From the Liveblog of
Monday, March 16, 2026
Knesset committee advances bill expanding Orthodox control over Western Wall Plaza
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleSam Sokol is a former political correspondent at The Times of Israel. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"
The Knesset House Committee votes to send a bill expanding Orthodox control over the Western Wall Plaza to the Constitution, Law and Justice Committee for preparation for its first reading in the Knesset plenum.
The bill, which advanced in a preliminary reading last month, is intended to undercut a recent High Court of Justice ruling that the state must move forward with a planned upgrade of the Western Wall egalitarian plaza, which would improve conditions at a side area used for non-Orthodox prayers at the Jewish holy site.
If passed into law, the bill would give the country’s two chief rabbis, both Orthodox, ultimate authority over Jewish holy sites including the so-called Ezrat Israel, which is used as an egalitarian prayer area, and would define any activity at the site contrary to their instructions, including non-Orthodox worship, as a “desecration.”
The law currently states that desecration of a holy place carries a penalty of seven years in prison.
“In the midst of a war, while Jews of all stripes are fighting for their lives and are in the army, in the reserves, and on the home front, the coalition chooses to promote the Western Wall Law, the he same law that defines those citizens as second-class Jews, the same law that divides the people and harms one of its most unifying symbols,” declares Anna Kislensky of the Reform Movement, which has championed non-Orthodox prayer at the Western Wall.
As antisemitic violence in the Diaspora, where most Jews are not Orthodox, is increasing, “the Israeli government chooses to take advantage of the emergency to tell the Jews of the Diaspora you are not Jewish enough to pray in your own way at the Western Wall,” she adds.
“You have to rub your eyes in disbelief. In the midst of a war, when millions of Israeli citizens are in safe rooms and shelters, the economy is not functioning, the education system is paralyzed and children are sitting at home, and the Western Wall plaza stands empty, the coalition finds it urgent to continue advancing the disgraceful” bill, says the Women of the Wall organization, which has held monthly public women’s prayer services at the Western Wall for decades.
“At a time when we need our sisters and brothers in the Diaspora more than ever to stand with us on the international stage, the State of Israel is spitting in their faces and telling them: your place is not here with us,” Women of the Wall adds.
The Times of Israel Community.