Western Wall Egalitarian Prayer Section Expanded Thanks To Loophole
Western Wall Image by Getty Images
JERUSALEM (JTA) — A plan to expand the Western Wall’s egalitarian prayer section received final approval, using a special regulation to authorize the work in order to make it a handicapped-accessible site.
The approval was first reported late Sunday in Haaretz, which did not say when the meeting to approve the work took place.
Approval of the work under the special regulation cut months off the time it would take to begin the work, since it need only be approved by the municipal engineer and not also by both the regional and local planning committees.
The scheme to approve the fast-track process for the work was supported by the Prime Minister’s Office, according to the report.
Plans to renovate the site, with a budget of more than $7 million, have continued, despite the suspension of a comprehensive plan approved in 2016.
Netanyahu had promised to expand the area following the suspension of the comprehensive deal, though the expansion has been appealed to Israel’s Supreme Court over concern that it would damage an important archeological site.
The attorney general’s office reportedly was against using the loophole of making the area handicapped-accessible as a way to approve a major and controversial project. The plan was approved by the Jerusalem municipality’s legal counsel, however.
Last month, the three members of the Knesset ministerial committee charged with deciding whether to approve the plan to upgrade the Western Wall’s egalitarian section resigned over political pressure from the haredi Orthodox parties. Netanyahu placed himself as head of the committee.
The comprehensive plan would have included a common entrance to the Western Wall plaza for all three sections and a public board to oversee the egalitarian prayer space and would include representatives of the non-Orthodox movements and Women of the Wall.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.
If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.
Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
