Temple Mount
Temple MountFlash90

Activists in the movement to return to the Temple Mount complained that despite the ruling of the Supreme Court, police have not engaged in a real effort to prevent Arabs from playing soccer and other ball games at the holy site.

The Supreme Court ruled that the police must prevent Arabs from playing ball games on the Temple Mount and received a commitment on the matter from Chief Justice Michael Frankenburg, the legal advisor of the Jerusalem District Police.

However, the activists who ascended the Temple Mount today (Wednesday) to the Temple Mount say that the court's ruling is enforced in a very limited manner.

The activists published a video showing a group of Arab children playing football in the southern part of the Temple Mount. Two policemen who accompanied the group of Jewish immigrants approached the Arab children in order to stop the game and confiscate the ball. The children mocked the policemen, fled in several directions, and did not hand the ball over to the policemen, who quickly gave up and did not continue to try to stop the game.

"Despite the fact that we have approached the police a number of times after they have abandoned their attempts to confiscate the ball, they refuse to do so. They treated us with contempt and they humiliated us," Avraham Grossman, who reported the incident, said.

The movement said that this is a case of discrimination in enforcement. "There is no doubt that if Jews were to play ball in a mosque, the country would be in turmoil: the media would shout, the police would rush to arrest, and the prosecution would rush to indict them. [The police said that it] has some intention of enforcing it - but in practice it hardly does anything."

Attorney Itamar Ben-Gvir, who is legal counsel to the movement, added that "this is a policy of illegal discrimination by the police, not just one or two incidents. When it comes to enforcing the court's decision against Jews, the enforcement is done with determination and sensitivity [to Muslim feelings], but when the ruling in question concerns the Arabs, the police allows itself to lessen the importance of the ruling and in many cases does not enforce the ruling at all."

"אכיפה סלקטיבית בהר הבית"באדיבות 'חוזרים להר'