BICOM

Religious Services Minister Naftali Bennett unveiled a large platform for egalitarian and non-Orthodox Jewish prayer at the southernmost point of the Western Wall in Jerusalem, but separate from the main Western Wall plaza.

The emotive issue of women’s and non-Orthodox prayer services at the Western Wall has intensified over recent months. Such practice is a departure from Orthodox Jewish tradition, but it has nonetheless recently received the backing of Israel’s courts despite protests from Israel’s ultra-Orthodox Jewish community. Jewish Agency Chairman Natan Sharansky has previously announced a plan for a single entrance to the Western Wall plaza from which worshippers can access an egalitarian prayer area. However, in the meantime until the Sharansky plan is implemented, Bennett opened the new prayer platform as an “interim solution.” The new area is open to men and women, is expected to accommodate 450 people, and will open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with no entrance fees. Bennett hailed it as an attempt to avoid “any dispute among Jewish people in this holy place.”

However, although the new area unveiled by Bennett is within sight of the Western Wall, it does not adjoin the wall itself and does not allow worshippers direct access to the structure. The Women of the Wall group, which has been leading the campaign for women’s prayer services at the Western Wall criticised Bennett’s announcement. In a statement, the group said, “Instead of generating change… in the direction of equality and pluralism” Bennett had instead “built the women a sunbathing deck that overlooks the Western Wall from a distance.”

Although Bennett is responsible for three government ministries, the Prime Minister’s Office released a statement downplaying the significance of the new prayer area, saying “Reports that a government decision has been made regarding prayer arrangements in the Western Wall plaza are incorrect.”