The ban imposed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on visits by government ministers and Knesset members to Jerusalem’s Temple Mount lasted three straight years, barring some experimental interruptions in 2017. Netanyahu’s decision at the time was prompted by riots at the site and the so-called individual Palestinian intifada, which broke out in the fall of 2015. The murder of Alexander Levlovich in September 2015 and the murders of Eitam and Naama Henkin in the West Bank in October 2015 signaled the beginning of the intifada.

The tension in Jerusalem was intense, and the Palestinians accused Israel of seeking to change the status quo at the Temple Mount complex. Netanyahu feared that the Palestinians would view visits by right-wing ministers and Knesset members as provocations, engendering further violence. And so, he rightly issued the ban. Since then, the political right has applied relentless pressure on Netanyahu to lift it.

On July 3, Netanyahu addressed a letter to Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein, saying that lawmakers could visit the Temple Mount once every three months. The first of the ministers to implement his “right” to visit the site after Netanyahu’s decision to lift the ban was Uri Ariel, the minister of agriculture and a member of HaBayit HaYehudi. Ariel has made no secret of his yearnings for a third Jewish temple to replace the two destroyed ones. “We hope and pray for Tisha B’av to be a day of happiness and for the temple to be rebuilt, so that there will be no more fasts and we will be able to bring all the sacrifices that we read about in this week’s Torah reading,” Ariel said. “God willing, a kohen’s [Jewish cleric] blessing will be bestowed on all those ascending the Mount.”

Ariel was citing the prophet Zecharia and referring to the ninth day of the Jewish month of Av, a day of fasting and mourning on which tradition has it the temples were destroyed. Tisha B’Av falls this year on July 22, and Ariel was essentially exhorting believers and temple loyalists to follow his example and thus turn the day of mourning into an occasion for “happiness.” Knesset member Sharren Haskel of the ruling Likud Party visited the site shortly after Ariel, and additional lawmakers who advocate the temple’s reconstruction, such as Shuli Mualem of HaBayit HaYehudi and Yehuda Glick and Amir Ohana of the Likud, followed suit.