The High Court has rejected Tuesday a petition filed by the rabbi of the Ele Sinai settlement in Gaza and an ancient synagogues expert to prevent the destruction of Gush Katif synagogues.
The petitioners called for transferring the structures or preserving them via international intervention.
The court High Court judge Elyakim Rubenstein said in the ruling, “The decision was a difficult one, to the point of heartbreak.”
According to the decision, the synagogues will be emptied prior to their destruction. Symbolic items taken out of the destroyed synagogues will be placed in newly-built synagogues throughout the country, predominantly in neighborhoods populated by former Gaza and northern West Bank settlers.
Notably, the synagogues in the former settlements of Shalev and Tel Katifa will be moved to Israel in their entirety.
Judge Edmond Levy, who represented the minority opinion in support of the petition, said the Gush Katif synagogues should be treated as mosques and churches, which are not destroyed even if they are abandoned.