Israel abandons deal on Western Wall prayer

TEL AVIV, Israel — The Israeli government Sunday scrapped a compromise to allow prayer by men and women together at the Western Wall holy site in Jerusalem, bowing to pressure from ultra-religious parties in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition and angering liberal Jewish denominations with large followingsin North America.

The agreement, approved by Israel’s Cabinet in January 2016, would have established a new area for worship at the ancient Old City shrine — part of the retaining wall of the ancient Temple and a leading Jewish pilgrimage site.

Thedeal was backed by Judaism’s Reform and Conservative movements, as well as the feminist Jewish group Women of the Wall, which has in recent years practiced egalitarian prayer at the holy site in defiance of Israel’s religious and police authorities.

But the compromise was never put into effect, frozen by opposition from Israel’s ultra-Orthodox religious establishment for deviating from the Orthodox rituals that have prevailed at the Western Wall plaza for years. After the decision Sunday, Israel’s government will seek to reach a new compromise on prayer at the Western Wall.

Moshe Gafni, the leader of Israel’s ultra-religious United Torah Judaism party, said “We are happy about this, and thank the holy one, blessed is he, on this great success.”

Critics of the about-face by Netanyahu warned that abandoning the compromise risks alienating large much of the North American Jewry that Israel has long relied upon for political and financial backing.

Rabbi Gilad Kariv, the director of the Israel Movement for Reform and Progressive Judaism, called the move “shameful.”