Israeli Supreme Court slams government for not opening Western Wall egalitarian area

At the end of January, the a deal was signed to open a permanent area of the Western Wall for pluralist Judaism, after three years of negotiation. However the government has so far done nothing since to implement the agreement.

Yizhar Hess, executive director of Israel’s Masorti movement, told The Times of Israel it was “a shanda [embarrassment], a mistake, that the government cannot implement its decisions.

“We went to negotiate with the Israeli government and we conducted a very serious negotiation and it was signed”, said Mr Hess.

“We reached an agreement. Now, after you signed an agreement, you need to go to court to implement it?”

Rabbi Gilad Kariv, Executive Director of the Israel Movement for Reform and Progressive Judaism, told Ha’aretz: “The prime minister, in the last year, enabled the ultra-Orthodox politicians to take the issue of the Western Wall hostage."

“The court gave the state a yellow card”, said Rabbi Kariv.