JERUSALEM — 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 must 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.
Israel’s military is in the process of leveling all homes, schools and other buildings in the once-thriving settlements as part of its Disengagement Plan, which began Aug. 15. The territory is expected to be handed over to the Palestinian Authority within weeks.
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