Ben Gvir Raises Israeli Flag on Temple Mount Ahead of Jerusalem Day; Calls to 'Build Third Temple'

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Otzma Yehudit MK Yitzhak Kroizer ascended the Temple Mount — known to Muslims as Haram al-Sharif — on May 14, 2026, ahead of Jerusalem Day celebrations. Ben-Gvir waved an Israeli flag next to the Dome of the Rock and declared 'The Temple Mount is in our hands,' echoing Moshe Dayan's famous 1967 words. Kroizer called for demolishing the mosques on the Temple Mount and constructing the Third Temple in their place. Jordan's Foreign Ministry issued an immediate condemnation calling the visit 'a dangerous provocation that inflames religious sentiments and violates the historic and legal status quo.' Palestinian factions condemned the incursion as an act of desecration. The visit marks Ben-Gvir's fifth documented storming of the compound in 2026 alone. Temple Mount is the most contested religious site in the world, administered under a Jordanian Waqf status-quo arrangement since 1967. Ben-Gvir's visits, each accompanied by Israeli police escort, are denounced by the Palestinian Authority, Jordan, Egypt, and Muslim-majority states as illegal provocations. May 14 is also the 78th anniversary of Israeli independence — a date Palestinians mark as the Nakba (Catastrophe), when approximately 700,000-750,000 Palestinians were displaced in 1948.