Last update - 00:00 06/02/2008
Court rejects gov't bid to partially control Meron pilgrimage site
By Eli Ashkenazi, Haaretz Correspondent
The Nazareth District Court recently rejected the state's request to temporarily take over running a major Jewish pilgrimage site, the grave of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yohai in Meron.
Currently, the site is run by a conglomeration of 11 different organizations and rabbis, each responsible for a different part of the site. These groups have been embroiled in a lengthy legal battle with each other and the state sought temporary control of the site, until a less cumbersome arrangement for the site's management is established.
However, this process could take years, and in the meantime, the state's authority at the site is strictly supervisory.
As the body responsible for the public's health and safety, the state argued, "it cannot stand aside when private parties who represent their own private interests control a site that is public in essence." The current management, it charged, has brought the site to a miserable state and endangers the welfare and safety of the multitudes that visit it.
The grave attracts over a million Jewish visitors a year, more than any other religious site in Israel except the Western Wall. The pilgrimages reach their peak on the holiday of Lag Ba'omer, but tens of thousands of people also visit on the first day of every Hebrew month.
The organizations that currently run the site argued in response that the state's request was an underhanded attempt to seize control of their assets before the courts have ruled on the ownership issue in the main case.
Judge Gabriell (De-Leeuw) Levy largely accepted this argument. Currently, she noted, the site is being run under an interim arrangement negotiated among the warring parties and approved by the High Court of Justice. While this arrangement is not optimal, she said, there is no justification for scrapping it before a permanent agreement on managing the site is reached.