The Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court ruled Monday that it is permitted to blow the shofar and perform religious rituals at the Eastern Wall without interference, rejecting police claims of provocation following the arrests on Sunday of Temple Mount activists for blowing the shofar outside the eastern wall of the Temple Mount.
Temple Mount in Our Hands? Maybe Not.
Justice Amir Shaked ruled that “the suspicion is of the lowest degree, as apparent from the investigation materials and videos presented to me, and as I was impressed by the defendants.”
The judge ruled that former MK Yehuda Glick, Tom Nisani, and Emanuel Brosh would be barred until 6 am Tuesday from entering the Old City and outside its walls.
Police requested the court bar the activists from the entirety of the Old City until October 19th, but failed to win court approval.
Nisani, Executive Director of the organization “Beyadenu – for the Temple Mount”, Glick and Brosh arrived at the ancient Eastern Wall of the Temple Mount to blow the shofar in honor of the month of Elul, since Nisani and Glick had been barred from entering the Temple Mount.
Several minutes later, two Arabs approached them, and attempted to attack the activists.
The eight Border Guard Police officers who arrived at the scene instead detained the three Jews for questioning at the nearby police station until late in the evening.
The Arabs who attacked the Jews were not arrested and no enforcement activity or investigation was taken, despite repeated requests by the activists.
“Judge Shaked could not have ruled otherwise,” Nisani said in a statement Monday evening.
“The law allows Jews freedom of religion even if the Israeli government and the Israeli police refuse to recognize it and fight against us. We will be there to continue the fight for Jerusalem and the Temple Mount as long as it takes. ‘He who rules the Mount rules the land’, said Uri Zvi Greenberg and we will make sure that this happens in Israel, God willing.”
“It was proven again today in court that the main violator of the order on the Temple Mount and in the Old City is the police, who instead of acting with common sense try to look for the easy route by keeping the Jews away, thus giving an impetus to Palestinian terrorism,” Glick added.
“We will continue to work for freedom of religion for every person on the Temple Mount and its surroundings for the sake of peace, for the sake of public order and for the advancement of the redemption of the people of Israel.”
Attorney Daniel Shimsilashvili who represented the activists on behalf of the Honenu organization expressed congratulations that his office, on behalf of Honenu, “was able to convince the court to reject the police request to remove former member of the Knesset and two of his friends from the Eastern Wall, a place that is indisputably sacred and significant to the Jewish people.
“The court heard the allegations and rejected the request of the police, and we welcome that.”
