Drama at the Plaza

Over five years after the “Kosel Compromise Plan” was approved  by the Netanyahu government (only to later be frozen), the High Court is expected to instruct Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s government to go ahead with the plan, which would allow mixed prayer at the Kosel. The Bennett-Lapid-Lieberman government is expected to attempt to implement this in practice.

The struggle now begins in earnest between those preserving the sanctity of the holiest place in the world and representatives of heterodox streams of Judaism and their political patrons, who will do anything to violate it. Housing Minister Ze’ev Elkin and Religious Services Minister Matan Kahana, two of the leading Orthodox voices in the coalition, have said they won’t let the plan go ahead. But while they conceivably believe this plan is a step too far, the right-wing elements in the coalition have a track-record of protesting pro forma, but folding in the end anyway.

Chareidi and national religious opposition MKs met with coalition members numerous times over the past few weeks in a last-ditch effort to stop the reforms. At the same time, they’re making preparations for a huge prayer rally of hundreds of thousands of participants. Meanwhile, a social media campaign charged that “Bennett is dividing the Kosel.” The plan is to arrange huge rallies and public prayers events should the government approve the deal.

In 2016, in the wake of repeated appeals to the High Court, the Netanyahu government drew up the Kosel Compromise Plan to enable pluralistic prayer at the southern Kosel plaza, with no separation between men and women. The significantly expanded prayer section was to be accessed from the main plaza, with a sign reading “Ezrat Yisrael” proudly marking the place where men and women could pray without partition at the holiest site in the world.