Photo Credit: Ebeili / Wikimedia Commons
Givat Zeev, view from the wadi.

A seven-year legal battle ended in the High Court of Justice on Monday night with an order to demolish a synagogue in Givat Ze’ev within one week.

Givat Ze’ev, located close to Jerusalem, is home to nearly 15,000 Jews and is the fifth-largest community in Judea and Samaria.

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The appeal to save the Ayelet Hashachar Synagogue where worshipers have prayed for more than 20 years was rejected.

The building is located on property owned by Amana, the construction arm of the settlement movement.

In 2014, the court ordered the government to raze the synagogue in response to a petition by the far-right NGO Yesh Din claiming the purchase documents for the property were forged.

The court ruled in a 12-page decision on Monday that the synagogue was built on “occupied territory” and on private Palestinian Arab property, and thus not protected under international law under such circumstances.

This same problem takes place in numerous other locations where land has been purchased from Palestinian Arab owners as well, particularly in third-party transactions that are designed to protect the life of the seller.

Palestinian Authority Arab citizens risk their lives to sell their property: the PA imposes a death sentence upon any Arab who sells land to Jews or Israelis, regardless of location.


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Hana Levi Julian is a Middle East news analyst with a degree in Mass Communication and Journalism from Southern Connecticut State University. A past columnist with The Jewish Press and senior editor at Arutz 7, Ms. Julian has written for Babble.com, Chabad.org and other media outlets, in addition to her years working in broadcast journalism.