The Rosh Yehudi Association and fourteen residents of Tel Aviv filed a petition Friday in the Administrative Court, against the municipality's decision to ban prayer in the public space in the city.
"Before this honorable court is hereby presented a petition against the decision of the Tel Aviv municipality, which arbitrarily and discriminatorily prohibits the traditional Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) prayer in the public space in Dizengoff Square. This decision violates the fundamental rights of an entire community, breaches the principle of equality, and constitutes a grievous violation of the freedom of religion and worship protected by the Basic Laws of the State of Israel," the petition read.
Advocate Uri Israel Paz, who represents the petitioners, including bereaved sister Michal Grinblik and media personality Irit Linor, argued that, "The respondent's refusal to allow the petitioners to hold, on special occasions and by prior arrangement, traditional Jewish prayers in the public domain, solely because the prayers are held with a partition separating men and women who wish to do so - is contrary to the law and prohibited."
In his opinion, "The respondent has no authority to prohibit the petitioners, or anyone else who wishes to do so, from praying in the public domain in accordance with the rules of the Jewish tradition, including having a partition between women and men and subject to compliance with the provisions of the law. Any administrative directive prohibiting this is null and void."
On Thursday night, several hundred people participated in a mixed-gender prayer service in Dizengoff Square in protest of the Tel Aviv municipality's decision to ban gender-segregated prayer in the public sphere. The service was not held behind a partition, but rather in two separate groups.
The site was also attended by a number of protesters from both sides demonstrating against the prayer and the policy of the Tel Aviv municipality, but the police, who had been prepared in advance, prevented any friction.
Last year, during Yom Kippur prayers - on the holiest day of the Jewish year - left-wing protesters prevented a Yom Kippur prayer service with separate seating for men and women Dizengoff Square in Tel Aviv.
The organizers of the prayer tried to use Israeli flags as a partition after the court accepted the municipality's position that gender segregation in prayer in a public space should be prohibited.
Residents who arrived at the place confronted the worshipers, destroyed the partition, and removed the chairs that the organizers had placed.
The prayer was eventually stopped and moved to a side street, and one of the demonstrators was detained for questioning. A group of protesters demonstrated outside the police station where the protester was being questioned.
In a similar incident that same day, a number of protestors interfered with the Yom Kippur prayers held by the Tzohar rabbinical organization at Habima Square in Tel Aviv during Ne'ilah, the closing prayer of Yom Kippur.
After repeated interruptions, it was decided to move the prayer to the parking lot of the house of one of the organizers. The organizers of the prayer pointed out that it was the non-religious worshipers who asked the protesters to leave, but were refused.