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CAIRO — Concerns about religious freedom were raised following the Egyptian judiciary’s decision to ban the annual festival celebrating the birth of the Rabbi Yaakov Abuhatzeira, or Abu Hasira, at his shrine in the village of Damtu, in the Nile Delta.
The ruling, issued Dec. 30 by the Alexandria Administrative Court, abolishes the festival and rejects an Israeli request that Abu Hasira's remains be transferred to Jerusalem. It also overturns a decision declaring the shrine an Egyptian antiquity, a measure by former Minister of Culture Farouk Hosni, and requires notifying UNESCO of the ruling.
