Top Sephardic rabbi brands High Court as ‘enemy of Judaism’ for issuing order on Shabbat

Sephardic Chief Rabbi David Yosef brands the High Court of Justice as the “enemy of Judaism,” after its judges ordered police to protect the right to demonstrate, even during wartime.

He lambasts a three-judge panel led by Justice Isaac Amit for obliging law enforcement to allow protests against the government and ongoing war to take place tonight, focusing on the fact that they issued the interim order during Shabbat.

“It’s illegal that in the Jewish state, three judges sit and walk all over the law, and make a decision during Shabbat to force the government to allow them [protesters] to demonstrate,” he says.

The chief rabbi accuses Israel’s justice system of operating on a double standard that favors anti-government protesters — who are largely secular Jews — when it comes to wartime restrictions on public gatherings.

“I don’t think that the value of the demonstrations — holy in their eyes — is more important than the holiness of our Western Wall, and the Western Wall is closed right now,” he says.

“We understand the situation… None of us even dreamed of petitioning the High Court, because we know that if we were to petition the High Court they wouldn’t agree, of course,” he continues.

He asserts that the “High Court is the enemy of Judaism.”

“We will struggle with all our might against the High Court… God willing, at the end of the day, we will be victorious,” he says.

Responding to the remarks, MK Moshe Gafni, chairman of the ultra-Orthodox Degel HaTorah faction, asserts that the chief rabbi should replace Justice Amit as High Court president.

He says the former recognizes the “sensitivity and complexity” of ruling on issues related to “values sacred to the Jewish people.”

Unlike Yosef, critics of the ruling coalition accuse police of enforcing a double standard when it comes to Home Front Command restrictions, which currently limit outdoor public gatherings to 50 people.

While law enforcement regularly breaks up anti-government demonstrations that exceed this limit, non-political gatherings are very rarely dispersed by force.