Supreme Court Issues Order Nisi against the Beer el-Sabe Municipality, Ordering it to Explain why the Big Mosque should not be Opened for Prayer and Worship
On 28 February 2007, the Supreme Court of Israel issued an order nisi demanding that the Municipality of Beer el-Sabe (Beer Sheva) and the Attorney General give their reasons why the Big Mosque in Beer el-Sabe should not be opened for prayer and worship. The decision to issue the order was delivered by Justices Procaccia, Jubran and Hayut, and followed Adalah's rejection of the suggestion made by the Supreme Court to open the mosque as an Islamic museum on 21 January 2007 and insistence that it should be open for prayer and worship. Arguing before the Court, Adalah Attorney Adel Badir stated that not opening the Big Mosque for prayer and worship infringes the dignity and the rights of Muslims from Beer el-Sabe to respect their holy sites and to worship.
The Beer el-Sabe Municipality, with the agreement of the Attorney General, has claimed before the Supreme Court that if permission were granted to restore the building to its function as a mosque, a conflict would inevitably ensure between the Muslim and Jewish communities in Beer el-Sabe, thereby justifying its closure on security grounds. Adalah responded that this claim constitutes incitement against Arab citizens in the town, and that converting the mosque into a museum would itself damage relations with Arabs from Beer el-Sabe and the Naqab in particular, and Arab citizens of Israel in general.
Adalah further argued that damaging the sacredness of the site is prohibited both under Israeli law (the Protection of Holy Sites Law � 1967, and the Penal Law) and the Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty � 1992. In addition, in Beer el-Sabe there is a synagogue for every 700 people, but there is not one place of worship for the approximately 5,000 Muslims and Arabs living in the town, and the hundreds of thousands who travel through the town each day.
The petition was submitted by Adalah Attorney Morad el-Sana in 2002, and demands that the 5,000 Muslim residents of Beer el-Sabe and approximately 150,000 Muslims in the Naqab (Negev) be allowed to pray in the Big Mosque. The petition was filed on behalf of the Association for Support and Defense of Bedouin Rights in Israel, the Islamic Committee in the Naqab and 23 Palestinian citizens of Israel, and in Adalah's own name.
Beer el-Sabe Municipality has refused to allow Muslims to pray in the Big Mosque since 1948, when the majority of the town's Arab residents became refugees. After the end of the military rule, imposed on all Palestinians in Israel from 1948 to 1966, Muslims requested to be allowed once again to renovate and pray in the mosque. The municipality refused their repeated requests. The Mosque was used as a court and prison until 1953. Thereafter, it was used as a museum until 1991, after which it was closed. Today and for the past 13 years, the Mosque lies dilapidated and unprotected.
H.C. 7311/02, Association for Support and Defense of Bedouin Rights in Israel, et. al. v. The Municipality of Beer Sheva, et al., (case pending).
For more information, see, Eva Mousa, �Beer el-Sabe Municipality Refuses to Allow Muslim Residents and Visitors to Pray in the Big Mosque, Due to Concerns over �Public Safety and Security,� Adalah's Newsletter, Vol. 9, January 2005.
