In the video: a violent protest against the women of the Western Wall (Photo: Women of the Western Wall)
The Chairman of the Ministerial Committee for Legislation, Yariv Levin, informed the heads of the coalition parties today (Thursday) that the Western Wall law will not be put to a vote. This, after much criticism of the proposal, according to which anyone who violates the instructions of the Chief Rabbinate in the compound may go to prison or pay a fine of NIS 10,000.
The ministerial committee was supposed to approve the proposal of Knesset member Uriel Bosso from Shas, which would prohibit mixed prayer or arriving in immodest clothing at the Western Wall.
The proposal was supposed to be promoted in accordance with the coalition agreements with the religious and ultra-Orthodox factions, and following pressure from Shas Chairman Aryeh Deri, who demanded that the proposal be approved in a preliminary reading this Wednesday.
The goal, according to political sources, is to prevent by legislation the women of the Kotel, the reformers and the conservatives from holding mixed prayers in the entire area of the Western Wall, in preparation for a hearing to be held this month in the High Court on petitions against the state.
The bill states that the Western Wall and the conduct thereof will be subject to the instructions of the Chief Rabbinate of Israel and the Rabbi of the Western Wall and the Holy Places, Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovitch, and within this framework it will be prohibited to conduct a religious ceremony "that is not according to local custom" as well as "a mixed prayer of men and women" or "a ceremony that includes Taking out a Torah scroll and reading it, blowing the shofar, wrapping oneself in a tallit or putting on a tefillin" in the field of women's aid, customs of the women of the Western Wall and the reform and conservative currents.
Also, it will be forbidden to arrive "in an outfit that does not suit the sanctity of the place".
The rabbi of the Western Wall or someone on his behalf will have the right to remove any person from the Western Wall who interferes with him in the performance of his powers or who has broken the law, and will be punished by six months' imprisonment or a fine of 10,000 shekels.
Deri demanded that the bill be advanced for approval in a preliminary reading due to a hearing to be held at the High Court in the next two weeks, in which the state is required to allow mixed prayers at the Western Wall plaza or to give official recognition to Israel's mixed aid for the purpose of allowing mixed prayers between men and women. Deri, according to sources in the S. believes that if the bill is advanced in a preliminary reading - the state will be able to say in the High Court that it is advancing the regulation of the place through legislation and there is no room for judicial intervention. Likud is expected to support the legislation and advance it for approval in the plenary.
Opposition Chairman Yair Lapid attacked the proposal.
"This legislation means one thing - the Wall is no longer for everyone. The extremist government continues to tear the people of Israel apart," said the chairman of Yesh Atid. "They will not decide for us who is more Jewish and who is less.
If this legislation passes, Israel is no longer a free country.
Instead of a symbol of unity, the Western Wall will become a symbol of the oppression of women, discrimination against secular people, the dissolution of our alliance with world Jewry."
Even in Likud there was opposition to the move, when Minister of Culture Miki Zohar said that "the Western Wall belongs to all the people of Israel and is sacred to every Jew and Jewess and there is no need for laws to maintain the sanctity of the place. Maintaining the status quo is critical to maintaining the unity of the people. 'Its ways are pleasant ways and all its paths are peace'" .
The chairman of the state camp, Benny Gantz, added: "No Jew, of any stream, has ownership of the holiest place for the Jewish people.
The Western Wall belongs to everyone, religious and secular, right and left, and we must protect it as a place that unites all parts of the nation.
I call on Netanyahu - leave politics out of our most sacred place.
Do not tear down the Kotel from the Jewish people."
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The Western Wall
Aryeh Deri