ISRAELI JUDGE UPHOLDS THE AL-AQSA COMPOUND’S BAN ON JEWISH PRAYER

Fri 08 October 2021:

An Israeli court upheld a ban on Jewish worship at Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa mosque compound on Friday, overturning a lower court’s ruling that enraged Palestinians and Muslims worldwide.

Last month, an Israeli rabbi named Aryeh Lippo was barred from the site for two weeks for praying there, but a Jerusalem court overturned the decision on Tuesday, ruling that Lippo’s whispered prayer did not “violate police instructions.”

Jews are permitted to visit the site, but they are not permitted to pray or perform rituals there.

Israeli police appealed the decision, and Jerusalem District Court judge Aryeh Romanoff on Friday upheld the ban, saying officers had acted “within reason”.

“The fact that there was someone who observed [Lippo] pray is evidence that his prayer was overt,” Romanoff wrote. “I restore the decision of the police commander.”

The ruling of the lower court was harshly criticized by Palestinians, as well as officials in Jordan, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia.

The mosque and its surrounding plaza have long been a flashpoint in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Sacred to Muslims as the third holiest site in Islam and revered by Jews as the site of two ancient temples, the mosque and its surrounding plaza has long been a flashpoint in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

In 1967, Israel took control of east Jerusalem, including the mosque, but Jordan is the custodian of the city’s Islamic sites.

Although there is no Israeli law prohibiting Jewish worship at the Al-Aqsa site, Israeli officials have imposed a restriction since 1967 to prevent tensions.

Israel’s Public Security Minister, Omer Bar-Lev, issued a statement on Friday in support of the police prohibition, warned that a change in the status quo would “endanger the public peace”.

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