From the Liveblog of
Sunday, February 22, 2026
Meeting set to discuss bill giving Chief Rabbinate full control of Western Wall canceled
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"
Cabinet Secretary Yossi Fuchs cancels today’s meeting of the Ministerial Committee for Legislation, which was due to discuss Noam MK Avi Maoz’s bill giving the Chief Rabbinate full control over prayer at all parts of the Western Wall.
Maoz’s proposal is intended to undercut last Thursday’s High Court of Justice ruling that the state must move forward with the upgrade of the Western Wall egalitarian plaza, which would allow non-Orthodox prayers at a lesser-used portion of the holy site.
Responding to the cancellation, Maoz tweets that he will bring the bill for its preliminary reading on Wednesday and calls “upon all members of the Knesset to stand up and vote for the integrity of the Western Wall and against the High Court and the Bennett plan for the division of the Wall.”
In a statement, Justice Minister Yariv Levin calls on members of the coalition to support the bill in its upcoming preliminary reading despite the fact that it did not receive the backing of the committee.
“A few minutes ago, I received the announcement from the Government Secretariat that the meeting of the ministerial committee had been canceled,” he says. “Since there is no government stance on this matter, I plan to vote for the bill. I urge all MKs, especially those in the coalition, to join me and send a clear message to the High Court: Enough is enough.”
Asked about the cancellation of today’s meeting, a spokesman for Levin tells The Times of Israel, “You’ll have to ask Yossi Fuchs why he ordered the cancellation.”
In a separate statement, coalition whip Ofir Katz frees up coalition MKs to vote as they wish on the legislation.
“As the bill to protect the holy sites goes up for preliminary reading on Wednesday, the coalition will be able to vote according to the dictates of their conscience,” he announces.
Knesset Immigration, Absorption and Diaspora Affairs Committee head MK Gilad Kariv (The Democrats), a former leader of the Reform Movement in Israel, commends Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for blocking today’s vote on Maoz’s “extreme and anti-Zionist bill” but says that as long as he allows members of the coalition to vote freely on the matter he is “bandaging a corpse.”
“On behalf of the majority of the Jewish people in Israel and the Diaspora, we demand that the prime minister not allow coalition members to drag the Jewish world into a needless and unfair dispute, in the midst of a wave of antisemitism that is indiscriminately striking individuals and communities of all denominations,” he declares, calling on the premier to “halt the wave of incitement and poisonous propaganda.”
“If he does not do so, Israel’s greatest friends in the Jewish world will,” warns Kariv.
The Times of Israel Community.