Lead
Israel's High Court of Justice has postponed the joint hearing in two high-profile cases—one involving wartime restrictions on anti-war protests and the other on Western Wall worship limits—from Wednesday to Friday. The court's decision, issued Tuesday, gives the state additional time to file response affidavits but sets a timetable that goes beyond what the state itself had requested, according to a report by the Jerusalem Post.
The new schedule orders that response affidavits in both cases be filed by Thursday at 11 , principal arguments by 7 m. that same day, and the joint hearing to convene Friday at 10 m. The ruling effectively resets the procedural timetable in the two cases, which have become intertwined in recent days.
Coverage Comparison
Coverage of the development comes entirely from the Jerusalem Post, which published two separate reports. The first, dated April 8, outlines the postponement and the court's reasoning. The second, dated April 5, details the Western Wall petition and its connection to Saturday night's protest ruling at Habima Square.
The earlier report notes that the High Court was hearing the Western Wall petition on Sunday afternoon, just a day after the court intervened in a dispute over anti-war protests, criticizing the Home Front Command's framework and ordering the state to allow demonstrations at all four contested sites. The court's ruling in that case required at least 150 participants at each site and at least 600 at Habima Square.
Per the Jerusalem Post's reporting, the court's decision to reset the schedule reflected its view that "the issues raised by the two cases are broader and more complex than could reasonably be addressed on the existing schedule." At the same time, the court rejected the state's request for a more piecemeal timeline, stating it found "no basis to maintain the earlier compressed timetable merely to accommodate more staff work by the respondents."
Key Claims
The Western Wall petition was filed by Emet LeYaakov, a public-benefit company associated with Haredi public-interest advocacy, and Jerusalem resident Israel Gafner, who says in an affidavit that he regularly prays at the Western Wall. They are represented by attorney Natan Rosenblatt, according to the Jerusalem Post.
The petition asks the court to raise the number of worshippers permitted at the Kotel plaza, allow prayer in the Western Wall tunnels, open protected and covered spaces in the area for public worship, and require the authorities to apply the rules equally to prayer gatherings and other assemblies.
The petition reportedly draws on the reasoning of the Habima protest ruling, arguing that the Western Wall area includes covered or protected spaces that could safely accommodate larger numbers, particularly given the site's religious importance during wartime. It also claims that current limits create crowding and hardship for worshippers, many of them elderly, without fully taking into account the available space.
The state asked the court to dismiss the petition outright for failure to exhaust proceedings, according to a single report. That request was not detailed in the available material.