There were unusual crowds at the entrance to the Temple Mount on Wednesday, after reports that the Mount might be closed to Jewish visitors for the last two weeks of Ramadan.
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"Hundreds of people are waiting to enter the Temple Mount. Like all the past few days, there's a delay and Jews are losing time to visit," Temple Mount activists said early in the morning. There were large crowds later in the day, as well.
"The police can't cope with the crowding, and the line is stuck," they said.
The report that the Temple Mount would be closed to Jews for 10 days or more angered plenty of religious Zionists, who described the steps and "weakness" by the government. This was because while in the past, the Mount was closed to Jews at the end of Ramadan, this time they see it as a direct capitulation to Arab violence and the wave of terrorism. On Wednesday, Jews entering the Temple Mount were targeted by rocks thrown at them from inside Al-Aqsa Mosque, as well as curses.
Despite what members of the coalition claim, the Mount has never been closed to Jews more than a week during Ramadan. But since 2013, for reasons that are unclear, governments have decided to close the compound to Jews for reasons that are unclear, under police advisement. The "status quo" invented in that year under the Netanyahu government was formed primarily by the police. At first, it was done in secret, in messages claiming that the Mount would be closed for a day only – and then in official announcements that it would reopen to Jews after Eid al-Fitr, the holiday that marks the end of Ramadan.
In the years that followed, the Mount was closed to Jews during Ramadan. In 2014, it closed for 12 days, and in 2016, the same. In 2017 Jews were banned for nine days, and in 2018, Jews were banned for 11 days. The peak came in 2021 during Operation Guardian of the Walls, when the Temple Mount was closed to Jews for 19 days.
The Temple Mount groups have partial documentation that prove prior to 2013, Jews had visited the Temple Mount compound freely ever since 1988, except during the Second Intifada, when the Mount was closed entirely to anyone who was not Muslim. In the past few years, every Ramadan has seen rioting on the Mount, especially 2021, and Temple Mount activists link the violence to the decision to close the Mount to Jews.
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