Jerusalem District Court Judge Alexander Ron on Tuesday morning accepted the appeal of attorney Menashe Yado of the Honenu legal aid society regarding an activist of the Hozrim La’har (Heb: returning to the mountain) who was restricted from entering the Old City of Jerusalem for 30 days, after praying near the Temple Mount gates.

Israel Police argued before the judge that this is the case of a dominant activist who comes frequently to pray at the Old City, but the judge refused to accept this as a point to be considered. The same judge earlier on Tuesday ruled similarly in the case of three young women who prayed near the gates of Temple Mount.

Police requested a delay in carrying out the ruling to give them time to appeal it before the Supreme Court.

Attorney Yado thanked the court in a statement for making it legal once again for Jews to pray in the Muslim quarter of the Old City, noting that “the police should reflect and protect the Jewish sensibilities of the public, thus fulfilling the Jewish character of the State of Israel and its democratic principles.”

Israel’s Supreme Court on Sunday rejected appeals by the Israel Medical Association and a few NGOs against an amendment to the Prisons Act that permits forcing medical treatment on hunger striking prisoners.

Elyakim Rubinstein, the Vice President of the Supreme Court, said he was persuaded that there are possible situations in which saving lives requires having the amendment on the books, although he noted that he is not happy with it and suggested there may be other ways, within the exiting laws, to remedy such situations.

Israel Radio reported that one of the items in the contested legislation requires the judge on hand to consider how the death of a hunger striking prisoner might affect state security. The justices ruled that the court must give a preference to medical, rather than security considerations.

The Khan Younis Court dismissed several PLO candidates from the lists competing in the municipal elections in the southern Gaza Strip, Ma’an reported Thursday morning. The court’s decision came after several appeals had been filed against PLO lists in and around the cities of Khan Younis Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.

Journalist Dov Lieber tweeted in the early AM: “Palestinian court postpones local elections set for October,” which he attributed to AFP. Apparently, the court in Ramallah has followed the disqualification of PLO candidates in Gaza by postponing the elections altogether.

The Gaza court decision wipes the PLO out of the competition in nine municipalities out of 25 in Gaza.

Dr. Fayez Abu Eita, a spokesman for the PLO, said the decision to drop his movement’s candidates from local lists was tantamount to a “massacre by the Hamas court.” He said the PLO was running “lists of the finest people, qualified specialists and professionals,” and so when Hamas realized they had no one of equal quality to run against them, they ordered their court to “drop them under false and fabricated pretexts” which were both “illogical and illegal.”

Abu Eita added: “They wanted to compete with themselves after the overthrow of these lists.”

Abu Eita called on the Central Election Commission to assume their responsibilities over what he described as the failure of the election process, stressing that all the appeals were illegitimate, intended solely to thwart any challenges to the Hamas candidates.

Meretz Chairwoman MK Zahava Galon forced the Israeli Supreme Court to desecrate Shabbat, with an appeal which was already irrelevant when she filed it, argued pundit, author and Holocaust scholar Itamar Levin in a column he published on the News1 website.

Galon appealed to the court on Shabbat day, Sept. 3, asking that it order the Ministry of Transport to carry out the scheduled works on the Railroad infrastructure which had been halted on Friday night due to Haredi party pressure. “This meant that the employee on call at the reception had to receive the appeal and pass it to the Justice on call, which happened to be Anat Baron,” Levin wrote, suggesting this could also mean that the people on call in the Justice’s chambers had to work on Shabbat as well.

But, as turns out from the Justice’s ruling, also given on Shabbat, the appeal was not urgent and did not justify forcing a state employee to desecrate Shabbat. Justice Baron wrote: “The appeal was submitted today, Shabbat day, at 3 PM. When it was submitted, the infrastructure works had been ceased yesterday, following the prime minister’s order shortly before the start of Shabbat. Under these circumstances there is no point in issuing the requested injunction in response to a situation which the appellant claims was created on this weekend.”

Justice Baron instead ordered the State to respond by Monday, Sept. 5, to Galon’s appeal for an injunction — an appeal she could have submitted Saturday night, Levin wrote.

Israeli courts, including the Supreme Court, maintain skeletal Shabbat and Holiday shifts to respond to the most urgent needs. These include police requests for injunctions to prevent the smuggling of children, or for arrest warrants. But Levin wrote that he did not recall any other time when the Supreme Court was compelled to desecrate Shabbat to deal with an administrative issue such as the works on the railroad.

Israeli District Court last week ruled that Jews commit a crime when they enter without prior arrangement with security forces an area where their lives would be in danger due to Arab violence. The area in question, Joshua’s Tomb in Samaria, is in Area B where there are no restrictions on Jewish travel. On its face the ruling is tantamount to a NY City judge punishing a victim of violence for entering a dangerous neighborhood without first receiving police permission.

Judge Zahava Bustan of the district Court in Lod last Thursday rejected an appeal submitted by legal aid society Homenu attorney Hai Haber over the detention and removal of 13 Jews who wanted to pray at Joshua’s Tomb near the city of Ariel and were attacked by Arabs from the village of Kifl Haras, where the Jewish shrine is located.

Attorney Haber argued that the group, which had been punished by the court — they were ordered to stay out of Judea and Samaria for 60 days — did not commit any crime, since entry into the Arab village is legal to Jews. Kifil Haras is located in Area B, which Israeli citizens may enter at will, just as they are permitted to drive on sections of Route 60 which cuts through the Area B Arab town of Hawara, as well as on the road from Jerusalem to the Jewish community of Nokdim.

Haber added that by punishing the victims of terrorism rather than going after the terrorists who attacked them, police and now the court are encouraging terrorism. He also argued the 60-day restraining order was needlessly harsh, since there is no ongoing police investigation which the restrained individuals could potentially be interrupting. Rather it was purely punishment for punishment’s sake on the part of the court.

Judge Bustan ruled on the appeal that even in cases where it is legal for Jews to enter, when there is danger of Arab violence the Jewish visitors must first request the consent and support of the security forces, because they are, inevitably, going to be called on to rescue them.

Honenu issued a statement saying, “All of Judea and Samaria, and, indeed, all of Eretz Israel is considered dangerous territory. The decision constitutes a prize and an encouragement to terrorism, since the court decided that a village where violence is used against Jews would become verboten to Jews without rearrangement with the Army. In a sovereign country of laws, it is the role of security forces to facilitate the safe access of civilians to every area where they are permitted to be. It is inconceivable that an area where entry is permitted, especially a holy site where Jews have been visiting for years, would be closed on account of a failure to enforce the law, and law-abiding worshippers would become criminals due to the failures of police and the Army.”

“Today it’s Breslov Hasidim at Joshua’s Tomb, tomorrow it would be hikers who are attacked on a trip, and next it would be orphans who attend their parents’ graves on Mt. Olives, which is well-known as a dangerous area.”

(See also: Legal Group Challenging Police on Criminalizing Entry into Judea and Samaria Area B)

Following a Supreme Court Ruling Thursday ordering the evacuation and demolition of 17 structures in the Netiv Ha’Avot outpost in Gush Etzion, rightwing politicians called for a Regulation Act that would set out to legalize thousands of Judea and Samaria properties about which there are now or may be future claims. The general outline of the proposed regulatory legislation will authorize the Israeli government to compel proven claimants to receive market-value compensations, in comparable land or in money. A coalition move back in July to start work on the Regulation Act was thwarted by the AG Avihay Mandelblitt, who said the law is not constitutional and would be knocked down by the high court on appeal.

Thursday’s ruling, by a three-judge panel, evoked sharp criticism on the right, with Habayit Hayehudi Chairman Naftali Bennett condemning the ruling, saying extreme leftwing elements who have given up on their ability to ever persuade the people to accept a Palestinian State in Judea and Samaria are bypassing the public and usurping the legal system to force their policies on the majority. “When the Supreme Court collaborates with them this erodes the public trust in the court,” Bennett warned.

Minister Zeev Elkin (Likud), who is a resident of Gush Etzion, said the high court’s “scandalous decision” constitutes the crossing of red lines, revealing the court’s utter disconnection from common sense and from the historic values and the legacy of the nation of Israel. Elkin called on Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked (Habayit Hayehudi) to lead a far-reaching reform to regain the public’s trust in the Supreme Court.

Thursday’s ruling was an uncompromising order to destroy homes that “were built illegally on private lands.” Considering the fact that the ruling required forcing residents out of their homes, and the large number of homes in question, Court President Justice Miriam Naor gave government and the residents 18 months to prepare for the evacuation/demolition.

Naor wrote that the court ignored on principle the fact that the outpost had been established with government endorsement and support, saying government does not enjoy a special status when it comes to standing before the high court. “In the judicial process government is equal to other litigants,” Naor emphasized, adding that the fact that government had been aiding in a long-term illegal enterprise does not make it kosher.

According to the petition by Peace Now, which dug up the Arabs who are now claiming to be the original owners of Netiv Ha’Avot, the lands of the Al-Khader village near Bethlehem and Gush Etzion, in Judea, had been undergoing regulation by the Jordanian government at the time the IDF conquered the land in June 1967. The Israeli court opted not to rule whether or not the Jordanian government had the legal authority to carve up and hand out the land to local Arabs, land it had acquired through an act of war, invading the “West Bank,” including Jewish Gush Etzion, in 1948.

Davidi Pearl, who heads the Gush Etzion Regional Council, responded to the High Court’s decision saying the court had opted to belittle the government which had presented a vast array of legal alternatives that had been confirmed by the AG. Pearl called on the government to act immediately to enact a law to protect the honor of the Israeli government and the Judea and Samaria residents who had acted in good faith with the government’s encouragement.

Seven young men and women who were detained by police on Monday on charges that their prayer outside the Temple Mount constituted a disturbance of the public peace, were released after police demanded that they sign a restraining order barring them from the Old City for 15 days, legal aid society Honenu reported.

Six of the detainees refused to sign the order and were released on the condition that they appear in Magistrate Court Tuesday, when police will be asking the court to bar them from the Old City.

Honenu attorneys have been complaining repeatedly that Jerusalem Police are so fearful of Arab rioting that they have begun to target Jews who are not attempting to disrupt the unholy status quo of the Temple Mount, but are merely engaging in action that might potentially anger the Arabs — regardless of the fact that the action is absolutely legal.