House of Temple Mount activist shooter won't be demolished

State to wall in room where terrorist Mu’taz Hijazi lived after appeal; court awards Glick NIS 500,000 in damages over ban from holy site

The state said it would refrain from demolishing the home of an East Jerusalem man who attempted to assassinate a Jewish activist in October, telling the High Court it would suffice with sealing off the room Mu’taz Hijazi lived.

Hijazi shot Temple Mount activist Yehuda Glick on October 29 and was killed by Israeli forces in a shootout the next day at his home in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Abu Tor.

Initially, the state sought to demolish the home entirely as a punitive measure – a controversial measure it says is used to deter would-be terrorists from carrying out similar attacks.

Hijazi’s family, which lives in the house, appealed the decision in late 2014, mentioning, among other issues, that Glick survived the shooting and was recovering and that none of the family members were involved in the act carried out by their son, who was an Islamic Jihad operative.

Following the appeal, a panel of three justices suspended the demolition order.

On Monday, lawyers representing the state, said it would suffice to block Hijazi’s room, and that “the decision in this case on walling-in the room where the terrorist lived is proportional and reasonable and chimes in with ruling given only recently on similar cases.”

Glick, an outspoken campaigner for Jewish prayer rights on the Temple Mount, the holiest site in Judaism and revered by Muslims as well, was critical wounded in the shooting but has since recovered.

Mu’taz Hijazi, in an undated photo. (photo credit: Flash90)

On Sunday, a Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court judge awarded Glick NIS 500,000 (some $125,000) in damages for a two-year restraining order barring him from entering the holy site.

Police banned Glick from the Temple Mount from 2011 to 2013, after a local news broadcast aired footage of him praying publicly at the holy site, a forbidden practice. In September, he was banned again by police when a Muslim woman visiting the Temple Mount filed charges against the rabbi for allegedly pushing her and breaking her arm.

While Israeli law doesn’t ban Jews from entering the holy site, police will often impose entry restrictions on visitors and Muslim worshipers for security reasons.

Glick has denied the allegations against him, and shortly after appealed the ban imposed in September to a Jerusalem District Court.

Citing heightened political tensions and risks of disturbing public order, the court rejected the appeal in December and ruled to uphold Gilck’s Temple Mount ban.

In January, the Supreme Court awarded Glick NIS 7,500 in damages stemming from a separate incident — his unlawful detention in 2009 at a Temple Mount police station.

In an unprecedented move, Justice Elyakim Rubinstein granted Glick’s request to appeal the district court’s December ruling in a lower magistrate court, citing the “public sensitivity” of the case.

On Sunday, the Jerusalem Magistrate Court found that actions taken by police were an “abuse of power that undermines the pillars of democracy,” according to a report in the Hebrew daily Haaretz.

In the ruling, Judge Malka Aviv criticized the lack of a clear policy regarding Jewish access to the Temple Mount. While Aviv noted that Jewish presence on the holy site could have significant political and security repercussions, she said that lack of official procedures left Jewish visitors subject to arbitrary decisions of on-duty police at the site.

The court also ruled that the state had to pay Glick’s legal fees in the amount of NIS 150,000.

Glick praised Sunday’s ruling, and said he was relieved that the court exposed the “many years of cruel policies employed by Israel police, who arbitrarily abuse Jews who visit the Temple Mount.”

“Unfortunately, reality proves that the police’s actions encouraged the terrorist who tried to take my life.”

“Instead of protecting us from Islamic extremists, the police added insult to injury, by referring to law-abiding Jews — who are the victims of violence — as criminals,” he said according to Haaretz.