Cairo – The head of Egypt’s Jewish community condemned Tuesday the court decision in his own country to ban an annual Jewish festival, calling the injunction “unconstitutional.”
“[The] Egyptian constitution stipulates that adherents of the three heavenly faiths have the right to practise their religious rituals,” Haroun told independent newspaper al-Masry al-Youm.
On Monday, the Administrative Court in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria cancelled the annual festival – staged in honour of the 19th Moroccan rabbi Jacob Abu Hasira at a small Egyptian village – citing “moral offences.”
Local residents have repeatedly complained that Jewish visitors to the rabbi’s tomb celebrated the event by drinking alcohol and dancing.
“I am opposed to the way Western Jews celebrated at the festival, by dancing and drinking alcohol because it violates our traditions as Egyptians and Easterners,” Haroun said.
“But Egypt’s Jews have the right to visit Abu Hasira’s shrine because they hold him in high regard.”
The court also ordered Egyptian authorities to remove the shrine from the list of national antiquities.
It is not clear yet if the government will appeal the ruling.
Jews from outside Egypt have converged on the shrine every year since Cairo signed a landmark peace treaty with Israel in 1979.
The festival was suspended after Egypt’s 2011 uprising for security reasons.
Egypt’s Jewish community has steadily dwindled in the past 50 years due to immigration triggered by the Arab-Israeli conflict.