Givati recruits arrived at the inauguration in the upper plaza of the Western Wall, which is not a prayer plaza.
The ceremony was to be moderated by the brigade's education officer, who was replaced at the last minute by an officer.
The Western Wall Heritage Foundation, which does not allow a woman to be heard at the Western Wall, claims that these are IDF guidelines and that the act is not their initiative.
Behind the dry facts lies an alarming truth about the foundation's attitude toward the Western Wall's women.
Every month, the women of the Western Wall "win" humiliating and discriminatory searches at the entrance, ignoring the violence against them and the tacit encouragement of those who seek to harm them.
If the foundation treats women at the Western Wall in a discriminatory and violent manner, and forbids reading the Torah with the help of women for "religious" reasons, the next natural thing for it is to forbid women to take an active part in state ceremonies and ceremonies in general.
The Western Wall recently celebrated the state ceremony marking Memorial Day for the victims of the Israeli military operations, in which women did not speak.
Unfortunately, the eye is used to not seeing women at ceremonies held at the Western Wall.
The ear is trained to be shocked if a woman's voice is heard instead.
With a creeping devaluation, the main plaza, which is not a prayer plaza, receives "holiness" from the Western Wall, in order to turn the entire place into an ultra-Orthodox courtyard.
Those who thought that the memorial ceremony was a solitary event of exclusion of women at the Western Wall at state events, now see that even in a ceremony that has no religious character and is not held in the prayer plaza, exclusion of women by the Western Wall Foundation takes place.
The equation is very clear: whoever excludes women and does not allow them to pray as usual with the help of the women, will continue to exclude women in the state ceremony on Remembrance Day, and will end up not allowing women to make a sound by swearing soldiers in the main plaza.
The distortion and discriminatory treatment of women at the Western Wall must be stopped.
The absolute control of the Western Wall rabbi in the Western Wall and its management as an ultra-Orthodox court for all, must be cut short.
The Israeli government needs to decide what the image of the Western Wall is and what Israel it wants to see here.
Is this a site that belongs to one minority group in the people of Israel, where women are not allowed to speak in public and pray aloud, or does it belong to all of us, to every Jew and Jew?
Is the Western Wall a home for all of us or an ultra-Orthodox synagogue?
We will soon mark five years for the cancellation of the layout of the Western Wall.
Why are Israeli governments afraid to implement the compromise outline?
Out of a commitment to make a female voice heard at the Western Wall, to fix the world and to respect equality for women in the State of Israel in the 21st century, the women of the Western Wall will continue to pray and read the Torah, until the full outline of the Western Wall is implemented.
The author is the CEO of "Women of the Western Wall".
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