The Supreme Administrative Court in Egypt rejected the government's appeal, and approved a previous ruling prohibiting the celebration of the birth of the Jewish Rabbi Yaqoub Abu Hasira and refusing to transfer his remains to Israel.
In December 2014, the Administrative Court in Alexandria Governorate had refused to transfer the shrine to the city of Jerusalem, in response to a lawsuit filed by an Egyptian lawyer, which also included stopping the Jewish celebrations that take place annually on the birth of Abu Hasira, due to its contravention of public order and morals and its opposition to the dignity and purity of religious rituals. It also included the annulment of the Ministry of Culture’s decision issued in 2001 to consider the mausoleum as an archaeological site.
The court based its refusal to transfer the remains on two matters: the first is that Islam respects the divine religions and rejects the exhumation of the graves of their dead, and the second is that Palestine is an occupied land and it must be avoided to legitimize the Jewishness of the state by the presence of this shrine on Arab land.
But what is interesting is that the Egyptian government has appealed this ruling, so that the matter is referred to the Supreme Administrative Court, which settled the case yesterday by rejecting the government appeal and upholding the judicial ruling issued in 2014.
My people refused
The celebration of the birth of Abu Hasira in the village of Damitouh, near the city of Damanhur in the Buhaira governorate, has always sparked great controversy in Egypt, as citizens expressed their rejection of it, which made the celebrations take place under security guard.
After the January 2011 revolution that toppled President Hosni Mubarak, celebrations for the birth of Abu Hasira ceased, before resuming in a limited way in late 2018.
According to Israeli reports, Abu Hasira is Yaqoub bin Masoud, a Jewish rabbi of Moroccan origin, who lived in the 19th century (1805-1880), and Jews believe that he is a blessed figure, which has always been questioned by Egyptian and Arab scholars.
The joy of the Egyptians
According to local media, Al-Buhaira governorate witnessed a state of joy after the issuance of the ruling of the Supreme Administrative Court, in which it considered that the government's appeal against the ruling of the Administrative Court in Alexandria regarding the banning of celebrations of the birth of the Jewish Rabbi Yaqoub Abu Hasira, "as if it did not exist."
Al-Masry Al-Youm newspaper said that what increased the people's joy is that the ruling has become final, and ends the suffering of the citizens in the village of Damtiwa from visits that were accompanied by strict security measures that impeded movement inside the village and the villages leading to it, as the procedures for securing visits began since Visitors set foot at the airport until departure.