MKs pan police closure of Jerusalem’s Old City to nonresidents during Iran conflict

Knesset lawmakers slam the police over the closure of the Old City of Jerusalem to nonresidents during a hearing in the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee.

Following the outbreak of war with Iran, Israeli authorities have kept the Old City closed to nonresidents as a precautionary measure, with police officers deployed at its gates to check the documents of those coming in. According to the Haaretz daily, police have closed Palestinian businesses in the Old City despite not doing so in other neighborhoods of the capital.

“To the best of my knowledge, no curfew or lockdown was declared anywhere in the country. A de facto lockdown was declared in the Old City. Anyone who does not live there is not allowed to enter by order of the police. The Western Wall was closed,” says United Torah Judaism MK Yitzhak Pindrus.

Committee chairman Simcha Rothman (Religious Zionism) demands to know by what authority the police have closed off access to the Old City. Yesh Atid MK Yoav Segalovich, a former senior police official, notes that “currently, no civil emergency has been declared,” meaning that the police lack legal authority for their actions.

Jerusalem District Police commander Amir Arzani tells lawmakers that law enforcement “did not impose a full lockdown, even though we could.”

The Old City is different from other areas because of how “crowded and complex” it is, Arzani says, arguing that any rescue operation would be “very complex” and that the law allows police to “order the closure of businesses if there is a concern for public safety.”