Clashes erupted between Women of the Wall and male worshippers at the Western Wall on Friday, when a group of men grabbed a suitcase containing the women's prayer books and tore them, while subjecting the women to verbal abuse.
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The incident took place after security guards blocked members of the Women of the Wall from bringing a Torah scroll into the prayer area to celebrate the bat mitzvah of one of their group.
Members of the Women of the Wall came to pray at the holy site to mark the start of the Hebrew month of Tammuz, and were joined by Rabbi Sergio Bergman, president of the World Union for Progressive Judaism. After they put down the Torah scroll they were not allowed to bring into the designated prayer area, a number of men were waiting for the group members and began to curse them, and then proceeded to snatch their prayer books.
Labor MK Gilad Kariv said in response to the events Friday that "The serious violence against Women of the Wall and the desecration of the prayer books are the direct result of the incitement from the rabbinical establishment and Haredi politicians.
תפילת ראש חודש של נשות הכותל. הסידורים נחטפו ונקרעו. סדרני הכותל התהלכו מעדנות ולא עשו דבר. שוטרים אין. אלו פירות ההסתה והשנאה. ומי האחראים הישירים? רב הכותל רבינוביץ'. זה האחראי גם על מירון, שטרם השמיע קולו. זה המצויד ביועצי תקשורת. ולצדו נתניהו, שהקפיא בפחדנות את מתווה הכותל. pic.twitter.com/k0cMmd3tpa
— גלעד קריב (@KarivGilad) June 11, 2021
"The police's ongoing ignoring [of the issue] and the employees at the Western Wall who act in accordance with instructions from the rabbi of the Western Wall is no less reprehensible than the verbal and physical violence toward the women," Kariv said.
"The events of this morning are a sour note marking the end of the Netanyah-Haredi government that froze the historic compromise framework about the Western Wall and gave more and more victories to the radicals. We will do everything possible to get the Western Wall compromise back on track," Kariv said.
The Western Wall Heritage Foundation said in response to the events: "The Western Wall employees did everything they could to separate them and calm things down. The Western Wall Heritage Foundation calls to keep the disputes away from the prayer plaza, and allow it to remain a place that unites."
Women of the Wall issued a statement in response to the violence: "A Haredi mob was waiting for them [the women] at the prayer plaza and starting cursing and pushing them, while grabbing the suitcase of prayer books, which they broke and tore. There were security guards there, but they didn't keep the mob from attacking the women, curing them, and tearing up their books."
Women of the Wall director Yochi Rappeport said, "The serious violence we experienced this morning is the direct result of incitement that pluralistic Judaism, which chooses to follow religion differently than the Haredim, is experiencing. The conservative public understands that we are close to achieving our goal – equality in prayer at the Western Wall, and is afraid of losing its monopoly over Judaism.
"Women of the Wall has been fighting to liberate the wall for 32 years, and we will not stop until we have secured equality," Rappeport said.
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