Reform Jews Boycott Netanyahu Over Kotel Agreement

Jerusalem, 2 November, 2017 (TPS) -- The Movement for Reform and Progressive Judaism in Israel has announced that it will not meet with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu or representatives on his behalf until the issues surrounding an egalitarian section at the Western Wall are solved.

The move comes in response to the government’s failure to find a compromise over the  ‘Kotel Agreement’, that was to enshrine into law a plan to expand an egalitarian prayer space at the southern reach of the Western Wall. Netanyahu froze the agreement in June to placate his ultra-Orthodox coalition partners and since then, efforts to reach a new agreement have failed.

“We at the Reform movement have decided to cease meetings with the Prime Minister, as well as with Tzachi Hanegbi [the government’s representative in negotiations on the issue], whom we view as a true friend. [The reason being that] we wish the government to stop presenting our meetings as attempts to resolve the crisis,” Rabbi Noa Sattath, a representative of the Reform Movement, said in a statement read out at a Knesset panel on Wednesday discussing the state of relations with United States Jewry.  “The government is trying to buy time and we will no longer allow it. If the government believes this issue is unsolvable, it should admit it,” the statement continued.

There was further controversy noted at yesterday’s meeting when Shas MK Michael Malkieli compared the entrance of Reform Jews to the Western Wall to that of dogs. “I think that when we travel abroad to all different types of places, we automatically fall in line with instructions that are in place at the site. We know that there are places where dogs aren’t allowed. There are places where they demand that people come in modest clothing,” Malkieli said.