Lapid, Herzog denounce disruption of Tisha B’av prayers at Western Wall egalitarian plaza

Foreign Minister Yair Lapid denounces a group of far-right Orthodox activists who overran the pluralistic prayer pavilion at the Western Wall, where the Conservative Movement was holding prayers for the Tisha B’Av fast.

“On the day we commemorate the destruction of the Temple, a group of extremists decided to desecrate the holiness of the day and the holiness of the place and start a violent struggle at the Kotel,” Lapid tweets, using the Hebrew name for the Western Wall. “That’s the baseless hatred that led to the destruction of the Temple and our exile.”

He adds: “We won’t let them destroy the Kotel, destroy Israeli society or destroy our relations with the Jewish world. The Kotel belongs to every stream of Judaism and it will be a place where every Jew feels at home.”

New President Isaac Herzog also weighs in.

“I was very saddened by what happened yesterday at the Western Wall,” Herzog says during an event at his official residence.