Zionist Union lawmaker looks to save Western Wall compromise by legislation

Zionist Union lawmaker Nachman Shai plans to propose a bill to anchor the now-frozen Western Wall compromise in law.

The compromise, which would have seen formal government recognition for a third section of the Western Wall plaza that would allow egalitarian prayer services to visitors at the site, already approved by the government in January 2016, was frozen by a vote in the cabinet.

“The retreat from the Western Wall framework is a significant threat to the unity of the Jewish people and the historic link between the State of Israel and the Diaspora,” Shai says of his bill.

Israel, he says, was “established to ensure political and religious liberty to the Jewish people,” but was “destroying with its own hands the vital foundations of its existence as the nation-state of the Jewish people and leaving millions of Jews disappointed and hurt.”

The bill is slated to be placed on the Knesset agenda on Wednesday, but is unlikely to advance as a private bill by a member of the opposition.