The Tel Aviv District Court on Wednesday denied the appeal of the Rosh Yehudi organization against the decision of the Tel Aviv municipality to revoke its permits to hold Sukkos events in the city.

The Rosh Yehudi organization, which organized the Yom Kippur tefillah at Dizengoff Square which was violently thwarted by leftists, had received permits from the municipality to erect a sukkah in the city as well as hold a hakafos sheniyos event. However, the municipality revoked the permits following the clashes on Yom Kippur – punishing the victims rather than the perpetrators.

Rosh Yehudi director Yisrael Zeira said that the decision is “an injustice that cries out to the heavens” and he will appeal the decision to the Supreme Court. However, the Supreme Court previously rejected Rosh Yehudi’s appeal against the Tel Aviv municipality’s ban on a mechitzah at the Yom Kippur tefillah.

Zeira made a statement to the press at the court, saying: “Am Yisrael is thirsty for Torah and kedushah – with kippot or without kippot. When they harm the inner spark of kedushah, there’s a backlash. Even the secular and traditional public respect the Torah.”

“We were moved last year when 2,500 people participated in tefillas Neilah in Dizengoff Square. We were moved when the Tel Aviv municipality boasted of this tefillah when it published a photo of it on its social media accounts. The editor of Eretz Nehederet [a satirical TV show] also moved us when he wrote a beautiful post after the tefillah in support of the Rosh Yehudi organization and how it allows everyone to daven in the way they understand. So what changed this year?”

“We believe that even those who disturbed us this year already had time to do teshuvah for it and the [hakofat shniyot] on Motzei Simchas Torah – as long as the court allows it – will be an event that is unparalleled in the history of Tel Aviv.”

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)