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UPKEEP OF WESTERN WALL MOVED TO PM's OFFICE
by Etgar Lefkovitz , Jerusalem Post, Dec. 20, 2004
In what is being billed as a "cost-cutting measure," the responsibility for the upkeep of the Western Wall will now be under the complete jurisdiction of the prime minister's office, the government decided Sunday at its weekly cabinet meeting.
The decision, which effectively transferred full control over the Jerusalem holy site to the prime minister's office from the Tourism Ministry which previously shared control, was made at the initiative of Tourism Minister Gideon Ezra, the Tourism Ministry said in a statement.
But the timing of the move — coming as Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is on the verge of establishing a new government — raised some eyebrows, amidst uncertainty over whether the tourism ministry will still be headed by a Likud minister in a future government, as well as by the demands raised by Sharon's presumptive new haredi coalition party, United Torah Judaism Party, to be charged with religious affairs.
Since the historic dismantling of the bloated religious affairs ministry last year, two state-run organizations, one overseen by the prime minister's office charged with development of the Wall and the other linked to the tourism ministry, had been charged with the upkeep of the site, creating unnecessary economic waste and overlap, the senior deputy director general of the Tourism Ministry, Moshe Reigel said Monday.
He noted that after the breakup of the religious affairs ministry, former Tourism Minister Benny Elon had wanted to maintain a hold on some connection to the Western Wall and so was pleased with the division of labor, a view not shared by his Likud successor.
At the time, the decision to transfer control over the Western Wall to the prime minister's office from the now defunct religious affairs ministry was seen as an answer to religious concerns that the staunchly secular Shinui — then in the government — could be charged with control over the site.
"Because of the importance of the Western Wall, it was considered crucial that the prime minister's office — considered fair players at such an existential site - should be charged with overseeing the upkeep of the area," Reigel said.
He added that it was unclear if the prime minister's office even realized then that two different bodies — from separate ministries — would, in essence, be charged with the upkeep of the same site.
Following the government's decision Sunday transferring full control to the prime minster's office, the head of Israel's Conservative (Masorti) Movement said Monday that the move could turn out to be either a positive or negative development.
"If the outcome of the decision is that the prime minister's office is fully charged with the goings-on at the site then this is a most positive development," movement head Rabbi Ehud Bandel said.
"But if this is just a ploy so that United Torah Judaism can gain control over the site, [which they lost with the breakup of the religious affairs ministry] that is a very troubling development for those who believe in pluralism," he said, noting that just four years ago United Torah Judaism proposed a bill in the Knesset whereby any woman donning a prayer shawl or praying out loud at the Western Wall would be sentenced to seven years in jail.
The bill, which passed in its first reading, was never made into law.
The issue of who is charged with maintaining the Western Wall is especially critical to non-orthodox group such as the Conservative Movement in Israel, who just this year failed miserably in stopping a controversial construction project underway at the Wall.
The project, initiated by haredi Western Wall Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovitch, has extended the segregated prayer area by about 600 sq. meters at the expense of the plaza, which is used for various private and public ceremonies, and raised the barrier that closes off the prayer area in the plaza.
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