The Senior Registrar of the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court, Shai Tzarfati, last Friday rejected the Jerusalem Police claims against Beyadenu activist S and ruled that she be compensated to the tune of NIS 2,000 ($562.30 as of Tuesday morning).
Read: Jewish Guides & Activists Arrested, Ejected from Temple Mount by Israeli Police
S, an activist of the organization Beyadenu (Temple Mount is in our hands) went up to the Temple Mount on November 29, 2021, to protest the murder of Eli Kay Hy’d outside the Temple Mount compound by Fadi Abu Shkhaydam, a Waqf agent who moonlights as a Hamas terrorist and had been known to the police.
On the Temple Mount, S was approached by a police officer who ordered her to have a “conversation” with the police before her next attempt to enter the Temple Mount.
S, who planned to go up to the Temple Mount again on February 12, 2021, and hold a conversation at the entrance as ordered, was stopped by a policeman who did not let her go in, claiming she had to have a hearing before a police officer first. S then called the police station dozens of times to no avail, and when she went up to the Temple Mount again on May 12, 2021, she was refused entry.
S never received a written summons for a hearing, and instead was WhatsApped by the Jerusalem Police that she was being banned from the Temple Mount for three months, with no explanation given.
S then filed a lawsuit with the Jerusalem Small Claims Court. The police told the court that S. belonged to an organization that “violates the rules of the visit as part of a political goal to cause a provocation to ‘wreak havoc’ on the area while violating public order.”
That’s a lot of action for one Jewish woman…
In the end, Senior Registrar Tzarfati rejected the police claims and ordered them to pay S NIS 2,000, ruling that the police should have summoned her in writing to a hearing before banning her from the Temple Mount, which constituted a serious violation of her freedom of movement.
Registrar Tzarfati noted in the protocol that “the plaintiff, according to the police report, received a message that her ascent to the mountain is conditional on a clarification conversation––this, and nothing else,” and “the plaintiff did not receive any summons in writing for hearing.”
Tzarfati also ruled that in any case of ban for a fixed time, the subject of the ban must receive a written notice of the decision, with all the evidentiary basis for which the ban is requested, and then be summoned to a lawful hearing, following which a reasoned decision should be made.
Tom Nisani, CEO of Beyadenu, who sent us the above details, stated: “The court has once again ruled that banning Jewish ascenders from the Temple Mount is illegal. Our legal team, together with our partners from the lawfare project, will continue to act to ensure the fundamental rights of those who ascend to the Mount. We, too, have rights and we will not give them up.”
יהודה ובניו עלו הבוקר להר הבית אחרי 30 ק”מ ושבע שעות ברגל מגוש עציון!! pic.twitter.com/M22lnfMpkr
— בידינו – למען הר הבית Beyadenu (@Beyadenu) October 11, 2022
