Violent skirmishes broke out Wednesday morning at the Western Wall as Reform, Conservative and Women of the Wall leaders and activists brought 14 Torah scrolls into the site in defiance of administrative regulations.
Security guards from the Western Wall Heritage Foundation tried to forcibly prevent the protest prayer group of some 200 people from entering the main site with the Torah scrolls, but were unable to hold back the momentum of the crowd.
Orderlies of the foundation then fought physically and aggressively to prevent them bringing the Torah scrolls into the women’s section.
The orderlies manhandled the progressive Jewish leaders and activists bearing the Torah scrolls and those protecting them, while haredi protesters grabbed hold of the Torah scrolls and fought with the activists.
Western Wall Heritage Foundation orderly fights with progressive Jewish worshipper pic.twitter.com/H3gaLUljEp
— Jeremy Sharon (@jeremysharon) November 2, 2016
Yizhar Hess, director of the Masorti (Conservative) Movement in Israel, was knocked to the ground by orderlies and protestors but was unharmed.
Eventually several Torah scrolls made it into the women’s section for Women of the Wall’s monthly service, while a pluralist prayer service was conducted in the upper plaza of the site.
The prayer protest rally was staged to protest the failure of the government to implement a government resolution approved in January to create a state-recognized pluralist prayer section at the southern end of the Western Wall.
Following the events of Wednesday morning, the Prime Minister’s Office issued a statement which was striking for its criticism of the progressive Jewish denominations and WOW for staging the event, criticism which has not been raised in public before.
Reform, Conservative Women of Wall leaders, activists approaching entrance to Western Wall pic.twitter.com/l1k0gMGd3o
— Jeremy Sharon (@jeremysharon) November 2, 2016
“The unfortunate events that happened today at the Western Wall plaza do not contribute to advancing the agreed-upon solution for prayer arrangements at the site,” stated the PMO.
“The prime minister and the Knesset speaker emphasized yesterday in front of the non-Orthodox leaders that this is the time for dialogue and not friction.”
“The one-sided violation of the status-quo at the Western Wall harms the ongoing efforts to reach a solution.”
Director of the Reform Movement in Israel Rabbi Gilad Kariv said that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s efforts to advance the Western Wall agreement were appreciated, but said that the prime minister should direct his criticism to his haredi coalition partners.
“The non-Orthodox denominations are the ones who have always expressed their agreement to the agreement and are the ones who have prevented the intensification of the struggle,” said Kariv.
“After a frustrating year of non-implementation of the agreement, an unprecedented wave of incitement against Reform Judaism and the shameful and discriminatory mikva law, it would be fitting for the government to stand by its commitments to the Jewish world,” he continued, calling on Netanyahu to implement the resolution immediately.”
Administrator of the Western Wall and chairman of the Western Wall Heritage Foundation Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz blamed Women of the Wall for the incident, saying they had injured thousands of worshipers through their prayer service and had “disgraced Torah scrolls” in so doing.
He said that “due to deep trembling for the [possible] harm to the many Torah scrolls that were brought along” he had instructed the orderlies at the site not to clash with the demonstrators.
This statement contradicts however the forceful and violent behavior of the orderlies, caught on video, who tried to physically push those carrying Torah scrolls to the women’s section back out of the area.
The orderlies, all young men, said they had been requested to come to the site specifically to deal with the scheduled prayer rally and demonstration.
Head of the Reform Movement in North America Rabbi Rick Jacobs rejected accusations that the protest prayer rally was a provocation.
“No movement in the history of humanity has ever moved forward simply by quietly waiting,” said Jacobs.
“The Jewish people love this place and have come here over millennia, and we are here as part of the Jewish people to assert that the Kotel is also ours, Judaism is also ours, the Jewish state is ours, and we come here out of love, strength and deep commitment that Israel will be a home for all Jews, and that this sacred place of the Kotel will also be a symbol of that inclusivity and that pluralism and that strength that comes from our Jewish diversity and Jewish commitment.”
The rabbi noted that the various movements and organizations of progressive and Diaspora Jewry were working including through the Knesset, the courts, to achieve their aims, but that the rally was about being present on the ground as well.
Regarding the skirmishes that broke out as a result of the rally, the rabbi pointed out that it was protestors and not the progressive worshipers who had been the source of the violence.
“We came with dignity, but we were not met with dignity or respect and that’s a real shame that there are people who can’t understand that we want a place here, but we don’t want the whole place.”
Hess said that “all civil rights protests” and activists are labelled provocateurs, but ale denied that the rally had been a provocation.
“We came here to demonstrated that we’re connected to the Kotel and to demonstrate that this place is sacred to all of us and the fact that the Israeli government is not implementing what was agreed is disgraceful,” said Hess.
“We’re here to say there is more than one way to be Jewish in Israel and at the Kotel, and if this resolution is not implemented we are here to demand a third section at the Western Wall itself with men and women praying together.”
Rabinowitz said after the prayer rally that “the heart is torn at the sight of Torah scrolls, holier than any other sacred thing, carried like protest banners,” and lamented the presence and support of the progressive Jewish leaders and activists alongside Women of the Wall.
“My Jewish brothers, the Western Wall and the Jewish people are calling out today ‘enough’. Do you not see how Women of the Wall have drawn all of us into a dead end, along a path of zealotry, violence, demonstrations, and civil war until the bitter end.”
Women of the Wall chair Anat Hoffman noted that Rabinowitz himself had helped negotiate the government resolution, and said that his retreat from the deal due to subsequent haredi opposition made him unfit for his office.
“Women of the Wall and millions of their supporters in Israel and around the world are demanding an end to the discrimination against women and against the Reform and Conservative movements and to implement the Western Wall agreement. This is the meaning of being a free people in our land,” said Hoffman.
Reform, Conservative Women of Wall leaders, activists approaching entrance to Western Wall pic.twitter.com/l1k0gMGd3o
— Jeremy Sharon (@jeremysharon) November 2, 2016
