(RNS) Israel’s Supreme Court ruled Aug. 23 that all synagogues in the now-vacated Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip and northern West Bank should be destroyed, but that everything portable be relocated to Israel.
The court was responding to a petition by Jewish settlers who objected to the government’s plan to destroy all Jewish religious institutions — 30 synagogues as well as eight yeshivas and seminaries — in Gaza. The destruction would be part of the government’s withdrawal of residents and troops from 21 settlements in Gaza and four in the northern West Bank.
The territory was expected to be handed over to the Palestinian Authority within weeks after the removal of Jewish settlers in the area. The Palestinians plan to build several high-rise apartment buildings to ease some of the overcrowding in Gaza, which is home to 1.3 million Arabs.
Israel’s Defense Ministry told the court that fully relocating the synagogues was not possible logistically, but that the army would do everything in its power to remove all religious objects and furniture prior to the demolitions. The court ordered the military to transport stained-glass windows, memorial plaques and all other objects from the synagogues’ interiors, and whenever possible to do the same with exterior building stones.
