Temple Mt.’s Muslim Waqf ordered to pay $14,000 to far-right extremist

Itamar Ben-Gvir wins invasion of privacy case against authority that administers contested Jerusalem site

By Sue Surkes

You will receive email alerts from this author. Manage alert preferences on your profile page

You will no longer receive email alerts from this author. Manage alert preferences on your profile page

25 February 2016, 11:53 pm

Edit

Sue Surkes is The Times of Israel's environment reporter

Attorney Itamar Ben-Gvir on December 17, 2015. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

A Jerusalem court has ordered the Muslim authority that oversees the Temple Mount holy site in Jerusalem to pay NIS 56,000 ($14,330) to a far-right Israeli lawyer best known for supporting Jewish extremists.

Itamar Ben-Gvir won his case in the Jerusalem Magistrates’s Court over an invasion of privacy by officials from the Waqf and a request for a restraining order by police to keep him away from the flash point site holy to both Jews and Muslims, the Walla news site reported Thursday.

Waqf officials did not file a defense in the case, radio reports said. Ben-Gvir said if the damages were not paid, he would seek to take bailiffs to the mount to seize property of equal value.

Ben-Gvir went up to the Mount in September during the Jewish festival of Sukkot, and said Waqf officials had followed him to ensure that he was not praying.

For political and security reasons, Israel prohibits Jews from praying on the Temple Mount, which is the site of the former Jewish Temples and the holiest place to Jews, and today houses the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the third holiest spot for Muslims.

In recent years, right-wing extremists have flouted the regulations and gone up to the Mount to pray, causing what Palestinians see as a threat to the “status quo” that has governed relations there since Israel captured the Old City of Jerusalem in the 1967 Six Day War.

File: Masked Palestinians secure the door of Jerusalem's al-Aqsa Mosque on September 27, 2015, as they plan to remain inside to protect it in case of clashes. (AFP/AHMAD GHARABLI) — File: Masked Palestinians secure the door of Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa Mosque on September 27, 2015, as they plan to remain inside to protect it in case of clashes. (AFP/AHMAD GHARABLI)

The conviction of many Palestinians that “Al-Aqsa is in danger” has fueled multiple acts of violence against Jews, and touched off the current wave of terror which began in late September.

According to Ben-Gvir, during his visit, the Waqf officials followed him closely, and shouted at him “Allahu Akbar” [God is great], to which he responded: “Am Yisrael Chai” [the People of Israel live].

At this point, Ben-Gvir said, he was detained for two hours for questioning by Israeli police. The next day, the police requested a restraining order to keep him off the Mount.

The magistrate ruled in Ben-Gvir’s favor, including by saying the words that he shouted were not grounds for a restraining order.