Five women were detained at the Kosel in Yerushalayim today for defying a court ruling by wearing talleisim and reading from the Torah during the Women of the Wall’s monthly Rosh Chodesh service.
Dozens of women attended the service, including Meretz MKs Tamar Zandberg and Michal Rozin.
After the service started, several people allegedly hurled insults at the women. One charedi man grabbed a pamphlet and burned it, claiming it contained inappropriate content.
When the women began to put on talleisim, police entered the area and detained five of them, including Women of the Wall director Leslie Sachs. They were taken to a police station in the Old City for questioning and were expected to be released later in the day.
Police reinforcements were present at the Kosel this morning after calls had been heard in charedi neighborhoods in recent weeks to prevent the women from donning talleisim and reading from the Torah, as they try to do every Rosh Chodesh.
Police had earlier announced that the women would be arrested if they wore talleisim or read from the Torah in the women’s section of the Kosel plaza. Instead, the police said, the women could conduct those customs in the adjacent Robinson’s Arch area of the Kosel, in accordance with a High Court of Justice ruling on the matter.
Earlier this week, Jewish Agency Chairman Natan Sharansky presented to Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu a proposal to establish an egalitarian prayer section at the Kosel that would be open to all without gender or religious restrictions.
Under the proposed compromise, the Kosel plaza would be expanded to join with Robinson’s Arch, with the egalitarian section between them.
{Israel Hayom/Matzav.com Newscenter}
