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ON Monday, May 26, Israel celebrated Jerusalem Day. This marks the day when Israeli forces annexed East Jerusalem and the West Bank after the 1967 war. The celebrations saw thousands of far-right Israelis take to the streets and engage in the national pastime of harassing Arabs. Buoyed by the presence and support of Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, they marched through the Muslim quarter raising genocidal slogans, calling for “death to Arabs”, mocking the plight of Gazans and uttering blasphemous slogans attacking Islam and its revered figures. All of this was conducted under the watchfully protective eye of Israeli police.
As per past practice they also stormed the Al Aqsa compound where they again called for a new Nakba and the extermination of Palestinians while singing and dancing and performing Talmudic rituals. One of the poster boys for the Gaza genocide, ultra-Zionist Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich took to the stage where he spoke of “victory”, “occupation” and “settlement” as his most prized objectives. In a statement that was truly musical to his audience’s ears, he also called for reconstructing “the Temple here” on the site of Al Aqsa Mosque, one of Islam’s holiest sites.
Israeli PM Netanyahu, too, made an appearance, releasing a video of himself walking through a massive underground tunnel beneath Al Aqsa. These tunnels, Israel claims, are dug in order to further archaeological research but it is widely believed that the real purpose is to weaken the foundations of Al Aqsa and find any archaeological evidence that would ‘justify’ a complete takeover of the Temple Mount (which Arabs refer to as Haram al-Sharif) itself and, eventually, lead to the building of the so-called Third Temple.
This begs the question: what were the First and Second Temples? Well, the First Temple was built around 957 BC and was destroyed by the Babylonians a few centuries later during the siege of Jerusalem.
Why build a new temple? A Third Temple?
The Second Temple was constructed in 538 BC but destroyed in 70 AD by the Roman Empire after a bloody and ill-fated Jewish rebellion against Roman rule. All that remains of the Second Temple is the western wall, popularly known as the Wailing Wall which is now the site that just about every American politician must travel to and where they must pledge allegiance to the flag of Israel, thus unlocking the funds and support of the almighty Israeli lobbies.
Why build a new temple? A Third Temple? Well, in certain Jewish religious factions the prevailing thought is that the Third Temple must be built in order to ensure the coming of the messiah who would then presumably usher in an unending golden age of Jewish supremacy in which all other nations would be suborned to their will.
But first, Al Aqsa has to be demolished. The first real voice raised in favour of this was that of Shlomo Goren, the former chief rabbi of the Israeli ‘Defence’ Forces. In 1967, he led a group of 50 Jews into the compound for prayers, and called for the rebuilding of the Temple. Back in those days Israel was still somewhat constrained in terms of not absolutely offending the Arab population in the occupied territories or, despite a stunning victory in the 1967 war, of providing another causus belli to their Arab neighbours. And so, Rabbi Goren was censured and a ruling from Israel’s chief rabbis stated that it was forbidden for Jews to enter the Temple Mount for reasons of ritual impurity that are too complex to address in this column. Despite the official reticence, excavations (under the aegis of Israel’s religious ministry) began that year and have continued since with serious damage to several buildings of the Muslim quarter.
But Israel in 2025 is now very different from the Israel of 1967 which, while still an occupying supremacist power bent on annihilating Palestinian nationhood, was not caught up in the genocidal religious frenzy that defines it today, and perhaps for all time to come.
In today’s Israel, calls to finally destroy Al Aqsa and rebuild the Third Temple are now common. Soldiers in the Israeli forces openly wear Third Temple patches on their uniforms (almost always sold out) and mount banners proclaiming the conquest of Al Aqsa onto their military vehicles. They also have the support of many moneyed organisations like the Temple Institute, the Temple Mount Faithful and the Eretz Yisrael Faithful movements among others. More crucially, they also have the support of many American evangelicals whose eschatological beliefs also welcome the rebuilding of the temple as a precursor to the advent of the messiah. Of course, the evangelicals’ messiah would then convert the world, the Jews included (by fire and sword if needed) to their own particular beliefs, but for the moment both movements stand aligned. The clock is ticking.
The writer is a journalist.
Published in Dawn, June 2nd, 2025
