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.

Immediately after the ruling, Egyptian officials proclaimed their commitment to implementing the verdict, showing no intention of appealing the verdict, perhaps so as not to generate a public backlash. The Jewish festival has been condemned in grassroots campaigns every year.

Muhammad Mehran, director of Jewish antiquities at the Egyptian Ministry of State for Antiquities, told Al-Monitor, “The mausoleum of the Jewish rabbi is not included in the ministry’s records, and the state does not handle it as a historic monument.” He stressed, “Although it was said that it is a historic monument, there were not any prior measures taken to register it.”