A newly revealed recruitment initiative by Israeli law enforcement has sent shockwaves through the region, with Israeli authorities actively courting ultranationalist activists and Jewish settlers to serve in police units stationed at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied East Jerusalem, Israeli daily newspaper Haaretz has reported.
The call for new hires came directly from Daniel Lerach, deputy commander of the police detachment tasked with overseeing the sensitive religious site. In a public online appeal, Lerach explicitly sought what he termed “religious officers” to be deployed at Al-Aqsa. In messages circulated across social media platforms and private WhatsApp groups—many of which are tied to Israeli settler communities in the occupied West Bank—Lerach extended an open invitation: “Anyone who wants to take part in implementing sovereignty is welcome to contact me.”
Haaretz’s reporting further confirms that rabbis affiliated with the Temple Mount movements, extremist organizations that stage frequent incursions into the Al-Aqsa compound and openly advocate for the destruction of the mosque to make way for a third Jewish temple, have urged their followers to answer the recruitment call. Arnon Segal, a high-profile leader of the Temple Mount movement, hailed the initiative as a pivotal milestone, framing it as growing official Israeli recognition of Jewish claims to the contested site. Segal acknowledged that some potential recruits had raised concerns about joining a police force that currently enforces the long-standing status quo ban on Jewish prayer at the compound, but noted that a large number of movement activists have still opted to enlist.
This recruitment drive is the latest in a string of escalating actions that Palestinian officials characterize as a deliberate campaign to reduce Palestinian presence at Al-Aqsa while entrenching unilateral Israeli control over the site. The Jerusalem Governorate of the Palestinian Authority has condemned the move as a “dangerous development” that forms part of a broader project to erase the mosque’s centuries-old Islamic identity.
In an official statement released Thursday, the governorate explained that the initiative aims to embed activists from extremist Temple Mount groups and adherents of the religious Zionist movement directly into the institutional structure Israel uses to enforce its control over the holy compound. The statement emphasized that the plan marks a new, more open phase of collaboration between official Israeli state bodies and radical Temple Mount organizations.
“This issue extends beyond the recruitment campaign itself,” the statement read. “Israel is seeking to transfer effective authority over Al-Aqsa from the Islamic Waqf, which holds legal and historical custodianship of the site, to Israeli police and other state bodies.”
The Al-Aqsa Mosque compound holds profound religious significance across multiple faiths: it is the third-holiest site in Islam, while for Jewish communities it is known as the Temple Mount, revered as the location of two ancient Jewish temples that once stood on the land. For decades, the site has operated under a fragile internationally recognized status quo arrangement, which preserves its identity as an Islamic place of worship and formalizes the custodianship role of the Jordan-backed Islamic Waqf. Under this agreement, only Muslim worshippers are permitted to pray at the site, while non-Muslim visitors may enter under terms set by the Waqf, which retains full authority over all administrative, maintenance, and religious matters related to the compound.
Since Israel occupied East Jerusalem in 1967, however, the Israeli government has steadily eroded this status quo, imposing growing restrictions on Palestinian and Muslim access to the site while steadily expanding Jewish presence and administrative control. Violations of the long-standing arrangement have accelerated dramatically since October 2023, with senior Israeli officials and sitting lawmakers openly calling for the imposition of full Israeli sovereignty over the entire Al-Aqsa compound.