A bill that would strengthen the Orthodox Chief Rabbinate’s control over the Western Wall, introducing steep penalties for “desecration” of the holy site, advanced in Israel’s parliament on Wednesday with the support of nearly half of all lawmakers.
If enacted, prayer practices associated with the largest denominations of American Jewry could be punishable by a prison sentence of up to seven years.
The development does not mean that the bill, which was introduced by a religious extremist lawmaker, will ultimately become law. Still, it underscores the strength of Israel’s right-wing voting bloc and is alarming advocates for pluralism, including many American Jewish leaders.
“The Knesset has taken a dangerous step toward declaring war on Jewish unity and religious pluralism,” Rabbi Jacob Blumenthal, CEO of the Conservative/Masorti movement, who previously criticized the legislation in an essay coauthored by Rabbi Rick Jacobs, the leader of the Reform movement. “By advancing legislation that would criminalize religious services at the Kotel unless approved by the ultra-Orthodox Chief Rabbinate, the government is embracing extremism over pluralism. This measure would strip millions of Israeli and Diaspora Jews of our religious freedom at Judaism’s holiest site.”
Women of the Wall, which organizes monthly demonstrations advocating for the right of women to pray communally at the wall, called it “a black day for the State of Israel.”
Yizhar Hess, vice chair of the World Zionist Organization, said the day would “always be remembered as a dark day in the history of Zionism and the nation-state of the Jewish people.”
Hess called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to intervene against the legislation. “Fifty-six MKs raised their hands and told millions of Jews worldwide they have no place at our holiest site,” Hess said. “Were legislation like this moved forward in any other country — limiting the rights of Jews to pray according to their custom at their holy sites — many of the members of Knesset who supported this legislation may even call it antisemitic.”
He added, “How could it be that the only western democracy without freedom of religion for Jews could be the Jewish state?”
The bill does not actually mention the Western Wall or egalitarian prayer. Instead, it would consolidate authority for the Chief Rabbinate over the site at a time when Israel’s Supreme Court has rebuked the government officials for blocking egalitarian prayer at the wall and indicated that a decade-old deal permitting such prayer, struck through negotiations that include U.S. Jewish leaders, should be respected.
Netanyahu did intervene against the bill earlier this week, though he did not say why. He withdrew it from a legislative process that could have given it the official support of his governing coalition, according to a primer published by the Israel Democracy Institute. But Avi Maoz, the Knesset member who initiated the bill, advanced it on his own. There are multiple steps ahead before it could become law.
