Justice minister criticizes Netanyahu for surprise Western Wall vote

Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked criticized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday for the surprise vote in the cabinet on Sunday to freeze a January 2016 government agreement establishing a pluralistic prayer pavilion at the Western Wall.

“We backed the prime minister on the [Western Wall] framework, and thought it was the right thing to do,” Shaked said Tuesday in an interview with Army Radio.

The justice minister made clear that any objections her Jewish Home party had were not over the decision itself, but rather with the manner in which the freeze was enacted. She said that ministers were surprised when the vote was announced.

“It wasn’t okay, even if it’s his right as prime minister, that [the vote to freeze the agreement] wasn’t put on the [cabinet meeting’s] agenda. The right thing to do would be to put it on the agenda so ministers can prepare,” Shaked said.

On Sunday, the cabinet suspended a government-approved plan to establish the pavilion at the Jerusalem holy site, which was to have had joint oversight by all streams of Judaism, following calls by Netanyahu’s ultra-Orthodox coalition allies for scrapping the deal. Also during the meeting, ministers voted to advance legislation to cement a de facto ultra-Orthodox monopoly on conversions to Judaism in Israel.

The Prime Minister’s Office said that Netanyahu had instructed Cabinet Secretary Tzachi Braverman and Minister Tzachi Hanegbi to formulate a new plan for the site.

It also said construction work on the southern edge of the Western Wall plaza — where the pluralistic prayer pavilion was slated to be built — would continue uninterrupted.

Braverman said Monday that preparations for the pluralistic prayer section would continue at the explicit instruction of Netanyahu. Referring to a barrage of criticism from across the liberal Jewish world directed at the prime minister, who was seen as caving in to ultra-Orthodox demands, he accused critics of trying to score political points and said they had “paid no attention” to the details of the decision.

The cabinet decision on Sunday coincided with a High Court of Justice deadline for the state to respond to petitions on its failure to implement the agreement and construct the mixed-gender plaza near Robinson’s Arch by this week.

The conversion bill, which was propounded by the ultra-Orthodox parties, would pull the government’s recognition of private conversions, namely those not conducted by the Chief Rabbinate. Its approval by the Ministerial Committee for Legislation on Sunday gives the proposal coalition support, although an appeal against it by the Yisrael Beytenu party could undermine its chances of advancing.

In a statement Tuesday, Education Minister and Jewish Home head Naftali Bennett admitted that US Jewry feels it has been “slapped in the face.”

“Over the past 24 hours we have held a marathon of meetings with the heads of US Jewish communities currently in Israel, and the picture is troubling,” Bennett said. “The representatives of US Jewry feel they were slapped in the face by the Israel government and that they are apparently no longer welcome here. Of course this isn’t true.”

While he acknowledged that “mistakes were made,” he denied that the government had acted against world Jewry and blamed the reaction of US Jews on misunderstandings and “a campaign of misinformation.”