Should Bennett reverse Netanyahu's 'Kotel deal'? - editorial

• Date: 15 June 2021
• Author: JPOST EDITORIAL
• Published date: 15 June 2021
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

Under pressure from haredi parties in the coalition, however, the government abandoned the plan on June 25, 2017, much to the chagrin of non-Orthodox movements and Diaspora Jewry, the majority of which supported it.

Now the new government of Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has the perfect opportunity to repair the damage and implement the Kotel deal. It is an ideal way to put the Israel-Diaspora relationship back on track.

Before the government took office this week, political affairs reporter Gil Hoffman quoted sources familiar with the coalition negotiations as saying that the Bennett government would implement a resolution creating a state-recognized egalitarian prayer section.

The clause was written in the coalition agreement at the request of Yisrael Beytenu, whose leader, Avigdor Liberman, voted against nixing the deal in 2017, Hoffman reported. Under the original deal, the egalitarian section was to be administered by a board that included progressive Jewish representatives and members of the Women of the Wall organization.

Negotiated in a dozen meetings over more than three years, the 45-page deal with detailed prayer arrangements included the following:

There will be one entrance divided into three routes of inspection stations: women, men and "mixed" in a way that will enable each worshiper to choose a path.

Regulations of the 1967 Protection of Holy Places Law will be amended to read, "Local customs of this site will be based on the principles of religious pluralism and gender equality. Prayer in this site will be egalitarian and unsegregated, women and men together, without a partition."

The egalitarian plaza will spread out over an expanse that will include a raised prayer plaza of almost 900 square meters, which is about 70% as large as the present men's section at the Western Wall and 130% larger than the present women's section.

A public council, appointed by the prime minister, will be headed by the chair of the Jewish Agency and six representatives from the Conservative Movement, the Reform Movement and Women of the Wall, alongside six professional representatives from the Prime Minister's Office and various ministries, as well as the Antiquities Authority.

The Prime...