In Israel today, Women of the Wall supporters charge that police have violated a court order (see
prior posting) by requiring the egalitarian women's prayer group to conduct their monthly
Rosh Hodesh service at a site at the back of the Western Wall plaza instead of allowing them in the women's section closer to the Wall. The
Jerusalem Post reports that the normal women's prayer area was filled with 6 to 7 thousand ultra-Orthodox (
haredi) high school girls who arrived ahead of some 250- 300 Women of the Wall supporters in order to block access to the Western Wall. The protesters' transportation was arranged by the United Torah Judaism political party. The two sides in the long-running dispute over whether ultra-Orthodox rabbis will control practices at Judaism's holy site exchanged charges. Director of the Reform Movement in Israel Rabbi Gilad Kariv who supports WOW said:
[The police] have given a reward to a small group of haredi provocateurs and rabbis who deal in spreading baseless hatred. The Israel Police Force forgot that its job is to defend freedom of religion and prayer at the Western Wall and not to imprison those who are praying behind a police line.
Jerusalem Deputy Mayor Doytsch who supports the
haredi position said in a press release:
the Western Wall is a place that unites and binds all of the Jewish people. It is a great shame that on the New Month of Av a group of strange women come to the Western Wall in order to divide and cause arguments within the people.
