Overview
- After the IDF Home Front Command limited gatherings to 150, a Supreme Court panel convened during Shabbat on Saturday and authorized up to 600 protesters at Tel Aviv’s Habima Square with a 150-person cap elsewhere.
- Police dispersed the Habima demonstration Saturday evening once attendance exceeded the court’s limit and arrested ten people after warning the crowd that the gathering posed a public-safety risk.
- The court’s ruling criticized uneven enforcement of the Home Front Command rules, noting officials knew of other large gatherings where the same restrictions were not applied.
- Religious and political leaders condemned the Sabbath ruling, with Sephardic Chief Rabbi David Yosef saying the court had become an enemy of Judaism and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and ultra-Orthodox parties calling the decision dangerous and a desecration of Shabbat.
- The Rabbi of the Western Wall asked the Home Front Command on Sunday to revisit prayer limits at the Kotel, arguing that if protests can draw hundreds then worshippers should receive comparable access under the military’s wartime guidelines.