Netanyahu backs Ben-Gvir’s push for Jewish prayer at Haram Al-Sharif, risking regional unrest

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January 5, 2026 at 3:53 pm.  Middle East Monitor

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has publicly endorsed controversial policy changes at Haram Al-Sharif, backing far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir in moves that undermine decades-old arrangements governing worship at one of the most sensitive religious sites in the world.

Speaking on Sunday, Netanyahu confirmed that recent changes allowing Jewish prayer at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound were carried out with his approval, dismissing warnings from Israel’s own legal officials that the measures breach long-standing commitments to preserve the site’s status quo.

“The changes Ben-Gvir is making are not changing the status quo and it is in coordination with me. I decide on the policy,” Netanyahu said, according to reporting in Haaretz.

His remarks followed a warning from deputy attorney general Gil Limon, who cautioned that Ben-Gvir was unilaterally altering arrangements at the compound in violation of repeated government assurances. For decades, Israel has formally pledged to maintain the “status quo”, under which Muslims pray at the site while Jews pray at the Western Wall below.

In practice, however, restrictions have steadily eroded. Over the past two years, Israeli police have increasingly allowed Jewish visitors to pray inside the compound. Authorities have also permitted audible group prayer, singing and, in 2024, public Torah lessons, particularly on the eastern side of the compound.

Haram Al-Sharif is located in East Jerusalem, which Israel occupied in 1967 and later annexed in a move not recognised under international law. The site, which houses Al-Aqsa Mosque, lies in territory recognised by the international community as occupied Palestinian land and is envisaged as the capital of a future Palestinian state.

READ: Israel: regime to finance illegal settler incursions at Al-Aqsa Mosque

Any change to the status quo at the compound has long been understood to carry the risk of igniting widespread unrest, not only in Jerusalem but across the occupied Palestinian territory and the wider region. Al-Aqsa holds immense religious, political and symbolic significance for Palestinians and Muslims worldwide, and has repeatedly been a flashpoint for uprisings and regional escalation.

Despite this, Ben-Gvir has openly celebrated what he describes as a shift in policy. In 2024, he declared: “Elected officials means me, and this elected official allows Jewish prayer in the Temple Mount.” Netanyahu publicly contradicted him at the time, insisting that “Israel’s policy to preserve the status quo on the Temple Mount has not changed and will not change.”

Yet in 2025, Ben-Gvir again visited the site on Tisha B’Av, the day Jews mark the destruction of what they believe was the ancient temples. Netanyahu once more repeated that Israel’s policy had not changed, even as police continued to allow Jewish prayer in the area.

Ben-Gvir said: “The Temple Mount is going through a change. We all understand what I’m talking about. What needs to be said quietly will be in quiet. I was on the Temple Mount. I prayed on the Temple Mount. We are praying on the Temple Mount.”

He went further, calling existing restrictions discriminatory and demanding full Jewish access, including on Shabbat and on a 24/7 basis.

Critics warn that Israel is deliberately tampering with one of the most volatile issues in Israel’s decades long campaign to colonise Palestine, eroding long-standing safeguards in occupied Jerusalem in a manner that violates international law and risks triggering mass unrest.

READ: Israel attempt to revise status quo on holy sites ‘unduly provocative’: UN