Jerusalem – Tensions were running high at the Western Wall Monday morning as thousands of haredi school girls and perhaps 200 haredi boys arrived at the site to protest against the Women of the Wall prayer-rights activist group and prevent them from praying next to the Wall.

Some 250-300 people showed up to take part in the Women of the Wall service, including several dozen men.

The police estimated that between six to seven thousand haredi high-school girls were present at the Western Wall. The girls, whose transportation was arranged by the United Torah Judaism political party, arrived ahead of the Women of the Wall prayer group and entirely filled up the women’s section by the Wall.

The police had set up ahead of time a prayer area at the back of the plaza close to the entrance to the Western Wall complex, cordoned off by barriers and a large police presence, and the Women of the Wall prayer group conducted their service.

While the haredi girls remained in the women’s section of the Wall, the boys stood by the WoW prayer area in turns shouting insults and singing to drown out the voices of the WoW service.

“Get out of here Amalek,” was one of the slogans the boys shouted at the women’s prayer group, as well as the traditional rythmic chants of “gevalt,” or woe in Yiddish, along with calls of “Nazis” directed at the police.

Although most of the haredi youth were smiling and joking as they protested, eggs and water balloons were thrown at the female worshippers on at least two occasions.

The police arrested two haredi demonstrators, a man and a woman, for disturbing the public order.

The office of Jerusalem Deputy Mayor Yossi Doytsch of UTJ told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday that he and other UTJ officials had met with the police last week to inform them of the protest and their intentions to bring the haredi girls to the Western Wall in protest.

Police Spokesman Shmulik Ben Ruby said that he would not comment on meetings with different elements but noted that the police “meet with both sides.”

Women of the Wall director Lesley Sachs expressed anger that the group had not been enabled to pray next to the Wall as they have been accustomed in recent years.

“We’re upset and frustrated,” Sachs told the Post. “We always cooperate with the police but we feel like we’ve been betrayed by the police today because where we’ve been made to pray today is not a place of prayer, it’s the parking lot.”

Yizhar Hess, director of the Conservative Movement in Israel, said that the police, by creating the prayer area for WoW so far away from the Western Wall itself, were in contempt of a recent ruling of the Jerusalem District Court to allow the group to pray at the site in accordance with their customs.

“Without doubt, the police need to think hard about whether or not they want to be taken to court over their incapability of protecting freedom of religious worship at the Western Wall,” said Hess. “If not, they need to do what they know how to and provide an appropriate, respectable, and accessible prayer area so that the Women of the Wall can pray according to their customs as they have done for the last 25 years.”

Director of the Reform Movement in Israel Rabbi Gilad Kariv directly accused the police of contravening the Jerusalem court ruling.

“[The police] have given a reward to a small group of haredi provocateurs and rabbis who deal in spreading baseless hatred,” said Kariv. “The Israel Police Force forgot that its job is to defend freedom of religion and prayer at the Western Wall and not to imprison those who are praying behind a police line. We demand from the government secretary and the ministers relevant to this issue to intervene. The continuation of the current behavior will stymie all efforts for a compromise and lead to [further] litigation on the issue of the Western Wall.”

Following the prayer service, Deputy Mayor Doytsch issued a statement to the media saying “the Western Wall is a place that unites and binds all of the Jewish people. It is a great shame that on the New Month of Av a group of strange women come to the Western Wall in order to divide and cause arguments within the people.”

Yitzhak Pindrus of UTJ, another Deputy Mayor and member of the Jerusalem Municipal Council, also criticized the women of the wall saying that “in these days, when the Jewish people are mourning the destruction of the Temple, we will not allow the desecration of the last remnants of the Western Wall.”

Pindrus continued, saying “baseless hatred caused the greatest destruction to befall our people and we will not let a small group of agitators to continue to polarise with provocations and baseless hatred.”

Content is provided courtesy of the Jerusalem Post

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