The chair of the Knesset Finance Committee intends to block funding for a plan to expand the non-Orthodox prayer section of the Western Wall, a source familiar with the plan tells JTA.
Moshe Gafni of the haredi Orthodox United Torah Judaism party intends to use his committee post to deny the approximately $10 million needed to fund the expansion, says the source, who requested anonymity. In response, the Prime Minister’s Office is seeking other sources of funding, including from the Jerusalem municipality, the Reform and Conservative movements of Judaism, and the Jewish Agency for Israel.
Gafni’s spokesman does not respond to several calls for comment.
Members of the Women of the Wall organization wear prayer shawls as they pray at the Western Wall, Judaism’s holiest site, in Jerusalem, January 02, 2014 (photo credit: Miriam Alster/Flash90)
The Cabinet is expected to vote Sunday on the expansion plan. Haredi government ministers had planned to be absent for the vote to avoid supporting or opposing it.
The plan has been negotiated since 2013 by the government, the Jewish Agency for Israel, the Reform and Conservative movements, the Western Wall’s haredi Orthodox management and Women of the Wall, a women’s prayer group that holds monthly services in the site’s women’s section.
— JTA
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