The Israeli Supreme Court issued a temporary injunction Tuesday morning against the municipality governing the Jewish community in Hevron, demanding that the government justify its decision to create the body and separate the community from the Arab-ruled City of Hevron.
Last year, the Defense Ministry granted the Jewish community in Hevron its own municipality, independent from the Palestinian Authority-run City of Hevron.
While the Jewish community in Hevron had long administered much of its affairs independently, it possessed no officially recognized municipal body empowered by law to levy taxes on residents, purchase property, or issue tenders and enter into contracts as an official town municipality.
The Palestinian Authority, which governs most of the city of Hevron, slammed the move, calling it the most dangerous development “since 1967”.
Following the decision, the Arab municipality of Hevron and the local Waqf, or Islamic trust, filed a petition with the Israeli Supreme Court, demanding the move be reversed.
On Tuesday the Supreme Court responded to the petition, issuing a temporary injunction freezing the government decision to recognize the Jewish municipality in Hevron.
The Court also ordered the government to justify its decision, giving it 120 days to provide a response.
Nationalist lawmakers blasted the Court over the injunction, calling it an example of the Court’s bias against Jews in Judea and Samaria.
“As usual, the Supreme Court sided with the Arabs,” said MK Bezalel Smotrich (Jewish Home).
“This time they took the side of the Mayor of Hevron – a terrorist covered in Jewish blood – against the government which wanted to fulfill its obligation to provide municipal services to the Jewish community in Hevron. This is a new low for the Supreme Court of Israel.”
The Mayor of Hevron, Tayssir Abu Sneinah, was a member of the terror cell which carried out the May 1980 terror attack on Beit Hadassah, killing six civilians and wounding twenty more.
All the terrorists who participated in the attack were given life sentences, but released during the prisoner swaps of the 1980s.