Sunday, June 23, 2013, 17:26 In a deliberation which took place on Sunday, June 23 at the Jerusalem Magistrate Court Judge Dov Pollock ordered a Jewish youth suspected of praying at the gate to the Temple Mount and assaulting an Arab youth released to his home on condition of posting bail and a restraining order banning him from the Temple Mount area for 15 days. The judge rejected the police demand for a restraining order banning the youth from the entire Old City for 60 days. In his decision Judge Pollock noted that the claim according to which Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount is problematic and causes unrest violates freedom of religion. In his decision Judge Pollock added to similar statements that Judge Malka Aviv had written several months ago.
On Friday, June 21 the youth arrived at the Cotton Merchants’ Gate leading to the Temple Mount in order to say a prayer in a place from which the site of the Holy Temple could be seen. According to the youth he prayed at the gate and while he was praying an Arab youth approached him and began to kick him. According to the youth and Itamar Ben-Gvir, the attorney representing him on behalf of Honenu, such occurrences are common on the Temple Mount and in the surrounding area. Arab youths, and sometimes even children, are sent by adults in order to provoke and beat Jews going up to the Temple Mount. The police and the court do not deny it. The Jewish youth said that he kicked the Arab youth in return and in response was detained by policemen who were on the scene.
Despite the fact that Shabbat would soon begin the Old City Police did not hurry to bring the youth to court for a deliberation and therefore he was forced to spend Shabbat in remand. On Saturday night, after Shabbat, the detainee was brought to the Jerusalem Magistrate Court for a deliberation on his release conditions. Judge Hagit Mak-Kalmanovitch berated the police representatives for holding a deliberation on release conditions at such a late hour and released the detainee under obligation to report the following morning for a deliberation. The following morning the court rejected the police demand for a 60 day restraining order banning the detainee from the entire Old City of Jerusalem. Judge Pollock also added that when Arab women made a disturbance on the Temple Mount the police did not demand a 60 day restraining order and therefore he does not see cause for such a demand in the case currently being judged.
In response to the court’s decision attorney Itamar Ben-Gvir, who is representing the youth on behalf of Honenu, said that “This is an important decision which I hope the Israeli Police will study and internalize. The right to pray in the State of Israel is not reserved only for the Women of the Wall, but rather also for Jews who would like to see the Holy Temple rebuilt. The judge’s decision today asserts that there is no prohibition against praying on the Temple Mount and that it is the police who are acting against the law when they prevent Jews from praying.”
For additional, but not all, cases in which Honenu attorneys represented Jews detained on or near the Temple Mount please see here, here, here and here.