Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit says that the southern section of the Western Wall should be designated as a “holy site” for pluralistic prayer, and the Orthodox Chief Rabbinate should not have any control over the area.
The statement, submitted as a written letter to the Supreme Court, comes in response to several ongoing court petitions coming from both sides of the issue of egalitarian prayer at the Western Wall. Among the petitioners are the major non-Orthodox Jewish movements, the Women of the Wall (and its splinter group headed by Prof. Shulamit Magnus), as well as the Women for the Wall, who are against women’s Torah reading at the Western Wall.
Mandelblit says law enforcement agencies have a duty to ensure that there are no disruptions to prayer there and no unruly behavior by protesters, and that the government must create a body that would be responsible for the area, but which would not include representatives of the Orthodox rabbinate or the rabbi of the Western Wall.
— with Amanda Borschel-Dan
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From the Liveblog of
Tuesday, March 6, 2018
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