Blue and White platform includes commitment to stalled Western Wall deal

The Blue and White party platform, set to be released this week, will include a commitment to implement a currently frozen deal to expand the pluralistic prayer pavilion at the Western Wall and establish a first-of-its-kind body made up of non-Orthodox Jewish leaders to oversee the site, The Times of Israel learns.

The proposal comes as part of a “specific commitment to rehabilitating the relationship with the Diaspora, born out of a sensitivity to the needs and views of Diaspora Jewry,” a Blue and White source tells The Times of Israel.

According to the source, the party will call for the implementation of the full agreement reached between the government and non-Orthodox Jewish leaders in January 2016, overturning a later decision by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who at the behest of his Haredi coalition partners delayed the plan indefinitely.

The original plan, which Blue and White will push for, includes three key provisions: a joint entrance to the main Western Wall plaza and the egalitarian prayer space; a new permanent pavilion greatly enlarging the modest prayer deck currently at the site; and, perhaps most controversially for Haredi parties, a joint council made up of representatives from liberal streams of Judaism and government representatives that would be in charge of overseeing the site.

— Raoul Wootliff