Jewish Youths Arrested for Praying on Temple Mount. But Was It Illegal? - Israel Today

Jewish Youths Arrested for Praying on Temple Mount. But Was It Illegal?

Thursday, December 21, 2017 |  Israel Today Staff

RELATED STORIES

• Muslims Riot, So Jews Are Barred From Temple Mount
• Israel to Ramp Up Building in Jerusalem
• Palestinian Authority Demands Control of Western Wall

Topics:

Jerusalem

It's not entirely uncommon for Jewish activists to ascend Jerusalem's Temple Mount, pray there and then be arrested for their troubles.

But it's also not legal. The arrests, that is.

Israel Police officers get around the fact that there's no law forbidding Jews from praying anywhere they please by claiming those doing so atop the Temple Mount are "disturbing public order" by potentially provoking a violent Muslim response.

For most people, the debate should end right there. "Public order" is supposed to include freedom of worship. Those responding to that freedom with outbursts of violence should be the ones held accountable for disturbing public order.

But we digress.

On Wednesday, three Israeli Jewish youths went up to the Temple Mount and recited the "Shema Israel" prayer taken from Deuteronomy 6:4.

They were immediately arrested and taken in for hours of questioning. The youths were later released, but ordered to attend an administrative hearing where they are expected to be forbidden from future visits to Judaism's holiest site.

The boys' lawyer, Nati Rom of the Honenu legal aid group, firmly decried this state of affairs in remarks to Israel National News:

"Unfortunately, Israel Police arrests young boys, when their only crime was that they expressed their faith and prayed in a holy place. This type of arrest must never happen, especially since there is no law forbidding Jews from praying on the Temple Mount."

Want more news from Israel?
Click Here to sign up for our FREE daily email updates

Australian FM: What Law do Israeli Settlements Break? - ISRAEL TODAY

Australian FM: What Law do Israeli Settlements Break?

Friday, January 17, 2014 |  Israel Today Staff  

Share on bloggerShare on twitterShare on facebookShare on emailMore Sharing Services

Related Stories

• Netanyahu under pressure regarding Israel's biblical heartland
• Israeli Minister: Must Stop Calling Ourselves 'Occupiers'
• Poll: Most Israelis support settlements

Topics:

Settlements

Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop this week continued to demonstrate what is, on the international diplomatic stage, rare support not only for Israel, but for its historic right to this land.

In a must-read interview with The Times of Israel, Bishop said it was wrong for most in the international community to speak of Jewish settlements in Judea and Samaria as "illegal."

"I would like to see which international law has declared them illegal," said Bishop.

Most, including Israel's allies, interpret the Fourth Geneva Convention to mean that Israeli Jews cannot legitimately dwell in the so-called "West Bank."

The relevant article of the convention states that an occupying power is not permitted to settle any of its citizens in occupied territory.

However, numerous legal experts have in the past noted that it is dubious to apply the article to Israel, for several reasons. First, the West Bank was not the recognized sovereign territory of any other nation at the time Israel seized control of it. Second, there is overwhelming historical and archaeological evidence that the area is part, and even the central part of the Jews' ancestral homeland.

But even barring those arguments, Bishop pointed out that the original intent of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process was to not prejudge a negotiated outcome, even in regards to the settlements.

For the world to already condemn the Jewish settlements as "illegal" is a gross violation of that principle.

Want more news from Israel?
Click Here to sign up for our FREE daily email updates

Stakelbeck on Terror: From Samaria, Israel's Biblical Heartland

 

On this week's edition of the Stakelbeck on Terror show, the world calls it the West Bank but we call it Samaria: Israel's Biblical heartland.

We're on the ground in the mountains where Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob walked to bring you the truth about those so-called illegal settlements that Israel is being pressured to abandon.

Click here to watch. 

Stakelbeck on Terror: From Samaria, Israel's Biblical Heartland - April 9, 2013

Ariel University

Jewish residents in Samaria with Stakelbeck

David Haivri, Shomron Regional