On Sunday 5/29/2023, the Zionist Knesset witnessed the launch of the “Jewish Freedom Lobby on the Temple Mount” to strengthen control over the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque and impose more Jewish religious presence in it.

Three members of the Likud party, Nissim Vitori, Ariel Kellner and Dan Iluz, announced the formation of the lobby. The three members are among those who participated in the storming of the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque, including the storming of the Hebrew anniversary of the occupation of Jerusalem.

The launch ceremony was attended by representatives of the extremist “Temple” groups, and the interventions of the political figures focused on the need to “strengthen the status of the Temple Mount in the Zionist fabric,” “strengthen Jewish rights,” which usually means strengthening the religious presence and biblical rituals at Al-Aqsa Mosque, and “the need to thank those who work to promote Jewish visits to the Temple Mount,” in reference to the integration of roles with the Temple groups as the basis for the work of this lobby.

“The Temple Mount is the holiest place for Jews in the world, and every Jew has the right to go there,” Illouz, who is of Moroccan Jewish origin, said during the meeting.

Ariel Kellner once again repeated the saying, “Whoever controls the Temple Mount controls Jerusalem, and whoever controls Jerusalem controls this land,” a saying that goes back to the Ukrainian poet and right-wing politician Uri Zvi Greenberg, who was a member of the Knesset for the Herut party under the leadership of Menachem Begin. 

The Speaker of the Knesset, Amir Ohana, had previously quoted the same statement in the meeting held by eight government ministers and five Knesset members with extremist Temple groups in the tunnels surrounding the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque on Sunday, 5/21/2023, in the largest official embrace of the policy of Judaizing Al-Aqsa. 

It is noteworthy that this is the fourth parliamentary session that witnesses the establishment of a lobby whose title is controlling the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque and strengthening the Jewish religious presence in it; the first was in 2016 and was headed at that time by the extremist Shuli Moalem with Rabbi “Yehuda Glick”, followed in 2019 by the formation of a second lobby at the initiative of “Ariel Kellner” and “Mai Golan” and renewed in 2020.