The fuss about 'pluralistic prayer' at the Kotel (Western Wall)
I am sure that many of you, particularly in the US where the reactions have been shrill, have heard the fuss about the government 'abandoning' an agreement to facilitate 'pluralistic' prayers at the Western Wall. There's a lot of misinformation about this decision in the media. This video, which I found on Facebook last night, does a great job of clarifying what's really going on.
Let's go to the videotape (I included the entire Facebook post):
Another article, that destroys the claims about 'mixed prayers' being policy at the Kotel during the Mandatory (pre-State) period appears here:
Few seem to recall that the conflict between Arabs and Jews in
British Palestine was directly related to the Kotel and Jewish demands
for prayer rights there. The 1929 riots and pogroms against Jews was due
to a conflict at the site and was referred to as the “Wailing Wall
disturbances” for many
years. According to an article on the subject, “The issue of Jewish
rights of worship at the Wailing Wall flared up as a result of an
incident on 24 September 1928 when the screen separating men and women
at the Wall was removed by a British police officer in the midst of
prayers on Yom Kippur.” Before 1967 Jews were forbidden from bringing
many prayer items to the site. The lack of separation between men and
women was not because Jews didn’t want separation, but because they were
forbidden to change the site, because it was run by the authorities and
Muslim religious leaders saw it as being owned by Muslims. Colonial
authorities ran the Wall.
Let’s read on regarding the 1928 incident: “The ensuing outcry of
world Jewry and the Zionist movement in the wake of the screen incident
was accompanied by an increasing Jewish challenge to the status quo
rights of worship at the Wall, as well as demands for possessing the
Wall and its surrounding area. Indeed, during the 1920s a number of
Zionist and Jewish leaders sought to expand the Jewish standing and
rights of worship at the Wall.”
So at the heart of the Jewish and Zionist demands for increased
rights to the Wall was the demand to separate men and women as in
traditional Orthodox services. Wait a sec. But I thought the “good old
days” back then men and women prayed together? Actually they only prayed
“together” because Jews were forbidden from making any changes to the
site by the British, who were listening to the Islamic Wakf and its
demands for a “status quo.”
UNESCO chief blasts 'Palestinian' attempt to have Western Wall declared a Muslim holy site
As the 'Palestinians' decry Israel for supposed 'changes to the status quo' on the Temple Mount, they are attempting to create one of their own by orchestrating a UNESCO vote (you will recall that they are members of UNESCO - that's why the US hasn't paid dues in four years) declaring the Western Wall (pictured) to be an Islamic holy site. UNESCO director general Irina Bukova is not pleased, and blasted her own board today for bringing the matter to a vote.
“We all have responsibility to UNESCO’s mandate, to take decisions that
promote dialogue, tolerance and peace,” said Bokova. “This is especially
important for young people, who should be nurtured and educated for
peace.”
She issued her statement on Tuesday, in advance of
Wednesday’s highly publicized vote by UNESCO’s Executive Board in Paris
on a draft resolution, which “affirms that the Buraq Plaza [the Western
Wall] is an integral part of al-Aksa Mosque/al-Haram al-Sharif.”
A
statement put out by her office said that Bokova “appeals to the UNESCO
Executive Board to take decisions that do not further inflame tensions
on the ground and that encourage respect for the sanctity of the Holy
Sites.”
Her office added that the discussion “could be seen to
alter the status of the Old City of Jerusalem and its Walls, inscribed
on UNESCO’s World Heritage list, and that could further incite
tensions.”
The “protection of culture heritage should not be taken hostage, as this undermines UNESCO’s mandate and efforts,” Bokova said.
She
has consulted with nations on the 58 member board to encourage them to
pursue constructive dialogue that promotes tolerance and mutual respect
such as outlined in the mandate of the United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization.
Jerusalem is a city that is
holy for Jews, Christians and Muslim and it should be a place of
dialogue for all three faiths, she said.
Bokova called on “all
parties to ensure that cultural heritage, including religious, is
preserved and accessible to all and to resume dialogue in the spirit of
mutual understanding.”
The six-page draft resolution – submitted
by Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Kuwait, and the United Arab
Emirates on behalf of the Palestinian Authority broadly condemns Israeli
actions in Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Gaza.
At no point does
the resolution mention the Jewish historical connection to Jerusalem,
which dates back to biblical times. Nor does it reference the Temple
Mount or the Western Wall, which was part of the retaining wall King
Herod built for the Temple Mount more than 2,000 years ago. It also
relies solely on Arabic names for the holy sites on and around the
Temple Mount.
Israeli Ambassador to UNESCO Carmel Shama Hacohen
called the resolution “a total Islamization” of a site that is revered
by both Jews and Muslims.
Funny that we have not heard equally vehement opposition to this resolution from US President Hussein Obama, Secretary of State Kerry, UN Ambassador Power or National Security Council Chief Rice.
I wonder why the self-proclaimed 'most pro-Israel administration evah' has not come out against this. /sarc
I think that the picture above probably best illustrates how many fewer people were at the Kotel this year for Tisha b'Av - both last night and today - than is normally the case. People were afraid to go due to the two terror attacks in Jerusalem on Monday.
Let's go to the videotape.
I go to the Kotel at mid-day on Tisha b'Av for the afternoon prayers. I find it too social for Tisha b'Av at other times.
Shocking video: Arab breaks Jew's skull with baseball bat on Shavuoth morning
Shavuoth is the one day of the year that I will walk through the Damascus Gate entrance to the Old City of Jerusalem rather than going around to the generally safer Jaffa Gate. There are two reasons for this. First, we enter Damascus Gate sometime around 4:00 am when there are very few Arabs around. Second, the place is crawling with border police units.
This attack took place at the Dung Gate, right down the road from the Western Wall, a gate that we often use during Passover and Succoth. It's considered safe. This attack happened in broad daylight and someone videotaped it (or maybe the video comes from a security camera).
The attack took place in Jerusalem as a group of Jewish youths made
their way to the Kotel. A Jewish youth suffered a fractured skull and
internal bleeding. The attacker was arrested.
According to the youths, they were on their way to the Kotel when one
of them stopped by the Dung Gate, the closest gate to the Kotel, to
urinate by the side of the road. The group continued, when suddenly they
realized a roughly 35-year-old Arab resident was attacking their friend
who had stopped.
The youths rushed to help their companion, only to find additional
Arab hooligans arriving on the scene, several of them armed with
baseball bats. At that point one of the Arab attackers struck one of the
Jewish youths in the head, as caught on film, severely injuring him.
The youth was evacuated to the hospital with a break in his skull and
internal bleeding as a result of the heavy blow. He later recalled that
the Arab man started shouting at him, claiming that they were on his
property, and began strangling him.
The Arab attacker was arrested by police, and had his detention extended.
...
Attorney Itamar Ben-Gvir,
who represents one of the attacked Jewish youth for the Honenu legal
aid organization, responded to the events, noting how things would have
been different if the Jews had been the attackers instead.
"If this had occurred in the opposite manner, the entire agenda in
Israel would have been busy only on this issue," argued Ben-Gvir. "The
media would have spread on thick the red titles, the police would be
conducting arrests, and (Justice Minister) Tzipi Livni and (President)
Shimon Peres and even the prime minister would have been condemning it."
"But when a Jew takes a bat to the head, the hypocrisy
celebrates and the media is silent. We demand that the police enforce
justice, submit an indictment and ask for the attacker to be arrested
until the end of legal proceedings," said Ben-Gvir.
In a custom that has become universal – with non-Jews, as well as
Jews, writing out prayers that are “left” in the wall for G-d to address
– the wall is filled with notes of all sizes and shapes, all containing
pleas for good health, happy families, and myriad other needs.
According to Jewish tradition, a prayer rendered at the Kotel – the wall
outside the holiest site in Judaism, the Temple Mount – has a special
power.
To make way for the new notes, the management of the Kotel – which is
headed by Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz, the Rabbi of the Kotel and the Holy
Places in Israel – removes the notes every year before Passover. The
notes are then taken to a special site in the Mount of Olives cemetery,
where they are stored.
The notes were removed Sunday wth a special device that is capable of
picking up the small notes that are stuffed into the crevices of the
Kotel.
Speaking to Channel Ten, Mahmoud al-Habbash, Minister of Holy Places
in the PA, said that “there will be no peace until the end of the
Israeli occupation that began in 1967. Every piece of land that Israel
conquered then belongs to the Palestinians.” That includes Jerusalem,
“the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Western Wall.”
Asked what would happen if Jews wished to pray at the Wall,
al-Habbash said “they will be welcome, there will be no problem. There
will be no limitations on freedom of religion and worship. Religious
ceremonies are one thing, and politics are another.”
That's what they said in 1949 too and we all know what happened..... Freedom like the Temple Mount now, where Jews are arrested if their lips are moving?
With that, Channel Ten quoted sources in the PA that most of
the issues brought up in the negotiations being conducted by US
Secretary of State John Kerry, including land swaps, have been resolved.
But the Palestinians are insisting that all areas of Jerusalem
liberated in the Six Day War, including the Jewish Quarter, the Kotel,
and Jewish neighborhoods such as French Hill, Ramat Eshkol, and Har Homa
be placed under PA sovereignty. Kerry has spent much time and effort in
trying to come to a compromise on Jerusalem, but has so far failed, PA
sources said.
Speaking to Channel Ten, the PA's Jerusalem Minister, Abu-Ala,
said that the current round of negotiations was one of the most intense
ever between Israel and the PA, thanks to the strenuous efforts of Kerry
to get the two sides to agree to a negotiation framework.
But he said that effort came with a risk.
“Given the intensity with which the Americans are approaching
this, there will probably be undesirable consequences if the talks
fail.”
At least 40 Bar Mitzvahs (Jewish coming-of-age ceremonies) were held
at the Western Wall over the weekend, despite Jerusalem being blanketed
with historic levels of snow, according to a statement from the office
of Western Wall Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz.
The statement notes that at least 30 of the ceremonies were carried
out as part of the Western Wall Heritage Foundation, which organizes Bar
Mitzvah ceremonies free of charge.
Rabbi Rabinowitz also noted that the Jewish holy site saw regular
attendance to prayer services despite the bitter cold. Groups of people
attended services throughout the chaotic weekend, the statement noted,
walking to Jerusalem's Old City by foot through freezing temperatures.
And where were the Women of the Wall? Heck, there was no one there to see them.... Maybe because it wasn't Rosh Chodesh? What happens if it snows again on Rosh Chodesh (the week after next)? Hmmm.
Posted on Facebook by Women for the Wall activist Ronit Peskin.
Writer and Channel 2 Newscaster Sivan Rahav-Meir (סיון רהב-מאיר) posted this photo to her timeline. In translation her words read:
Thursday at midnight, now at the Western Wall. The Jerusalem air is
very cold, and the Plaza is wet from the rain that fell here before.
More than 100 women are here at this time, from all types. With pants
and with skirts, with a prayer book in hand or with prayer in
the heart. Some of them are crying verses from Psalms towards the
stones, some of them are taking pictures and uploading them to Facebook.
They don't have a spokesperson or PR representative, they did
not invite reporters, and more fundamentally they did not come in an
organized fashion, and one doesn't recognize the other.
Women for the Wall will be out in force on Wednesday
Wednesday morning is Rosh Chodesh, the beginning of the new Jewish month, and once again thousands of Women for the Wall are coming out to pray - but not necessarily to be seen and certainly not to make a scene. Ronit Peskin appeals to other women to join them.
In the past few months, increasing numbers of Dati Le'umi
(Religious Zionist) women have come to the Kotel on Rosh Chodesh, the
first day of the new Hebrew month, , to join Women For the Wall in
showing, through sincere prayer, Tefillah, that we wish to preserve an
opportunity for undisturbed traditional prayer at the Wall.
Why is this important? What is it that we hope to accomplish?
Let's
start at the beginning. When King Solomon built the Holy Temple, Beit
HaMikdash, thousands of years ago, he prayed that G-d should always hear
our prayers when directed towards that site. The prophets said that
the Kotel HaMa'aravi, the Western Wall, would never be destroyed, and
whenever Jews were able to come to the Holy Land, we returned to pray
there.
And once the Wall was liberated from Jordan in 1967,
Israeli Jews immediately requested a place for traditional prayer at the
Holy site.
The plaza is less than 50 years old. It is less than
12%, of less than one sixth of the length of the Wall. Robinson’s Arch
is one of several other exposed sections. No one is told they can't pray
at “the Wall” in whatever fashion they choose, they are merely asked to
respect tradition in this small section. It's not about the
“ultra-Orthodox;” it's what every one of us – from all around the world,
with all of our different and wonderful customs, minhagim – expect to
find when we, as Jewish women, go to pray.
...
The bottom line is this:
1. After 25 years, WOW is unable to bring 75 Israeli women to the Kotel.
2. The American students of HUC are trying to change the way that we pray in the Jewish State.
We
support everyone's right to pray in their own fashion, including those
who pray in accordance with millenia of Jewish tradition.
The
Conservative and Reform movements have both endorsed Ezrat Yisrael, the
area set up at Robinson's Arch, as a place for alternative prayers. WOW
alone has put up untenable obstacles, including their demand to disrupt
the traditional plaza even after they move.
WOW should move to
Religious Minister Naftali Bennett's new Ezrat Yisrael platform without
delay, without telling the government how prayers at our traditional
plaza should be run. WOW cannot dictate the terms under which they will
stop trying to change us, stop insulting our intelligence, our
independence, and our Judaism.
And that is why your prayers with
us, on Wednesday, the second day of Rosh Chodesh at 7:30 am at
the Kotel, are so important. We hope you will join us!
'Women of the Wall' to be moved to Robinson's arch?
Haaretz is reporting that new cabinet secretary Avichai Mandelblit (if the name sounds familiar, it should) will present a plan at Sunday's cabinet meeting that would move the 'Women of the Wall' out of the main prayer area and give them a separate spot near Robinson's arch. The plan should also sound familiar....
Mendelblit, who headed a committee tasked with ironing out details of
the plan, including setting a timetable for implementation, is expected
to propose a 400-square-meter space for egalitarian worship, with no
rabbinical supervision, at Robinson’s Arch. There, women would be
permitted to read from the Torah and wear prayer shawls.
Haaretz
has learned that Mendelblit’s plan follows in the footsteps of his
predecessor, Zvi Hauser, also a member of the current committee. Some
years ago, Hauser suggested that the government set up space for
egalitarian worship in the area known as the “Southern Wall” — an
extension of the main prayer plaza that is separate from it and that is
located in the same archaeological park housing Robinson’s Arch, a
Herodian-era street and other archaeological artifacts. Today, the area
of worship contains a small wooden platform built for the Women of the
Wall roughly a decade ago, which the group said did not meet their
demand to be allowed to worship freely at the Western Wall.
Mendelblit
is expected to suggest that the area set aside for worship be expanded,
that it be open for prayer 24 hours a day, and that an ark with Torah
scrolls be placed there for use by non-Orthodox groups. His proposal
differs from Sharansky’s, which suggested that the egalitarian worship
area occupy most of the archaeological park and allow access to the
stones of the Western Wall. Although Sharansky’s plan garnered praise,
the archaeologists who run the site firmly opposed it, while others took
issue with construction work at the sacred site. Mendelblit’s proposal,
which involves only part of the area, gives non-Orthodox worshippers
minimal access to the Western Wall stones.
The
new plan sets a precedent — it provides government recognition for
non-Orthodox movements within Judaism — but the major problem is its
timing. The various sides in the dispute have already expressed their
views on Sharansky’s plan. Most agreed to accept that plan even though
it included physical changes to the entire Western Wall plaza — and this
after the Jerusalem District Court ruled Women of the Wall could
worship in the women’s section almost unimpeded.
Judge
Sobel’s ruling has not been enforced in recent months because of
ultra-Orthodox protests against Women of the Wall, but the women’s
rights group is unlikely back down from its demand to worship in the
women’s section now that the ruling has been handed down. Women of the
Wall had expressed reservations about Sharansky’s plan, which is broader
than the one Mendelblit is expected to unveil, meaning it probably
won’t accept the Hauser-Mendelblit proposal either. The Reform Movement
in Israel and the United States will almost certainly not accept it. It
is not clear how the Conservative Movement, which for all practical
purposes runs the Southern Wall area, will respond to the plan, which
expands and improves the worship options in the area.
Read the whole thing. No, this plan won't be accepted. The whole point of 'Women of the Wall' is to be seen. This would put them out of sight of the worshipers at the Kotel Plaza.
Haredi women once again filled the women's section at the Western Wall (Kotel) Plaza on Wednesday morning, Rosh Chodesh, forcing the self-proclaimed 'Women of the Wall' to do their thing elsewhere.
The Women of the Wall prayer rights activist group was holding its
monthly prayer service at the Western Wall on Wednesday, and the
Jerusalem Police said there were around 250 activists present.
The
WoW group was forced to congregate in a different area because the
women's section of the Western Wall was too packed, the police said.
Around one to two hundred shouting and whistle blowing haredi men and
women were protesting close to the WoW prayer area but police had made
no arrests.
The Jerusalem Police accompanied the group members from the complex’s entrance to the
Western Wall plaza so as to prevent anyone from interfering with their
prayers.
The Women of the Wall have the merit that they are bringing thousands of Haredim out for sunrise prayer services (the best way of saying morning prayers under Jewish law) every Rosh Chodesh. Next month, Rosh Chodesh is Rosh HaShanna, and I don't believe they come there on Rosh HaShanna (there is no public transport in Jerusalem and no cars are allowed near the Western Wall). In two months, Rosh Chodesh is on the Sabbath (again, no public transport and no cars), so unless they're going to show up on the first day of Rosh Chodesh (which is not the first day of the month), there may not be a clash then either. That means the next clash is 2-3 months away.
Mass Haredi Rosh Chodesh prayer service to be held at Western Wall on Wednesday morning
The JPost tries to give the impression that, contrary to last month, Haredi schoolgirls are not going to show up at the Kotel (Western Wall) on Wednesday morning for Rosh Chodesh prayers.
Last month, thousands of haredi schoolgirls filled the women’s
section entirely preventing WoW from holding their service there, and were
forced to conduct it at the entrance to the Western Wall plaza complex away from
the wall.
The group expressed intense displeasure with the arrangements
last month, saying that the police should have enabled them to pray in the area
facing the wall behind the main prayer sections for men and women at the very
least.
WoW has announced that it will blowing the shofar in today’s
morning prayers, as is customary in the month of Elul, and will also bring a
Torah scroll to the entrance of the complex.
...
On Wednesday, the office of
[Rabbi Shmuel] Rabinowitz [the Kotel rabbi] announced that both he and the Jerusalem police were calling on
haredi representatives in the Jerusalem Municipality to prevent haredi school
girls from going to the Western Wall this month, in light of security concerns
ahead of the last day of Ramadan and large number of Muslims expected to arrive
in the Old City and the Temple Mount.
Haredi politicians from United
Torah Judaism, both national and municipal, were the driving force behind recent
haredi protests against the Women of the Wall.
Rabinowitz said he also
called on the WoW to come “according to the previous arrangement” and not to
wear tephillin.
They're going to have to get up awfully early to find place in the women's section at the Kotel on Wednesday. At this very moment, there are cars going around my neighborhood - and presumably others in Jerusalem as well - calling (in the name of the 'Eida Haredith') for the public to turn out en masse for dawn prayer services at the Kotel on Wednesday.
Twelve and a half years ago, Mrs. Carl and I and the then-baby took a week-long trip to Spain using frequent flier mileage and compensation from Iberia for sending my luggage to Cuba a couple of years before (really!). For the Sabbath we were in Madrid and stayed in a hotel called the Trafalgar, because it was the only hotel that was in walking distance to the Chabad emissary, who was the only Kosher place to eat on the Sabbath.
The emissary had 20-30 people at his table, some of whom were Brits, and I can recall that when I mentioned the name of the hotel where we were staying, one of the Brits remarked that it was odd that the Spaniards chose to remember their defeats. Well, it's not so odd. We Jews do the same thing. It's called Tisha b'Av.
On that date the following awful events occurred:
586 BCE – The First Temple was destroyed by the Babylonians
70 AD – The Second Temple was destroyed by the Romans and the Jews
fled into the Diaspora – mostly areas surrounding the Mediterranean
including Spain.
133 CE – Simon bar Kochba Revolt with remaining Jews warring against the Romans brutally butchered in the final battle at Betar.
1290 – July 18 King Edward I expelled the Jews of England
1492 – August 2 – Expulsion of Jews from Spain as a result of the
Inquisition. Among them a likely Jew, Christopher Columbus, who, with
his Jewish navigators, took his 3 ships to look for riches in the New
World.
1941 – August 2 – The German Nazi SS murdered 600 Jews in Targivica,
Ukraine with the Ukrainians participating joyously as “Willing
Executioners.” (Hitler’s Willing Executioners by Daniel Jonah Goldhaggen 1996 No. 1 bestseller)
So why do we remember our tragedies? Watch the video here to find out.
I will be offline for parts of today and tomorrow, because synagogue services are longer, because I need to contemplate the destruction, and because blogging while sitting on the floor is not easy. When I return from the afternoon prayers at the Kotel tomorrow, I will blog more regularly.
A reminder that the Kotel (Western Wall) is the outside wall of the Temple Mount on which the Temple actually stood, and visiting it on Tisha b'Av can be particularly moving.
May we be privileged to see the Third Temple on the Temple Mount, speedily and in our time.
Hat Tip to Rena F for the image (and sorry to those who do not understand the Hebrew).
It's Rosh Chodesh (the first day of the new month), and that's the day that the Women of the Wall come out to do their thing.
But on Monday morning, there was no room for them in the women's section of the Western Wall Plaza, and they were forced to the back (I'm posting a picture of the plaza below so you understand what that means - the back area is frequently used for prayer on crowded days).
When people refer to the plaza, they are referring to the front section (the women's section is on the right and the men's section is on the left). There's about a two-foot drop from the back square to the two rectangles at the bottom (and the rectangles have been expanded slightly further back since this photo was taken. When it's really crowded (Shavuoth, the last day of Sukkoth and Jerusalem Day), there are partitions added to the middle area (until where the line is at the bottom left of the photo) to accommodate separate prayer areas in the large middle section.
I cannot tell from the story below whether the Women of the Wall were relegated to the middle section or perhaps to the back section. In any case, they were in front of the Wall.
The non-orthodox Women of the Wall held services, Monday morning, to
mark the new Jewish month of Av at the Western Wall of the Temple in
Jerusalem's Old City. A large number of police were present out of
concern that hareidi-religious worshipers would disrupt the observance
as they have the past two months.
In their effort to avoid
friction between the sides, police did not allow the group to pray in
the main women's section, citing overcrowding.
Haaretz claims that this is the first time in 25 years that Women of the Wall could not gain access to the women's section of the front plaza. I don't think that's accurate, because for many years, Women of the Wall was up the stairs in a garden all the way at the back and well above the plaza level (so they could not be heard) and for a while they were at Robinson's arch, which is well to the right of the picture above.
Sunrise this morning was 5:40 - you had to be there awfully early to get in....
The death of Doron Ben Shlush (pictured) last Friday at the entrance to the Kotel (Western Wall) plaza may not have been accidental. You may recall that the security guard who shot him claimed that Ben Shlush had yelled Allah-hu-Akhbar and pulled something out of his pocket. It now appears that Ben Shlush did nothing of the sort. Instead, he was involved in a verbal altercation with the security guard, 25-year old Hadi Kabalan, a Druze from Beit Jann, that Ben Shlush shouted a racial epithet and that Kabalan pulled a weapon and shot him ten times. Kabalan may now be charged with murder.
The court lifted a gag order on the identity
of the shooter; he is 25-year-old Border Police officer Hadi Kabalan from the
Druse village of Beit Jann in the Upper Galilee.
Kabalan says he shot
Ben- Shalush several times because he thought he was a terrorist, but police
suspect a verbal confrontation in which Ben-Shalush shouted a racial slur at
Kabalan may have motivated the shooting.
Kabalan is being held for
alleged manslaughter; however, he may be charged with murder when an indictment
against him is filed.
Kabalan has said Ben- Shalush shouted “Allahu
akbar” and reached into his pocket, thus leading him to believe that Ben-Shalush
was a terrorist. However police now say Ben-Shalush may have yelled curses at
Kabalan about his Druse heritage before the shooting.
At Kabalan’s
previous remand hearing, the transcripts of which were released on Sunday, his
lawyer bristled at the charges and the suggestion by the prosecution that his
client, who has spent most of his career in various security services and with
highly positive reviews, was a flight risk or might obstruct the
investigation.
The lawyer added that the guard had never served in the
Western Wall area before, contributing to his not recognizing Ben- Shalush, who
was a regular in the area.
Multiple witness told Maariv that the guard, a 25-year-old Druze man
from northern Israel, and the victim, 46-year-old Doron Ben Shlush, had
multiple verbal altercations during the short time that the guard had
been employed at the site. One fellow security guard said that the
shooter, whose identity has not been released, previously told his
superiors that Ben Shlush had threatened to kill him.
Hmmm.
There are a large number of 'regulars' at sunrise at the Kotel - I know some of them. If Ben Shalush was a regular, it's hard to believe that someone could legitimately have suspected him of being a terrorist.
A 46-year old Jewish man was killed by a security guard at the Kotel (Western Wall) on Friday morning, after he allegedly shouted Allah-hu-Akhbar and pulled an object out of his pocket.
A man was shot and killed at the entrance to the Western Wall in Jerusalem on Friday morning, according to police.
Magen
David Adom stated that a security guard shot an approximately
46-year-old Jewish man in the public restroom at the Western Wall after
the man reportedly yelled "Allahu Akbar" and took an object out of his
pocket.
MDA paramedics treated the injured man on the scene, but he succumbed to his wounds.
Arutz Sheva is describing the victim as a 'Jewish youth.'
You will recall that I reported on Thursday that the 'Palestinians' are objecting to reconfiguring the area around the Kotel (Western Wall) to allow for an 'egalitarian' prayer area. Evelyn Gordon has a great idea to make this a teachable moment for American Jews.
[I]deally, I’d like every Reform or Conservative congregation in
America to discuss this question with its membership–for two reasons.
One is that the new egalitarian section seems to matter more to
American Jews than to Israelis, since Israel’s Reform and Conservative
movements are so much smaller (about 7 percent
of all Israeli Jews). Therefore, it’s only fair to get their input
before making any decision. The more important reason, however, is that
this could provide a genuine teachable moment in the kind of trade-offs
Israelis face every day in dealing with the Palestinians, to which
liberal American Jews–i.e. the majority of the American Jewish
community–have lately grown increasingly unsympathetic.
Most liberal American Jews have two
main demands of Israel: They want it to recognize the non-Orthodox
denominations, and they want it to make peace with the Palestinians,
right now. The latter demand isn’t confined to fringe anti-Israel
activists; it’s routinely voiced by long-time Israel supporters like Rabbi Eric Yoffie or Leon Wieseltier.
So I’d like all these Jews to seriously consider this question: When
these two primary demands conflict, what do you do–capitulate to the PA
in the interests of “peace” and give up on being able to pray at the
Western Wall in your own fashion, or insist on your rights at the Wall
at the cost of further antagonizing the Palestinians, for whom
modifications of the Western Wall Plaza are no less objectionable than
new outposts in the heart of the West Bank?
Dilemmas no less wrenching confront Israel every day in dealing with
the Palestinians, but because they don’t affect American Jews directly,
the latter are often too quick to accuse Israel of being intransigent
over a trivial point it should just concede in the name of peace. They
deplore Israel’s refusal to agree to a border roughly along the 1967
lines, not understanding the enormous security risks this creates; they
deplore Israel’s refusal to release murderers to woo
the Palestinians to the negotiating table, not understanding the major
role freed prisoners have repeatedly played in fomenting new terrorism;
they deplore Israel’s reluctance to redivide Jerusalem, not
understanding how unlikely it is that the city would remain open
afterward, or how devastating a repartition would therefore be.
This is rich: 'Palestinians' object to 'egalitarian prayer area' in Western Wall plaza
Anxious to avoid a controversy, Prime Minister Netanyahu asked former Minister Natan Sharansky to find a solution to the monthly riots over Women of the Wall. Sharansky has proposed making a separate 'egalitarian prayer area' (i.e. without a separation barrier between men and women) south of where the current Kotel plaza is.
Sharansky’s plan will allow for the construction of an additional
section of the Western Wall Plaza at the southern end of the Kotel,
equal in size and height as the northern prayer area, for egalitarian
prayer and accessible as part of one unified Western Wall complex with a
single entrance. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has told Sharansky
to meet with National Security Adviser Yaakov Amidror to deal with
issues like how to handle moving the Mugrabi Bridge to the Temple Mount.
But the 'Palestinians,' who are generally supported by many of the same Leftists who support Women of the Wall, object to making any changes to the Kotel plaza.
The Palestinian Authority will not permit Israel to change the entrance
to the Temple Mount in order to facilitate the building of an
egalitarian prayer area near the Western Wall, PA Religious Affairs
Minister Mahmoud El Habash told The Jerusalem Post in Ramallah Thursday morning.
He said he considers the Western Wall an Islamic holy site, al-Buraq.
"Any
changes in Haram a-Sharif [Temple Mount] is unacceptable to the
Palestinians and Arab side," Habash said in a meeting with Israeli
journalists. "It's a change of our heritage site and I believe such
changes may push all of us to new conflicts and problems."
Habash,
who is a former Hamas member from the Gaza Strip but strongly backs two
states for two peoples, said any change in the status quo regarding the
Temple Mount must wait until a final status agreement between Israel
and the PA.
"Any changes in this situation will make the problem
more difficult," Habash said. "We don't agree to any changes. It's a
Wakf place, and Islamic place and we have documents to prove it. You can
pray how you want after the liberation of Palestine."
I looked in vain on Sunday morning to see what happened at the Western Wall. Today, Sunday, is Rosh Chodesh, the day each month that the 'Women of the Wall' show up to do their thing in front of television cameras and the New York Times. Last month, thousands of Haredim showed up and drowned them out. The JPost is reporting that Sunday morning's prayers passed with 'relative calm.'
A few hundreds of haredim demonstrated the WoW monthly Kotel prayer
service with signs calling the group "Provocation Women," attempting to
disrupt the prayer by booing and jeering at the women.
"You have made up a new religion. Go ahead, build a new modern wall!" signs raised by haredim said.
Two protesters were arrested after one threw an egg at police forces and the other threw a bottle.
Western
Wall Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz issued a statement on Sunday morning
condemning the haredi protest at the wall, asking all involved parties
to work to find a solution to the dispute "that doesn't honor the holy
site and the people of Israel."
According to police spokesman
Micky Rosenfeld, Jerusalem Police planned a heavy presence in the area
to ensure the demonstration, that was expected to draw thousands, does
not escalate into violence, as it did during last month’s Women of the
Wall Rosh Hodesh service, resulting in injuries and multiple arrests of
haredim.
“Sunday morning, police will be at the scene to ensure no
incidents take place and we will escort members of Women of the Wall in
and out of the area,” said Rosenfeld on Saturday evening.
“We are
expecting at least several hundred people from the haredi community and
will be fully prepared to deal with any public disturbances, if
necessary.”
Sunday’s protest was approved by the senior haredi
rabbinic leadership, with the caveat that attendees behave “in
accordance with the Torah,” ....
Yated Ne’eman
reported on Thursday that in an effort to curtail repeated violence, the
haredi leadership requested that only married yeshiva students and
adults attend the demonstration, and asked younger men and boys to stay
at home.
But what they're not telling you is that the police actually closed the Western Wall to worshipers for at least half an hour.
Let's go to the videotape.
Much more - including many pictures - here (text in Hebrew).
And for those of you who are sitting overseas thinking you have all the answers, please consider this comment that was posted to the JPost article.
Los Angeles is so far it doesn't mean anything to us over here. You want
to have an impact, you have to be here. Talk from LA is just talk to
make yourselves feel better.
I am an Orthodox Jew - some would even call me 'ultra-Orthodox.' Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991 (I don't look it but I really am that old :-). I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty-five years, and we have eight children (bli ayin hara) ranging in age from 13 to 33 years and nine grandchildren. Four of our children are married! Before I started blogging I was a heavy contributor on a number of email lists and ran an email list called the Matzav from 2000-2004. You can contact me at: IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com
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