Ben-Gvir Enters Al-Aqsa Mosque Compound Under Police Escort, Seven Weeks Before Israeli Elections

Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel's far-right National Security Minister, walked into the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied East Jerusalem on Monday, August 31, under the protection of Israeli police, according to Al Jazeera and Anadolu Agency. He was joined by several rabbis, settlers, and security personnel.

Ben-Gvir performed Talmudic prayers and rituals in the eastern section of the compound's courtyards, the Palestinian news agency Wafa reported, as relayed by Al Jazeera. An official from Jerusalem's Islamic Endowments Department told Anadolu that Ben-Gvir entered accompanied by police guards and Israeli occupiers, and that images circulating online showed him praying inside.

"When I was 14 years old, prayer was forbidden, and anyone who murmured was arrested. Today we see redemption," Ben-Gvir said during the visit, according to Al Jazeera Arabic's Elias Karram. "We must blow the shofar and bring the prayer incantations, and there must be a temple… a temple… a temple… but little by little."

Under the status quo arrangement in place since 1967, non-Muslims may visit the compound but are barred from praying there. Since 2003, Israeli police have allowed non-Muslim visitors to enter daily except Fridays and Saturdays. Al-Aqsa is Islam's third-holiest site; Jews call the same ground the Temple Mount and link it to two ancient temples, per Anadolu.

Not the first time

Ben-Gvir, leader of the far-right Jewish Power party, has stormed the compound repeatedly since taking office in 2022, drawing condemnation each time, according to both Al Jazeera and Anadolu. Monday's visit followed the same pattern.

The Jerusalem governorate called it "a dangerous escalation" and a violation of the mosque's status, Al Jazeera reported.

Anadolu noted the timing: the incursion came "nearly two months before Israel's general elections, scheduled for Oct. 27." Ben-Gvir has built his political brand on hardline stances toward Palestinians and the Temple Mount, and a high-profile mosque visit ahead of a national vote is a calculated move to energize his base.

Hamas made that argument explicitly. According to the outlet Breakingthenews.net, cited by the aggregator NewsCord, Hamas described the visit as "an attempt by the Israeli right-wing parties to gain influence ahead of the upcoming legislative election." That's Hamas's characterization of motive, not an established fact, and no Israeli official in the available reporting confirmed or denied an electoral calculation behind the visit.

Regional condemnation

Qatar's government called the incursion "a flagrant violation of international law and international humanitarian law" and "an unacceptable provocation," according to The Peninsula Qatar.

Jordan's Foreign Ministry spokesman, Ambassador Fouad Majali, condemned the visit as "a blatant violation of the historical and legal status of Haram Al-Sharif," Al Jazeera reported. Majali said Jordan "rejected and condemned" the continued incursions by Israeli ministers and settlers, and "warned of consequences" for ongoing violations of Islamic and Christian holy sites in Jerusalem, without specifying what those consequences would be.

Jordan has served as custodian of Jerusalem's Muslim and Christian holy sites since 1967, and its objections to Israeli officials entering Al-Aqsa are a recurring diplomatic flashpoint, not a one-off protest.

The other side of the ledger

Ben-Gvir's defenders—and he has plenty inside Israel's governing coalition—argue that Israeli law does not explicitly criminalize Jewish prayer at the site, and that the ban is a matter of police enforcement policy, not statute. They contend a growing number of religious Jews want the right to pray there openly and that a gradual shift in practice reflects genuine demand, not a government-directed plan to seize the mosque. None of the sourced reporting includes an on-record Israeli government statement defending Monday's visit specifically, but that is the argument Ben-Gvir and his allies have made publicly on past occasions.

Notably absent from Monday's coverage: any comment from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office on this particular incursion. That's a contrast with a separate incident last weekend, in which masked Israeli settlers attacked an NBC News crew and a Palestinian family near Qusra in the West Bank. Netanyahu called that attack the work of "a handful of rioters" that "harms Israel's standing in the world," according to Israel's Haaretz newspaper as cited by Fox News, and his spokesman Doron Spielman called it "a grave injustice." No equivalent condemnation of Ben-Gvir's mosque visit from Netanyahu's office appears in the available record.

What happens next is unresolved. Jordan says there will be consequences for continued incursions; it has not detailed what form that would take. Ben-Gvir has faced no formal discipline from Netanyahu's coalition for prior visits since 2022, and nothing in the current reporting suggests that will change before Israelis vote on October 27.