Hamas following the terrorist organization's brutal attack on October 7, Jerusalem Day saw 1,445 people ascend the Mount within a span of five and a half hours.

By the afternoon, many hopeful visitors stood in line to tour the sacred site, though it closed to Jews later in the day. Security forces detained several individuals for actions like bowing or prostrating, which are prohibited to avoid inflaming tensions with Muslim worshippers, as reported by HaKol HaYehudi.

Israeli rights activist Michael Puah defied the 1967 status quo arrangement with Jordan by wearing tefillin (phylacteries) on the Mount. He stated, “We even said the Hallel [holiday prayers] out loud; a policeman asked us to do it more quietly and didn’t say anything about the tefillin.”

Prominent figures such as Yitzhak Wasserlauf, Israel’s minister for the development of the periphery, the Negev, and the Galilee, and lawmaker Yitzhak Kroizer, both from the Otzma Yehudit Party, also ascended the Mount. Jordan’s foreign ministry condemned their visit, labeling it a “blatant and unacceptable violation of international law.”

Earlier in the week, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir urged Israelis to visit Jerusalem, declaring, “If we see ourselves as the sovereign of the area, our enemies will respect us.”

Jerusalem Day commemorates the 57th anniversary of the liberation of the Temple Mount, Western Wall, and eastern Jerusalem, as well as the historic Judea and Samaria regions. Following the Six-Day War, Israel agreed with Jordan's Waqf Islamic trust to maintain security control while the Waqf would oversee religious activities. This agreement forbids Jews from engaging in prayer at the site, with violations typically resulting in police intervention.

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