The Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday ruled left-wing protests in the Shimon HaTzaddik (Sheikh Jarrah) neighborhood of Jerusalem are not illegal as alleged by police, referring to the weekly erev shabbos protests demanding the eviction of the eastern Jerusalem Jewish residents.

As a result of the ruling, right-wing activists Baruch Marzel and Itamar Ben-Givir, the latter serving as parliamentary aide to MK (Ichud HaLeumi) Dr. Michael Ben-Ari, will be protesting against the leftists today, Friday, after learning the court maintains they gathering was legal without obtaining a police permit. Marzel and Ben-Givir sought a permit for their protest, which was not granted.

The court on Thursday addressed the indictments filed against 18 people arrested during last week’s protest after they failed to adhere to police instructions to disperse, declaring the gathering illegal.

While Justice Gad Ehrenberg banned the detainees from taking part in future protests in the area pending the outcome of their trials, he rejected the police demand to expend their remand, to keep them imprisoned for disorderly conduct until the end of the legal proceedings. Police maintain they are not just in detention for protesting illegally, but because they were violent. The court heard that as mispalalim were returning to their homes, the leftists shouted and spat at them, prompting the court to state from that point on, the protest was indeed illegal and therefore, the arrests were legitimate.

(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)