I Am Signed On This Appeal

Israeli Attorney General Moves To Block Shurat Hadin's Prosecution Of Islamic Waqf

The Israeli Attorney General, Menachem Mazuz, has sent a letter of intention to the Jerusalem District Court announcing his intention to seek to dismiss a criminal indictment brought by a group of over 170 Israeli citizens against officials of the Jerusalem WAQF ("Islamic Trust").

A reminder: The unprecedented private indictment, which was filed on November 1, 2007, alleges that the WAQF officials have been engaged in the deliberate destruction of ancient Jewish relics on the Temple Mount. The case is first of its kind in Israeli legal history and utilizes a seldom applied section of the criminal code. If convicted, the WAQF officials face years in prison.

The legal action, which was organized by Shurat HaDin - Israel Law Center, accuses leaders of the WAQF of intentionally demolishing priceless Jewish artifacts, including the remains of the Second Temple.

...Shurat HaDin alleges that the Israeli government, in its political cowardice, has consistently refused to undertake any concrete actions to stop the criminal activities of the WAQF - thus abandoning the millenniums long Jewish claim over the Temple Mount and allowing Islamic extremists to re-write Jerusalem's history.

According to the law, the Attorney General's office had 15 days after the private indictment was filed to decide whether it would like to adopt the prosecution on its own or allow the citizen prosecutors to proceed independently. Recently, after weeks of delays, the Attorney General Mazuz decided to choose none of the above and announced in his letter that he will ask that the entire case be stricken. The government lawyers are arguing that it is in the public's interest not to bring the WAQF official to court! Mazuz claims, that the private indictment is not the proper proceeding in this instance, but refuses to take the prosecution upon himself.

Shurat HaDin has opposed the Attorney General's efforts to interfere with the prosecution of the criminal WAQF and sent an objection to his letter arguing that if the government is too afraid to place those Islamic extremists who seek to eradicate evidence of the Jewish People's historical connection to the Temple Mount in prison, "the Jewish people are entitled to do it on their own".