The Jerusalem District Court for Administrative Affairs on Wednesday gave Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat and the East Jerusalem Development Company 24 hours to reply to a petition by right-wing activist Itamar Ben-Gvir against holding the bar mitzva of Rahm Emanuel’s son as planned.
In his petition, Ben-Gvir said that the Davidson Center, where the bar mitzva is due to be held on Thursday, did not have a license to hold events or celebrations.
The Davidson Center is a tourist facility located in the archeological park just below the southwestern corner of the Western Wall.
Ben-Gvir charged that the East Jerusalem Development Company, which operates the center, was not allowed to take money for making it available to Emanuel.
Ben-Gvir has also asked for an interim injunction to bar the Davidson Center from holding events such as the bar mitzva until the court rules on the petition or until such time as it makes a different decision. But the court rejected the request.
He told
The Jerusalem Post that the court had only
seen his petition at 8 p.m. and had given him its answer at 9:30 p.m.
In a related development, Ben-Gvir and fellow right-wing activist
Baruch Marzel canceled a demonstration they were planning outside the
Prime Minister’s Office during Emanuel’s meeting with Prime Minister
Binyamin Netanyahu, because they wanted to instead hold a
counter-protest at a left-wing rally taking place in Jerusalem’s Sheikh
Jarrah neighborhood.
They said they would wait to protest against Emanuel until he visits
the Old City, when they believed such a demonstration would be most
effective.
A stage was being erected in the Southern Wall area outside the Temple
Mount on Wednesday night, according to Marzel. He said he intended to
lead a demonstration there on Thursday morning.