Israeli Appeal Court Quashes Ruling on Jewish Prayer at Temple Mount
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by Reuters and Algemeiner Staff

Jewish visitors gesture as Israeli security forces secure the area at the compound that houses Al-Aqsa Mosque, known to Muslims as Noble Sanctuary and to Jews as Temple Mount, in Jerusalem’s Old City, May 5, 2022. REUTERS/Ammar Awad
An Israeli appeal court overturned on Wednesday a ruling by a lower magistrate who had questioned the legality of barring Jewish prayer at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.
Under a decades-old “status quo” arrangement with Muslim authorities, Israel allows Jews to visit only if they refrain from religious rites.
Three Jewish youths who received a restraining order after praying at the site successfully challenged the police decision at Jerusalem Magistrates Court, which ruled on Sunday that their actions had not constituted a breach of the peace.
That prompted protests from the Palestinian leadership, threats from Palestinian militants and a pledge from Israel that the status quo would be preserved.
The state filed a counter-appeal on Wednesday with Jerusalem District Court, which found in favor after nightfall.
“The special sensitivity of the Temple Mount cannot be overstated,” Judge Einat Avman-Moller said in her ruling.
A right to freedom of Jewish worship there “is not absolute, and should be superseded by other interests, among them the safeguarding of public order,” she said.
In a statement to Reuters before Wednesday’s ruling, Nati Rom, a lawyer for the defendants, said: “It is strange and regrettable that, in the 21st century, in a Jewish and democratic country, the basic human rights of Jews would be so harmed.”
Tensions in Jerusalem have been mounting ahead of a flag march due to be held by nationalist Jews in Jerusalem’s Old City on Sunday, marking its capture by Israel in a 1967 war.
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