Does the Israeli government support the extremist Temple Mount movement 1 ?
Yes it does, even publicly in many instances. Over the past decade, the messianic Temple Mount movement has grown rapidly, gravitating from the margins of Israeli society to the mainstream. Often couching their agenda in terms of civil rights and religious freedom, these Jewish extremists have been pressuring the Israeli government to force open for Jewish worship the historic Noble Sanctuary mosque complex in occupied East Jerusalem (known as the Temple Mount to Jews), the third holiest site in Islam and one of the most sensitive religious sites in the world, with the ultimate objective of building a Jewish temple where two ancient temples once stood.
In recent years, their provocations have been a major factor behind protests in the occupied Palestinian territories, with many Palestinians fearing that Israel is planning to take over part or all of the Noble Sanctuary for Jewish use, as it did with the historic Ibrahimi mosque in Hebron following the massacre of 29 Palestinian worshippers by an Israeli-American settler in 1994.
While Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claims he has no intention of changing the status quo in the Noble Sanctuary that has been in effect since Israel’s occupation of East Jerusalem began during the 1967 War, which allows non-Muslims to visit but not pray there, his cabinet and Likud party are filled with Temple Mount extremists, his government funds organizations whose openly declared goal is to build a Jewish temple in the Noble Sanctuary, and Israeli public schools teach Jewish children to yearn to do the same.
Notable Temple Mount Extremists in the Israeli Government:
The current Israeli government includes a number of Temple Mount extremists in senior ministerial posts who have been agitating for the imposition of Jewish-Israeli sovereignty over the Noble Sanctuary and the construction of a Jewish temple there, including:
Former Deputy Foreign Minister and current Ambassador of Israel to the UK, Tzipi Hotovely: In October 2015, Hotovely, a rising member of Netanyahu’s Likud party, declared during a TV interview: “My dream is to see the Israeli flag flying over the Temple Mount.” She previously stated:
“The construction of the temple in its place on Temple Mount should symbolize the renewal of the sovereignty of the People of Israel in its Land.”
Former Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Uri Ariel: A settler and member of the extreme right-wing Jewish Home party, Ariel has also publicly called for the construction of a Jewish temple in the Noble Sanctuary. In July 2013, then-Housing and Construction Minister Ariel declared to settlers in the occupied West Bank:
“We’ve built many little, little temples… but we need to build a real Temple on the Temple Mount.”
Former Deputy Defense Minister Rabbi Eli Ben Dahan: The notoriously racist Ben Dahan is also a settler, member of the Jewish Home party and a staunch advocate of changing the status quo in the Noble Sanctuary. In May 2014, then-Deputy Minister of Religious Affairs Ben Dahan announced that his ministry was drafting new rules that would change the regimen of the site, stating:
“I expect the prime minister and the government of Israel to adopt and validate these regulations and allow all Jews who desire so to go up to the Temple Mount and pray there.”
Former Minister of Culture and Sport and current Minister of Transportation and Road Safety, Miri Regev: Another hardline rising star in Netanyahu’s Likud party, Regev has been aggressively campaigning to change the status quo in the Noble Sanctuary, including introducing a bill to the Israeli Knesset (parliament) in May 2014 calling for Jews to be able to pray there.
Former Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked: Jewish Home party member Shaked also supports changing the status quo in the Noble Sanctuary. In October 2014, she declared:
"The Prime Minister should just apply [Israeli] sovereignty over Jerusalem which today, unfortunately, is being abandoned, and should, together with the Minister of Justice, sign these regulations.”
Current Justice Minister and former Minister of Public Security Yariv Levin: In February 2014, then-chairman of Israel’s governing coalition Levin, also a member of Netanyahu’s Likud party, declared:
“It seems to me that when Jews for so many years sat in exile and prayed for a return to Zion, they did not mean Tel Aviv, but Jerusalem. They did not dream of returning to the Knesset building and the Prime Minister’s office, but to someplace else – to the Temple Mount.”
Former Jerusalem Affairs Minister Zeev Elkin: Another settler and member of Netanyahu’s Likud party, Elkin once declared:
“It is important to remove it [the Temple Mount] from the purview of the wild-eyed religious. We must explain to broad swaths of the people that without this place, our national liberty is incomplete.”
Former Minister of health and Speaker of the Israeli Knesset Yuli Edelstein: In 2012, then-Minister of Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs Edelstein, who is also a member of Netanyahu’s Likud party, declared:
“My job is to deal with the daily process, connecting and building the People of Israel, which leads to the Temple.”
Current National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir:
Ben-Gvir wants to impose full Jewish Israeli sovereignty over the Noble Sanctuary Mosque complex in occupied East Jerusalem, known as the Temple Mount to Jews, and has made numerous provocative visits to the site.
In May 21, 2023 Ben Gvir provocatively visited Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque compound and declared
“We are in charge here,”
We are in charge in Jerusalem and in all of the Land of Israel,”
During his visit, Ben Gvir noted his party’s demands for more budgeting to increase the Jewish presence in the Negev and Galilee, alluding to the fact that those areas have large Arab populations.
“In the coming budget we must invest in the Negev and Galilee,” he said. “Jerusalem is our soul, the Negev and Galilee are our life force. We must act there, we must be sovereigns also in the Negev and in the Galilee, and the basis is the budget.”
Ben-Gvir, who was elected last November promising to push for Jewish prayer at the site, is considered by many to be the most extremist Israeli politician and has a long history of Palestinian baiting. For many years, Ben-Gvir had a framed photo of Baruch Goldstein, the Brooklyn-born mass-murderer and fellow Kahane disciple who massacred 29 in the Ibrahimi mosque in Hebron in 1994, hanging in his living room. Ben-Gvir claims he took the photo down during the 2020 election campaign. He also once dressed as Goldstein for the Jewish holiday of Purim.
Former Minister of Finance and current Minister in the Defense Ministry Bezalel Smotrich:
Smotrich has called for the building of a synagogue in the Noble Sanctuary Mosque complex in occupied East Jerusalem and like Ben-Gvir supports the imposition of full Jewish Israeli sovereignty over the site. Both men are pushing for Jews to be allowed to pray openly in the Muslim holy site, despite the fact that traditionally Jews have prayed at the Western Wall adjacent to the Noble Sanctuary and Jewish religious authorities have opposed Jews visiting the Noble Sanctuary for theological reasons.
In 2015 he submitted a bill to the Knesset that would allow Jews to pray freely at Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque compound.
In August 2019, he had a war of words with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and accused the prime minister of “weakness” and showing “zero leadership” for initially barring Jews from entering the compound on Tisha B’Av. The pressure from the far-right worked, and the police eventually allowed the worshippers to enter the site.
Yehuda Glick: Glick is one of Israel's most high profile messianic Temple Mount extremists and a member of the Knesset from Netanyahu's Likud party.The Temple Movement is led by US born former Likud politician Yehuda Glick, who came of age in the Israeli intelligence service. The official body of the movement has called for the :
"liberation of the Temple Mount (al-Aqsa) from the murderous Islam.”
Israeli Government Support for the Temple Institute & Other Messianic Extremists:
The Israeli government and municipalities like the city of Jerusalem directly fund groups such as the Temple Institute, which are actively working towards building a Jewish temple in the Noble Sanctuary, and sponsor their public events. The Temple Institute is also promoted on the municipality of Jerusalem’s website and on its official tourism site:
According to a November 2015 report in Israel’s Haaretz newspaper:
The [Temple] institute has received some 1.4 million shekels [approximately $361,000 USD] in Education Ministry funding over the past five years, according to Finance Ministry figures, while the Culture and Sports Ministry has provided a further 814,000 shekels [approximately $210,000 USD] in additional funding to another affiliate of the Temple Institute.
According to a March 2013 report by Israeli NGOs Ir Amim and Keshev:
In the years 2008-2011, the Ministry of Culture, Science and Sports and the Ministry of Education supported the Temple Institute and the Midrasha at an average rate of NIS 412,000 [approximately $105,000 USD] per year.
On December 30, 2010 a highly attended conference took place at Binyanei Ha’uma (The Jerusalem Conference Center). The event, promoted as ‘Every Jew Has a Part in the Sacred’ (the logo on the invitation proclaimed ‘Something good is happening in Jerusalem!’), drew thousands of attendees, mostly Haredim. The program included a discussion of ritual sacrifice and an exhibit presenting a model of the Temple. It also showcased a virtual presentation illustrating the construction of the Third Temple on the ruins of the Dome of the Rock [shrine in the Noble Sanctuary]. The conference was held under the auspices of the Jerusalem Municipality’s Department of Religious Culture.
In April 2015, Jerusalem’s chief rabbi gave his blessing to and attended an event held by the Temple Institute where a lamb was ritually slaughtered in “rehearsal” for doing so in the Noble Sanctuary one day. As one of the organizers noted, “The minute the government approves, we know exactly how to do it.” The event poster stated that it was “supported by the Jerusalem municipality,” and Jerusalem city council member Aryeh King, who heads one of the largest settler groups in occupied East Jerusalem, also attended.
In June 2015, Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat spoke at an event organized by the Temple Institute aimed at kindergarten-aged children.
Incitement & Indoctrination of Children in Israeli Public Schools
In addition to Israeli government funding for extremist Temple Mount groups and sponsorship of their events, public schools in Israel indoctrinate Jewish children into the Temple Mount movement and instill a desire to build a temple in the Noble Sanctuary.
According to a November 2015 report in Haaretz newspaper entitled, Religious Public Schools Teach Children to 'Long for the Third Temple,' for a number of years Jewish public religious schools have been using a curriculum that stresses the importance of building a third temple in the Noble Sanctuary to the national goals of Israel and Judaism. According to the report, the government has been paying the Temple Institute to organize lectures and workshops for both religious and secular students. In 2014 alone, the Israeli government paid the Temple Institute more than $85,000 USD for such services.The article also noted:
The section dealing with ‘Love of the Land and the Temple’ is part of the social studies curriculum in state religious schools. Development of the curriculum began about seven years ago, an Education Ministry source said, and since then has undergone a number of adjustments. This year, the curriculum – which is geared for grades 1 through 6 – is mandatory as part of the students’ study of faith. There is no direct reference in the set of lessons or elsewhere in the section on ‘Love of the Land and the Temple’ to Al-Aqsa Mosque [the Noble Sanctuary], which has been such a flashpoint in recent weeks.
The beginning of the ‘Love of the Land and the Temple’ curriculum states, ‘It is impossible to talk about the Land of Israel without speaking about the Temple. The Land of Israel and the Temple are attached to one another ... The Temple is at the pinnacle of the aspirations of the Jewish people and humanity as a whole.’”
To convey a sense of the loss of the Temple, the workshop proposes that teachers explore the following: ‘A list of the most major threats, both spiritual and material, facing the Jewish people, and add all your personal difficulties and those of your students. And then think about how each item on the list would be different if we had the Temple right here, right now.’