BICOM

Israel’s government has backtracked on a 2016 decision to create a state-recognised egalitarian section in the southern part of the Western Wall.

Following yesterday’s weekly Cabinet meeting, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced a freeze on the implementation of a government-approved plan that would make the current egalitarian section of the Western Wall by Robinson’s Arch accessible from the main Western Wall complex and allow this section to be administered by non-orthodox streams of Judaism.

However, construction work on the southern edge of the Western Wall — where the pluralistic prayer pavilion currently exists and was due to be expanded — is due to begin.

The decision has been condemned by many liberal Jewish groups, based in the US and Israel.

The Jewish Agency’s Board of Governors, currently in Israel for their annual policy-making meetings, announced that it has changed its entire agenda for the next two days, in order to formulate a response to the cabinet’s decision, including cancelling dinner with the Prime Minister.

Jewish Agency Chairman Natan Sharansky said: “I must express my deep disappointment at [yesterday’s] decision by the Government of Israel to suspend the implementation of its own decision to establish a dignified space for egalitarian prayer at the Western Wall.”

Ultra-Orthodox coalition members Shas and United Torah Judaism said the move “reflects the will of most of the nation that seeks to safeguard the Western Wall’s sanctity and status”.

Health Minister Yaakov Litzman of the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism party said the cabinet’s decision to freeze the government-approved plan for a pluralistic prayer pavilion at the Western Wall “sends a clear message to the entire world that Reform Judaism has no access to or recognition at the Western Wall”.

However, deputy minister and former US ambassador Michael Oren called the decision “the abandonment of Zionism,” which would serve the “the narrow interests” of the ultra-Orthodox parties.

He added: “This despicable decision sends a sharp message of division and alienation to Diaspora Jewry. The State of Israel defines itself as the nation-state of the Jewish people. It must start behaving like it.”