Western Wall compromise: Israel's High Court to hold hearing

Israel's High Court of Justice will hold a hearing on Tuesday regarding a petition from the Reform movement, the Conservative movement and Women of the Wall (WOW) regarding the implementation of the Kotel compromise. This is the first hearing to take place in two years.

Attorney Orly Erez Likhovski, director of the Israel Religious Action Center, Israel Movement for Progressive and Reform Judaism claimed on behalf of the petitioners that since the last hearing on the petitions, in November 2020, the state “has not carried out even small actions that it stated it would do in terms of the construction work in the Robinson’s Arch,” she said of the egalitarian prayer plaza in the southern area of the Kotel.

“For almost 5 years there has been no access for male or female worshipers at the Ezrat Israel prayer section to the stones of the Kotel, which is not only a blatant discrimination in relation to the men and women worshiping in the separate prayer plaza [the main prayer plaza] but also a blatant violation of the Hoffman High Court ruling given 20 years ago,” she said.

The results of the case in question ruled that the Government must establish appropriate arrangements and conditions to permit the petitioners to realize their right to worship in accordance with their custom in the Western Wall Plaza.

The Supreme Court petition was submitted in 2016 after the Kotel Compromise was accepted by the Netanyahu government and was later frozen, as a result of the pressure of ultra-Orthodox leaders. Tuesday’s hearing is the fifth since the petition was submitted.

What has happened since?

During the past four years, the state has been telling the court that they will renovate the egalitarian prayer plaza, but it has not been done, to the extent that there is currently no application for the required building permit - without which, no renovations can be done.

In addition, there is a worsening of the rights of the Reform and Conservative Jews who pray at this plaza since there is currently no access to the stones of the Kotel, since a large stone fell in 2018. 

The only progress in recent years regarding the situation in the egalitarian plaza was seen during the previous Yair Lapid-Naftali Bennett government when the prime minister's office said it does not allow the prayer of groups with a separation barrier between men and women at the egalitarian plaza. This came after groups of ultra-orthodox Israelis prayed there in separation between men and women as a provocation. 

Yet this letter isn’t a law or a decision by the government, therefore isn’t worth very much at the moment.

Only about NIS 2 million is invested by the government into the egalitarian prayer plaza, mainly for cleaning services and security. The Masori (Conservative) movement is the one that actually pays for the upkeep of the plaza and has a full-time rabbi who is in charge of assisting with tens of ceremonies held there daily.

It is expected that the judges will criticize the government for not doing enough in promoting the implementation of the compromise and the lack of access to this plaza, which is also barely accessible for people in wheelchairs. 

Earlier in February, the Attorney General's (A-G) office published the State's response to the petitions submitted regarding the preparation of the southern Western Wall plaza, known as Ezrat Israel. It was stated that Prime Minister Netanyahu's position is to continue the implementation of the directive from 2017, according to which, the renovation of the southern plaza will "continue as quickly as possible," and that the "management of the southern plaza will continue in accordance with the format that has existed in recent years."

Also, according to the announcement of the A-G, "for the purpose of preparing the southern plaza [at the Kotel], in the upcoming days, the Prime Minister's Office will issue an instruction to submit an application for a building permit."

"The Prime Minister's position is that a solution to a sensitive and complex issue of this kind, part of which concerns the issue of freedom of worship, will be promoted by the executive authority. Therefore, at this time, the political authorities should be allowed to continue promoting the solution to the issue."