Israeli Appeals Court Upholds Ban on Jewish Prayer at Temple Mount

The Jerusalem District Court in Israel has upheld a ban on Jewish prayer at the Temple Mount, reversing a lower court decision. The decision issued late Wednesday night was the result of an appeal by the state prosecutor of the lifting of a 15-day ban on visiting the site placed on three teenagers who had prostrated themselves on the ground and recited the Shema prayer. The Jerusalem Magistrates’ Court on Sunday had appeared to strike down the ban, with the judge saying in his decision that in the particular case of the teens their actions did not constitute criminal activity, in what observers then took to be a signal that Jewish prayer at the site in violation of what is commonly called the status quo is not a violation of any law. Following the ruling, Israeli police officers had continued to ban prayer at the site. “The special sensitivity of the Temple Mount cannot be overstated,” District Court Judge Einat Avman-Muller said in her ruling late on Wednesday, adding that the right of Jews to pray at the site “is not absolute, and it should be superseded by other interests, among them the safeguarding of public order.” Jewish prayer and other non-Muslim religious practices are banned on the site, which is the holiest in the world to Jews and the third holiest for Muslims and is known in the Muslim world as Haram al-Sharif, home to the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound.