Announcing Heritage Tours of al-Aqsa Mosque, Israel Again Shifts the Status Quo There

One day after Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel’s far-right national security minister, said he would build a synagogue at al-Haram al-Sharif (which Jews refer to as the Temple Mount), Israel announced that it would sponsor tours of the Islamic holy site for Jews and tourists.

On August 27, 2024, the Heritage Ministry said it plans to fund and lead tours at al-Aqsa Mosque for “tens of thousands of Jews, and hundreds of thousands of tourists."1 The Israel Police, which is supposed to enforce the Status Quo at the holy site, approved the decision.2 The tours have been allocated a budget of around NIS 2 million ($543,000) and are expected to begin this fall after the Jewish High Holiday season ends in October.

The tours will enable Israel to essentially control the narrative that visitors receive about the site. Al-Aqsa Mosque is the third holiest mosque in Islam.

“With the further legitimization of the storming of al-Aqsa, other steps are likely to follow,” Palestinian journalist and analyst Ramzy Baroud told Jerusalem Story.3 “With the ultimate goal of establishing a permanent structure inside the sanctuary as an additional step towards full control.”

Jordan’s Hashemite family maintains custodianship of all Muslim and Christian sites in Jerusalem, which includes al-Haram al-Sharif compound. Coordination between Israel and Jordan ensured Jews could visit the holy site but not pray or stir tensions. Since 2017, however, Israel has consistently violated this agreement as Israeli police repeatedly permit Jewish prayer at the compound.

On the first day of the Jewish month of Elul (September 4,) 2024, a group of Jews prostrated themselves at al-Haram al-Sharif in an open demonstration of Jewish ritual. In Judaism, this form of prayer is to be performed inside the Third Temple, which would be built at the compound after the Messiah arrives4 and would necessitate destruction of the al-Aqsa Mosque. Most sects of Judaism forbid rebuilding the temple, which was destroyed twice during the Babylonian era and Roman era, respectively,5 until the Messiah comes; however, Temple Mount activists advocate construction now.

“This couldn’t be more important. It is a brazen violation of the Status Quo not only allowed but secured by the Status Quo,” Daniel Seidemann, Jerusalem-based practicing attorney, said of the incident on the social media platform X.6 “This has nothing to do with piety & everything to do with messianic nationalistic triumphalism, inciting Palestinians & humiliating Muslims worldwide.”

Seidemann added that the Status Quo has been eroding for years, “[with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu simultaneously orchestrating it & denying it’s happening."7

Indeed, reports revealed that the National Security Council in the Prime Minister’s Office approved the Heritage Ministry incursions, but the office clarified in a statement that the council neither approved nor was asked to approve the visits.8

“This isn’t completely new,” Aviv Tatarsky, a researcher at Jerusalem-based nonprofit Ir Amim that monitors Israeli policy in Jerusalem, told Jerusalem Story.9 “We have seen government support to the Temple movements before.”

According to Ir Amim’s research,10 between 2008 and 2011, the Israeli Ministry of Culture, Science and Sports, and Education Ministry funded the Temple Institute, an organization promoting construction of the Third Temple at al-Haram al-Sharif, with an average annual budgetary allotment of NIS 412,000 (approximately $110,000). As a public institution, donations to Beyadenu: Returning to the Temple Mount, the largest registered Israeli nonprofit organization dedicated to raising awareness about the Temple Mount, are tax deductible.11

The Heritage Ministry, which is funding the tours, is led by Amichai Eliyahu, a member of Ben-Gvir’s Jewish supremacist Otzma Yehudit party. While Israeli lawmakers appear divided on their support for Jewish ascension and prayer at al-Aqsa compound (ultra-Orthodox members of the coalition have come out against this12), ultimately the issue isn’t about freedom of worship, but rather control.

“This is the Israeli project: to take over every place where there is Palestinian dominance,” Tatarsky told Jerusalem Story.

In fact, Jews visiting the compound still represent a fraction of the population, despite media headlines suggesting the opposite. Since 2021,13 on average, about 50,000 Jews14 visited al-Haram al-Sharif annually. As of 2024, Israel’s population stands at 9.4 million,15 meaning less than 1 percent of Israelis actually visit the site in a year.

“If you speak about how many Israelis actually visit the Temple Mount, then it’s less than a seat in the Knesset [Israeli parliament],” Tatarsky said. “So, the pressures against the Status Quo are much more government-created than reflective of the public sentiment.”

While the Israeli state’s agenda has always been about asserting Jewish control over Palestinian spaces, the recent influx of Kahanists—those who subscribe to Jewish supremacist Meir Kahane’s ideology—into the government has bolstered the state’s interest in shifting the Status Quo.

“The Kahanists’ top priority has always been changing the status of al-Haram al-Sharif, and imposing Israeli sovereignty over the Haram, including the al-Aqsa Mosque,” Baroud said.

Beyadenu is linked to the Kahanist movement and the founder of the Temple Institute. Rabbi Yisrael Ariel is a Kahanist who ran for Knesset in the early 1980s with Kahane’s political party, Kach.16

“Israel has always violated the Status Quo of al-Aqsa Mosque,” Dr. Abdallah Marouf, former media officer at al-Aqsa Mosque, told Jerusalem Story.17 Yet, Marouf explains, with Kahanist influence, Israel is not only violating the Status Quo but attempting to change the agreement, given Ben-Gvir has said Jews can pray at the site.18

“This is a total change of the Status Quo, even according to the understanding of the Israeli government itself,” Marouf said. “We’re not facing the Israeli far-right now, we’re facing the Israeli government’s will to change the whole situation.”