The High Court of Justice on Thursday instructed the government to move forward with the upgrade of the Western Wall egalitarian plaza, in a ruling that drew fiery denunciations from the country’s chief rabbis and ultra-Orthodox politicians.

In its decision, the High Court told state authorities to complete the necessary bureaucracy to obtain building permits to restore and upgrade the egalitarian plaza, following a hearing on the topic held Tuesday.

The court said the state and the Jerusalem Municipality should submit an update on the matter within 90 days.

The justices clarified that no additional approval is required, but the parties may request renewed approval from the Israel Antiquities Authority. Following that, the state will need to file the application for building permits within 14 days and an appeal to the Committee for Planning and Building, Jerusalem District, if no answer is received within 45 days.

“For nine years, the state and the municipality have been dragging their feet and refusing to promote an egalitarian, respectful, and accessible alternative in the Ezrat Israel,” Attorneys Ori Narov and Orly Erez-Likhovski, who represent the Reform Movement in Israel, one of the petitioners, said in a statement. “Now, the court is ordering an end to the foot-dragging.”

In their statement condemning the ruling, the chief rabbis asked the court to “refrain from intervening in the sacred matters of the Western Wall.”

“The Chief Rabbis of Israel view the High Court’s decision with great severity, as it was rendered while exceeding authority and constitutes improper intervention in the holiest site of the Jewish people,” Chief Rabbis Kalman Ber and David Yosef said in a statement. “This is not a technical issue, but a fundamental question concerning the sanctity of the Western Wall and the preservation of the generations-long traditions practiced there.”

MK Aryeh Deri, chairman of the Sephardic ultra-Orthodox Shas party, accused the High Court of trying to “desecrate” the Western Wall.

“The entire Jewish people demand to pray at the Western Wall as has been tradition for generations. This is clearly seen in all the mass prayers held during the month of Elul and throughout the year. Religious and secular, adults and youth come to the Western Wall and pray with respect for the local tradition,” Deri said in a statement.

“The High Court has no authority to change the nature of prayer at the Western Wall! The only authority in the place is that of the Chief Rabbinate. There will be no Reform prayer area at the Western Wall,” he continued, adding his party will submit a bill to the Knesset to “protect the sanctity” of the site.

The egalitarian prayer section, also known as Ezrat Israel, is located at the southeastern end of the Wall. It is not easily accessible, nor does it offer facilities such as restrooms or full access to people with disabilities. Worshippers praying there have not been able to directly touch the Wall since 2018 due to falling masonry.

The Tuesday hearing marked the first time in three years that the court discussed petitions on the status of religious rights at the holy site, although the first of those petitions was presented in 2013. The main petitioners include the Conservative Movement-affiliated Masorti Israel, the Reform Movement in Israel, and Women of the Wall.

The main Western Wall plaza is under the purview of the Western Wall Heritage Foundation, which operates the site under the auspices of the Prime Minister’s Office and the Government Companies Authority. The religious authority responsible for the site is the Western Wall Rabbinate, a branch of the Chief Rabbinate, an Orthodox institution that adheres to the strictest interpretation of Jewish law.

Under its rules, men and women can access the wall only in separate sections; women are barred from reading from a Torah scroll (or even bringing one into their area), leading prayers, or being considered for a prayer quorum, including in all-female services in the women’s section, something that is considered permissible by at least some Orthodox authorities.

Several members of the Women of the Wall group were detained Wednesday by police at the Western Wall after their prayer service celebrating the beginning of the Hebrew month of Adar was disrupted by demonstrators.

For decades, the inability to hold egalitarian services at the wall has been a point of contention with liberal Jews in Israel and the Diaspora, in part because in the United States, which has the largest Jewish community in the world outside of Israel, the vast majority of Jews are not Orthodox.

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