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WESTERN WALL WORKS DRAW IRE
by Etgar Lefkovits
Jerusalem Post, Dec. 19, 2003
A construction project under way at the Western Wall plaza which would expand the segregated prayer space further into the plaza area has drawn a protest from the Masorti Movement (the Conservative Movement), which has asked the Religious Affairs Ministry to immediately stop the work.
The project, which was initiated by the rabbi of the Western Wall, would expand the prayer area closest to the Wall used by about 600 square meters, at the expense of the plaza area, which is used for various private and public ceremonies. In keeping with Orthodox tradition, men and women are separated at the prayer area, while the plaza area, often used for IDF and other state ceremonies as well as by non-Orthodox groups, is not.
"The Western Wall belongs to the people of Israel, and it cannot be the inheritance of one group of people, who do not even represent the majority of the Jewish people," Rabbi Ehud Bandel, head of the Masorti Movement, said Thursday.
Bandel said that the Masorti Movement had previously stopped such "illegal" construction work at the Western Wall plaza area several times over the last two years, and would not rule out a petition to the High Court to stop the current project if necessary.
A letter sent by the movement's legal adviser, Dan Evron, to the ministry earlier this week calling for an immediate cessation of the work has not yet been answered, Bandel said. The ministry, which is scheduled to be dismantled soon, referred queries on the issue to the rabbi of the Western Wall, Shmuel Rabinovitch.
Rabinovitch, who initiated the move, said Thursday that the existing prayer space was too small, and that the expansion was "insignificant" and would not adversely affect non-Orthodox groups. He said the construction project would be completed in a month.
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