Temple Mount activists challenge Rosh Hashanah restrictions, demand Jewish prayer

Temple Mount activists have petitioned Israel's Supreme Court to challenge the government's refusal to open the site for Jewish worship and shofar sounding on the first day of Rosh Hashanah, which falls on Shabbat this year. The Shofar B’Tzion NGO and the Committee for Opening the Temple Mount on Shabbat filed the petition after appeals to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir. Yosef Rabin, chairman of Shofar B’Tzion, stated, "The Jewish people have an intrinsic right to pray at our holiest place."

• The dispute is particularly significant because the first day of Rosh Hashanah coincides with Shabbat, a day when the shofar is not typically sounded, but the Temple Mount is considered an exception under Jewish law.
• Since the Second Intifada, Jewish access to the Temple Mount has generally been banned on Shabbat.
• MK Simcha Rothman and Asaf Fried, chairman of the Committee for Opening the Temple Mount on Shabbat, have expressed support for the campaign, with Fried noting a "disregard for the rights of Jews to pray at the holiest site."
• While the court has not dismissed the petition, the lack of a hearing timetable makes judicial relief before the holiday unlikely. The Temple Mount will be open for limited Jewish worship on the second day of Rosh Hashanah, but without a shofar or Torah scroll.