On 27 Nissan, a police detective disguised as an Arab shepherd and three Arab shepherds approached Kochav HaShachar in an incident staged to provoke a disturbance. In total, five residents of Kochav HaShachar were detained on suspicion of assaulting the group, despite a lack of evidence implicating them.
At the end of April 2015, three of the defendants were released to complete house arrest after being held in remand since the incident. On their behalf, Honenu attorney Rehavia Piltz filed a request to allow them to attend minyanim on Shavuos. The Attorney General’s office opposed the request and even though rulings from various Israeli courts, including the Supreme Court of Israel, authorizing Arabs under similar circumstances to attend prayers in a mosque during Ramadan were presented, the court accepted the opinion of the Attorney General’s office and Jerusalem District Court Judge Aryeh Romanov rejected the request.
Honenu attorney Rehavia Piltz responded to the ruling: “It is a shame that the court did not schedule an urgent deliberation on the matter of the defendants’ request to be allowed to daven with a minyan. It is very sad to see that the judges do not understand how important davening with a minyan is to a Jew, particularly on the Shavuos on which the Jewish People celebrates the Torah being given, the Torah in which the entire people of Israel together heard the Ten Commandments.”
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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3 Responses
Is minyan more important than the safety of Jewish lives? These people endangered countless lives, risking Arab retaliation against innocent Jews.
It is very sad to see that people who do understand how important davening with a minyan is, don’t understand that you shouldn’t assault random people, particularly on the Shavuos on which the Jewish People celebrates the Torah being given, the Torah in which the entire people of Israel together heard the Ten Commandments and should have learnt there are ways to behave.
It is a shame that the leaders of these people did not schedule an urgent deliberation on the matter of the Palestinians’ request to be allowed to be left alone.
I am reminded of how I felt when visiting a Jew in a Federal Penitentiary and hearing that there had been two minyanim Shavuos morning, one at neitz and one at 8:30. Or when I heard of an inmate in Rahway State Prison in New Jersey for murder, who wanted to be let out to the exercise yard right after Yom Kippur so he could do Kiddush Levana.