The first day of Tishrei, the first day of the Jewish New Year, will fall this year on Saturday (September 12, 2026) \u2013 a day on which Jews are prohibited from ascending the Temple Mount in the heart of Jerusalem. Ahead of that Saturday, a broad public and political campaign led by the \u201cTemple Mount Administration\u201d and Temple organizations has been gaining momentum in recent weeks. Under the slogan \u201cIt is time to open the Temple Mount on Saturdays,\u201d activists are demanding that the political leadership lift the existing ban and reopen the compound to Jewish visitors on Saturdays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The timing is not accidental and stems from a unique challenge in this year\u2019s calendar: in addition to the first day of Rosh Hashanah, the first day of Sukkot, as well as Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah, all fall on Saturday. For Temple Mount activists, this means that at the peak moments of the Tishrei holidays, the compound will be completely closed to Jewish entry, while remaining open to Muslims.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The campaign is making use of videos produced with the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI), and its centerpiece will be a large rally and discussion evening scheduled for Thursday, August 27, 2026, in Jerusalem\u2019s Kiryat Moshe neighborhood. Leading rabbis, ministers and members of Knesset are expected to participate, with the aim of applying direct pressure on the Ministry of National Security and the Israel Police.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The main argument advanced by the campaign\u2019s organizers rests on a clear historical precedent dating back to the British Mandate period (1917\u20131948). At the time, British policy allowed broad and free access to the Temple Mount seven days a week, including Fridays and Saturdays. Tourists, researchers and members of all religions, including Jews, were able to enter the compound and even go inside the structures themselves \u2013 Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock \u2013 subject to purchasing an entrance ticket from the Muslim Waqf, intended to cover part of the site\u2019s maintenance costs. Although most of the Jewish public at the time refrained from ascending for halachic reasons, the fundamental right to visit on Saturday existed and was preserved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This arrangement largely continued during the first three decades after the Six-Day War. The dramatic change came only in 2000, with the outbreak of the Second Intifada, when the Mount was completely closed to non-Muslim entry. When the compound reopened in 2003, an updated status quo was established that fixed the closure of the Mount on Fridays and Saturdays \u2013 a decision that the organizations describe as a \u201creward for terrorism\u201d that should now be revoked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On the other hand, the move is causing deep concern among security officials and the Prime Minister\u2019s Office. Opening the Mount on Saturdays, particularly during the sensitive Tishrei holidays, is seen as a blatant violation of the status quo that could ignite a widespread wave of violence in East Jerusalem and throughout the Muslim world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Despite the continued erosion of the status quo in recent years, including the de facto allowance of Jewish prayer at the site, security officials believe that the issue of opening days is a red line for Palestinians and could carry serious diplomatic and security consequences.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The first day of Tishrei, the first day of the Jewish New Year, will fall this year on Saturday (September 12, 2026) \u2013 a day on which Jews are prohibited from ascending the Temple Mount in the heart of Jerusalem. Ahead of that Saturday, a broad public and political campaign led by the \u201cTemple Mount […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":184459,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"9319","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_seopress_news_disabled":"","_seopress_video_disabled":"","_seopress_video":[],"_seopress_pro_schemas_manual":[],"_seopress_pro_rich_snippets_disable_all":"","_seopress_pro_rich_snippets_disable":[],"_seopress_pro_schemas":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[10327,9319,9314],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-184461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking","category-jerusalem-updates","category-main-item"],"acf":{"subtitle":"Tishrei holidays in Jerusalem: Rosh Hashanah, Sukkot and Simchat Torah will all begin on Saturday this year, as Temple Mount groups intensify pressure to change the status quo at the holy site"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jerusalem-online.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jerusalem-online.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jerusalem-online.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jerusalem-online.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jerusalem-online.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=184461"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jerusalem-online.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184461\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jerusalem-online.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/184459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jerusalem-online.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=184461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jerusalem-online.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=184461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jerusalem-online.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=184461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}