There were unprecedented Jew-on-Jew clashes at the Western Wall today as the struggle over women’s rights at the holy site turned physical.
Dozens of non-Orthodox Jews, furious that Israel has still not set up a special prayer section for them, marched towards the Wall carrying Torah scrolls, and were met with violence.
Men in ultra-Orthodox dress, and security staff employed by the Western Wall, pushed and shoved the protesters. Some demonstrators fended off attempts to grab their scrolls.
Andrew Sacks, a prominent Conservative rabbi, said he was pulled to the ground.
“I’m still shaken,” he said in an interview a few hours afterwards. “I’ve been through a lot of conflicts over the years but I’ve never been pulled to the ground holding a Torah.”
עימותים אלימים בכותל המערבי pic.twitter.com/19VoNP4dXn
— יקי אדמקר (@YakiAdamker) November 2, 2016
The Conservative and Reform movements, along with the Women of the Wall feminist prayer group, held the march because they are furious that eight months after they were promised a formal Kotel plaza to conduct prayers as they want, nothing has happened. The plan seems to have hit a dead end after moves to sabotage it by strictly-Orthodox political parties.
The march was seen as a way to make a unilateral change that is not being delivered by the government - allowing women to read from Torah scrolls at the Wall. Normally, Torah scrolls are only allowed in the men’s section and banned from the women’s section.
Many of the marchers were diaspora Jews, among them people attending a meeting of the Jewish Agency’s Board of Governors. As such, the march provides a major headache for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who wants to keep the diaspora on-side by implementing the plan, but also needs the strictly-Orthodox parties on side for the survival of his coalition.
Shmuel Rabinovitch, the Orthodox rabbi who oversees the Western Wall, said that the protest was an abuse of Torah scrolls.
"The heart is broken at the sight of Torah scrolls, the holiest of holies, bandied about like signs at a protest,” he said. “Never has there been such a thing."
Rabbi Rabinovitch claimed that Women of the Wall were causing a “civil war.” He added: “The entire Jewish people's eyes are upon us today to stop the plague.”
Anat Hoffman, chair of Women of the Wall’s board, hit back by saying that it was Rabbi Rabinovitch who was “holding the Torah hostage” by insisting that only men can read from it at the Wall and by opposing the government from establishing the planned non-Orthodox section.
She said that the government should see from foreign participation in the march that Diaspora leaders are running out of patience. “When these good people who are normally so mild mannered are prepared to go to the street and be manhandled, this is the Jewish world saying enough is enough.”
Diaspora leaders, among them Rick Jacobs, President of the Union for Reform Judaism, and Steven Wernick, President of the North American Conservative Movement, took part in the march - despite the Israeli Prime Minister effectively asking them not to. “We have one people and one Wall – it’s our Wall,” Mr Netanyahu told Jewish Agency delegates on Tuesday. “The less publicly we talk about it, the better chance we have to resolve it.”
After Wednesday’s march Mr Netanyahu said: "The unilateral violation of the status quo at the Western Wall this morning undermines our ongoing efforts to reach a compromise.”
Rabbi Sacks, Director of the Conservative movement’s Rabbinical Assembly in Israel, said Mr Netanyahu’s request for Diaspora leaders to keep quiet was “like telling the victim of a crime that they cannot raise their voice.”
Rabbi Laura Janner-Klausner, Senior Rabbi to Reform Judaism, commented: “As our holiest site, the Kotel must be welcoming to all Jews. It is unacceptable that this non-violent protest was met with such a forceful response.
"The clashes demonstrate the urgent need for a space for pluralist and egalitarian prayer at the Kotel, guaranteed and protected by Israeli law.”
