The Al Aqsa Files - Week 3 Part 2
Al Aqsa Files · Part 3 of 4 · 2 of 2
Yesterday the institution. Today the plan. Three stages. Documented by Haaretz. In their own words.
The three-stage plan. The ministries. The statements. The US funding. The point where preparation stops being theoretical and becomes state-backed.
Haaretz. September 7 2024. On record.
02 / 07
Haaretz published the three-stage plan. Ben-Gvir prepared it. Netanyahu silently approves.
On September 7 2024, Haaretz published an investigation headlined "Now in Power, Israel's Messianic Far-right Is Dead Serious About Rebuilding the Temple."
It documented that Ben-Gvir's visits to Al Aqsa and his demand for Jewish prayer rights "conceals an orderly, three-stage plan to seize control of the site and build a new Temple."
Haaretz stated directly: "The demand for Jews to be permitted to pray on the Temple Mount covers up a longer-term goal: to demolish Al Aqsa Mosque and establish in its place a Third Temple."
The paper reported that Netanyahu "silently approves" of Ben-Gvir's plan.
Both men are named. Both are serving Israeli government officials.
This is Israel's newspaper of record.
On August 27 2024, one day after Ben-Gvir called to build a synagogue on the site, Israel's Heritage Ministry announced it would fund tours of Al Aqsa for "tens of thousands of Jews and hundreds of thousands of tourists."
Budget: NIS 2 million.
The Israel Police approved it.
Source: Haaretz September 7 2024, "Now in Power, Israel's Messianic Far-right Is Dead Serious About Rebuilding the Temple" · Heritage Ministry announcement August 27 2024 · Jerusalem Story September 20 2024
Three government ministries. Documented involvement.
03 / 07
This is not a fringe movement. Three Israeli ministries are directly involved.
Ministry of Agriculture: Helped bypass standard import regulations to bring the five red heifers from Texas to Israel.
Ir Amim, the Jerusalem-based NGO, documented this in 2023.
The Ministry did not respond to Al Jazeera's request for comment before publication.
Ministry of Heritage: Allocated NIS 2 million for Jewish tours of Al Aqsa announced August 27 2024, designed to enable Israel to control the narrative that visitors receive about the site.
The Israel Police, under the Ministry of National Security, approved the decision.
Ministry of National Security: Ben-Gvir controls direct daily access to the Al Aqsa esplanade.
On August 25 2025 he performed public prayer there on Tisha B'Av, the first serving Israeli cabinet minister ever to do so, in explicit violation of the 1967 status quo agreement.
Source: Ir Amim NGO report 2023 · Heritage Ministry announcement August 27 2024 · Jerusalem Story September 20 2024 · Eurasia Review March 24 2026
Not interpretations. Not accusations. Their own stated words.
04 / 07
Finance Minister Smotrich. May 2025. "We now conquer, cleanse, and stay."
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich declared in May 2025: "We now conquer, cleanse, and stay."
Israeli philosopher Moshe Halbertal warned in Haaretz that the alliance between the religious nationalist right and the Temple movement produces for the first time in Israeli history a "coalescence of messianism and state policy."
Temple Mount activist Rabbi Yehuda Glick, who served as a Knesset member for the Likud party, described his strategy publicly: avoid talking about the Temple directly, use the language of universal rights to normalise Jewish ascension to Al Aqsa.
He did not hide this strategy. He explained it.
Knesset member Yitzhak Pindrus of the United Torah Judaism party stated on television in April 2024: "We are hoping that soon the Third Temple will be built there."
These are elected officials. Their words are on record.
Source: Eurasia Review March 24 2026, Smotrich statement · Haaretz September 7 2024, Halbertal and Glick · Middle East Monitor April 18 2024, Pindrus statement
Where the money comes from. Who is involved beyond Israel.
05 / 07
US Evangelical groups funded and organised the red heifer project. 40 Republican politicians have met Temple groups.
Boneh Israel, the Evangelical Christian organisation that shipped the five red heifers to Israel, describes itself as working to "actively bring the redemption closer."
It is backed by Reshit, an Israeli settler group.
US-based tax-exempt charities including the Father's House Foundation, P.E.F. Israel Endowments Fund and Biblical Faith all accept donations for the Temple Institute.
More than 40 US Republican politicians including Ron DeSantis, Mark Meadows, and Mike Pence have met with Kahanist Temple movement groups on trips to Israel since 2011.
Jewish Currents documented this based on House Ethics Committee travel filings.
Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan met with Kahanists on four separate trips.
This is a cross-border, cross-religion project with documented US government and civil society involvement.
American political backing, American tax-exempt funding, and American Christian theological motivation.
All documented in named publications from named primary sources.
Source: Scheerpost September 6 2023 · Jewish Currents, House Ethics Committee travel filings · Boneh Israel website · Ir Amim 2023
We are not making a claim. We are asking a question.
06 / 07
Three government ministries. A three-stage plan published by Haaretz. US Evangelical funding. A minister who prayed on the esplanade for the first time in history. At what point does a plan stop being hidden?
The Temple Institute published its goals in 1987.
The heifers arrived in 2022.
The three-stage plan was reported in 2024.
Smotrich said "we now conquer, cleanse, and stay" in 2025.
Ben-Gvir prayed on the esplanade in 2025.
These are documented facts from named sources.
The question is not what they intend.
The question is what happens when no one says stop.
Some stories are buried on purpose. We dig.
Next Week · Part 4 of 4
The Doors and The Silence. Access closed. Jordan holds legal custodianship and has not filed at the ICJ. Muslim governments silent. Western media silent.