For years, the Women of the Wall have demanded they be allowed to hold alternative, non-traditional services. Five years ago, Israel built an area allotted for mixed-gender prayer and for the Reform and Conservative movements to pray as they wish, but the Women of the Wall insist on praying in the main plaza, disturbing the prayers of the hundreds and thousands of women who come to pray.
Now, a new petition signed by hundreds of women calls on Interior Minister Aryeh Deri to stop the Women of the Wall ahead of their scheduled prayers this Sunday. According to the petition, “this extremist group blatantly violates the custom of the place, which all the people of the Wall respect, and provokes quarrels in the holy space.”
Noting that Deri’s Shas party controls the Rabbinate, which opposes Women of the Wall, the petition asked him to “exercise your authority and act to remove the provocateurs from the Western Wall and allow the masses who pray to pray there with concentration and holiness.”
Read more at Arutz Sheva.
{Matzav.com}
