The Knesset plenum passed, in a preliminary reading on Wednesday, a controversial bill that seeks to grant the Chief Rabbinate authority to determine prayer arrangements at the Western Wall.
The vote comes after a High Court ruling ordering upgrades to the site’s egalitarian prayer plaza.
The bill passed by a margin of 56-47 and will now be discussed in Knesset committee meetings. It will still need to undergo three more plenum readings to become a law.
The legislation was sponsored by MK Avi Maoz (Noam) and is referred to as the “Western Wall Bill.”
It would determine what is considered to be “desecration” at Jewish holy sites based on the rulings of the Chief Rabbinate.
It further proposes that the Chief Rabbinate be considered representatives of Judaism that the Religious Affairs Ministry consult regarding the enactment of regulations.
The bill is an amendment to the existing law concerning the holy site called the Protection of Holy Places Law. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not allow the amendment bill to receive backing in the Ministerial Committee for Legislation, canceling the Sunday meeting at the last minute to reportedly avoid a crisis with Diaspora Jewry.
However, the private bill underwent a free vote in the Knesset, where it received enough support to progress.
The law was originally enacted in 1967, following the Six-Day War, and Maoz claims his amendment will remove existing ambiguity within it by explicitly establishing that only the Chief Rabbinate can determine regulations.
Bill will undermine religious pluralism, freedom of worship, progressive groups warn
Progressive Jewish groups have strongly condemned the bill, warning that it would significantly undermine religious pluralism and freedom of worship at the holy site.
Critics also say it would essentially undermine the ruling of the High Court.
The High Court had ruled on Thursday to complete the necessary bureaucratic steps required to restore and upgrade the Ezrat Yisrael plaza, the southern prayer area designated for mixed-gender and non-Orthodox worship under the government-backed 2016 so-called “Kotel Agreement.”
Pluralism advocates welcomed the High Court decision as a significant step toward restoring physical access to the egalitarian section, while religious authorities and ultra-Orthodox political leaders sharply criticized the court’s intervention, arguing that matters concerning prayer arrangements at the Wall fell outside its jurisdiction.
Following the plenum vote, Justice Minister Yair Levin stated that he had the “privilege” of voting in favor of the bill.
“The Knesset has told the High Court of Justice, enough is enough. I call for the completion of the legislative process in order to put an end to the High Court’s intervention in the management of the Western Wall,” he added.
The ultra-Orthodox parties, Shas and United Torah Judaism, welcomed the decision to advance the bill, voting in favor of it.
The Shas Party said it will continue to “prevent the Reform movement from undermining and desecrating what is sacred to Israel.
Anna Kislanski, CEO of the Israel Movement for Reform and Progressive Judaism, sharply criticized the bill, calling it “patronizing and antisemitic.”
“The State of Israel is moving toward criminalizing non-Orthodox Jewish prayer at the Western Wall,” she stated.
“If such legislation were introduced in the United States, Australia, or the United Kingdom, preventing Jews from praying according to their tradition under threat of imprisonment of up to seven years, Israel would rightly denounce it as antisemitic. Yet this is precisely the policy now being advanced by the government of Israel in the Jewish state.”
“Beyond infringing on the fundamental rights of Israeli citizens, this legislation constitutes a serious strategic blow to Jewish communities worldwide. The message it sends is clear and dangerous: that the Government of Israel is excluding Jews from the Western Wall at a time when they are facing rising antisemitism globally,” she added.
MK Gilad Kariv (The Democrats), the former CEO of the Israel Movement for Reform and Progressive Judaism, called the bill “insane.”
He said it “turns anyone who does not comply with the Chief Rabbinate into a criminal who should be thrown in jail. This is not just a law against Reform Jews, and the Western Wall is only the beginning.”
World Zionist Organization (WZO) Vice Chairman Yizhar Hess also condemned the bill’s advancement.
“Today’s approval of moving forward with legislation to imprison Jews who pray at the Egalitarian Kotel will always be remembered as a dark day in the history of Zionism and the nation-state of the Jewish people,” he stated.
“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.”
Hess called on Netanyahu to publicly intervene in the matter and prevent the legislation from advancing further.
Sarah Ben-Nun contributed to this report.