Supreme Court delays synagogue demolition
Court rules synagogue built on private Palestinian land must be destroyed by November 17 as hundreds protest.
The president of the Supreme Court, Justice Miriam Naor, partially accepted the request of the police to increase the period of time allotted to carry out the demolition. According to an earlier Supreme Court ruling, the structure was built on private Palestinian land.
Although the state had requested an extension of three weeks to carry out the demolition, giving them until November 26, the court gave the state 12 days within which to fulfill the order. Justice Naor wrote: "The authorized bodies must carry out the demolition no later than November 17 2015. We are working on the assumption that the authorized bodies will not this time round wait until the last second."
Ahead of the ruling on Wednesday, hundreds of youths congregated at the synagogue. It is currently unclear whether they will continue to hole themselves up in the building.
Protests against the demolition continued with the discovery on Wednesday morning of graffiti that had been sprayed on the wall of the Supreme Court in Jerusalem. The spray-painted message read: "Don't demolish a synagogue, we want a Jewish state."
The entrance to the synagogue was blocked with branches and tires. Some of the youths gathered on the rooftop of the synagogue in wait for the security forces that are due to carry out the demolition, in order to report on their arrival.
Meanwhile, yeshiva students are studying and praying at the synagogue. They form the bulk of hundreds of teenagers, including those who are not originally from Givat Ze'ev – many arrived from other areas of the West Bank in order to maintain a constant watch over the structure.
One of the worshipers in the synagogue, David Mamon, said: "They are ignoring us. We are not prepared for them to demolish a synagogue in Israel. Where will I pray? In Al-Aqsa Mosque?"
Tal Yushvaev, a yeshiva student from elsewhere, added: "We came here to express our opposition to the demolition of the synagogue. We will not leave until we know that there has been a decision to postpone the demolition.
"We don't want to resort to violence, but we won't leave the synagogue," he continued.
Avi Mamo, another worshiper, said that he is aware the territory is problematic. According to him, however, Givat Ze'ev itself is the problem: "If we were talking about a mosque in the same situation, things would be different.
"Over the last few hours they been trying to give us assurances that the synagogue will not be demolished, but we are still anxious and don't intend to leave," he added.
Synagogue manager David Harush said before the Supreme Court's decision that those present intended to stay at least until a decision had been reached.
"We are not interested in violence and are trying to calm the youngsters that have showed up," Harush said. "One has to understand why residents' emotions have erupted.
"There are people who have been praying in this synagogue for over 10 years. We will not give up easily. We have our lives invested in this place," Harush finished.
Already in 2011 a petition was submitted to the Supreme Court by a Palestinian citizen, claiming that the land was private and belonged to him. Only after several years of court hearings did the Supreme Court decide, in July 2014, to accept the petition and order the demolition of the synagogue within a year.
Last June, however, the judges were requested to delay the planned evacuation, which was scheduled for August. A re-scheduled date of October 13 was then delayed again, until Tuesday.
This week the Jerusalem Police District Commander, Moshe (Chicky) Adari, submitted a response to the Supreme Court requesting that the scheduled evacuation date be delayed due to the security situation.
"The attacks and protests that follow them cause resentment, frustration and unrest because of the current situation," Adari warned in his letter to the court.
"This creates a platform from which the extreme Right can conduct "price tag" activities," the letter continued. Adari claimed that carrying out the demolition order at this time could lead to protests against Arabs and against Muslim religious buildings.
The petitioners, who were represented by attorney Shlomi Zachariah from the left-wing legal aid organization Yesh Din, approached the Supreme Court on behalf of the Palestinian citizen, who had already submitted a request for the demolition to be implemented.
Zachariah attacked the police request to extend the evacuation period until November 26.
"This is a dangerous request," he wrote in Yesh Din's response to the Supreme Court. "The police say that there is a threat of violence or a fear of violence. This fear is dictating how the law is enforced - the police are in fact showing that these threats are effective."
