Reform movement slams foot-dragging on Western Wall egalitarian platform

Following a High Court of Justice hearing on Sunday on the cancellation of the Western Wall compromise last year, the Reform Movement’s Israel Religious Action Center slams the government’s foot-dragging on establishing and expanding the egalitarian platform at the holy site.

“In the Supreme Court discussion today it became clear that the Government of Israel does not have a timetable for establishing the egalitarian platform and that no detailed planning process has taken place,” says Rabbi Gilad Kariv, head of the Israel Movement for Reform and Progressive Judaism, in a statement.

“The actions of the government over the past two years show that it obviously intends to keep the existing egalitarian platform completely separate from the Kotel, without using the appropriate budgets and without representation for the groups using the egalitarian platform in the governance of the site,” he adds.

The group says it is “our belief and hope that when the Court sees the partial and unsuitable plans of the government, it will decide that its conduct discriminates against millions of Jews in Israel and throughout the world. We will continue to operate both in the legal and public spheres in order to achieve the desired reality where every Jew and every Jewish community can pray according to their traditions at the Kotel in a respectful and egalitarian manner.”