Jews win right to pray on Temple Mount
Police are now required by law to ensure that Jews are able to pray on Temple Mount, a court ruled on Sunday in a landmark victory for Jewish activists.
Despite Jews holding the right to pray and worship at the holy site according to the Supreme Court, Israeli security services have previously barred non-Muslims from doing so, insisting that it risks triggering Palestinian violence.
Rabbi Yehudah Glick has been personally banned from visiting the site on several occasions. He has since lost income from leading groups up the mountain, and took the police to court. On Sunday, he was awarded NIS 500,000 (over £80,000) in damages.
Judge Malka Aviv labelled his ban "arbitrary" and said it was given without appropriate consideration.
"There is nothing in the deeds of the plaintiff [Glick] that justified in any way the punishment that he received," she ruled.
"This day will be remembered for generations in the annals of the struggle for the return of Jews to the Temple Mount," activists said in response to the decision, according to Israel National News.
Glick's lawyer, Aviad Visoly, said in a statement that the verdict "has made prayer on the Temple Mount 'kosher'. In essence, the court took the Supreme Court's rulings about the Jews' right to pray on the Temple Mount, and implemented them.
"This is almost the first ruling – and certainly the most sweeping – in which the court implements the right of Jews to pray on the Temple Mount. From today, every Jew is allowed to pray on the Temple Mount. The prayer itself is not an offense," he added.
Temple Mount is considered to be one of the most important religious sites in the Old City of Jerusalem. Jews, Christians and Muslims all consider it sacred, making it one of the most contested sites in the world. Among Christians and Jews, there is some dispute as to whether it is the biblical Mount Moriah or Mount Zion.
According to Jewish tradition, it is the place where God's presence is most manifested, and followers of rabbinic Judaism believe it to be the site where God gathered dust to create Adam.
