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Egypt’s ban of Jewish festival raises controversy

Egypt’s Supreme Administrative Court upheld a previous ruling prohibiting the celebration of the birth of a Jewish rabbi, which attracts hundreds of Israelis every year, in a move that may in part reflect popular rejection of normalization with Israel.

A picture taken on October 3, 2016 shows a general view of the ceiling of the Shaar Hashamayim Synagogue in Cairo, also known as Temple Ismailia or Adly Synagogue.
Once a flourishing community, only a handful of Egyptian Jews, mostly elderly women, is all that remains in the Arab world's most populous country, aiming at least to preserve their heritage. Egypt still has about a dozen synagogues, but like many of the country's monuments they need restoration.
 / AFP PHOTO / KHALED DESOUKI        (Photo credit
A general view of the ceiling of the Shaar Hashamayim Synagogue, also known as Temple Ismailia or Adly Synagogue, Cairo, Egypt, Oct. 3, 2016. — KHALED DESOUKI/AFP via Getty Images

Egypt’s Supreme Administrative Court upheld Sept. 26 a previous ruling prohibiting the annual celebration of the birth of a Jewish rabbi in Beheira governorate, in the Nile Delta in the northern part of the country.

The court, which is the highest administrative court for administrative appeals in Egypt, ordered removing the shrine in which Rabbi Yaqoub bin Masoud, known as Abu Hasira, is buried, from the list of Islamic and Coptic antiquities in Egypt. In addition, it rejected a request to transfer his remains to Israel, which was submitted by Tel Aviv through UNESCO in 2012.

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