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Thirty-one years ago, the High Court of Justice rejected a petition by Mohammed Said Burkan to lease an apartment in Jerusalem's Jewish Quarter on the ruins of his family's home which, he asserted, had been bought under Ottoman rule. The ruling put a legal gloss on the practice of blocking access by non-Jews to state land. After years of steady encroachment, Burkan now lives in the heart of a Jewish neighborhood. The court not only rejected his petition but ordered him to pay court expenses to the state. In July 1978 deputy Supreme Court President Haim Cohen, who was considered one of the most liberal justices, wrote in a landmark verdict, "There is no improper discrimination in allocating each quarter as a home to its own community ... Naturally the [Jewish Quarter's] rehabilitation is intended to restore the Jewish community's heyday in the Old City, so the Jews once again have their own quarter, beside the Muslim, Christian and Armenian quarters." The justi...

Friday, 03 July 2009 09:20 Dan Lieberman Three huge granite stones rest comfortably on the top of Midbar Sinai Street, in Givat Havatzim, Jerusalem's northernmost district. Cut to specification, the imposing stones represent one of several preparations by the Temple Mount and Land of Israel Faithful Movement's to erect a Third Temple on the Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount. Since the Islamic Wafq owns and controls all the property on the Haram al-Sharif, by what means can these stones be transferred to the Temple Mount and how can a Temple be constructed there? Not by any legal means. The stones are a provocation, which the Israel government refuses to halt. Neglect and passivity lead to a belief that an eventual Muslim reaction to the increasing provocations will give Israel an excuse to seize total control of the Holy Basin – the ultimate of the properties that Israel intends to incorporate into a greater Jerusalem. For decades, Israeli authorities have spoken of a united Jerusal...

The Jerusalem Rabbinic Court held expedited divorce proceedings for a 14-year-old girl and her 17-year-old husband this week, after the court ruled the makeshift wedding ceremony the two held did indeed conform to Jewish religious law. The boy had recited the marriage vows in front of friends, who served as witnesses, and even gave the girl a ring. This means the girl is most likely Israel's youngest divorcee, the court said. The boy and girl are both from traditionally religious families in the Jerusalem area. When the boy's parents learned the pair had held a wedding ceremony, they insisted on a "get," a religious divorce, so he could marry in the future. The girl initially refused, insisting that she wanted to live with the boy as his wife, and said she had intended to marry him officially in another three years, once she passed the legal age. She relented only after the groom's parents offered her NIS 10,000. The divorce proceeding was held earlier this week,...