Israel’s High Court sides with egalitarian prayer advocates in long-running Western Wall dispute

JTA –Israel’s highest court has delivered a unanimous rebuke to state and municipal authorities over long-stalled plans to upgrade the Western Wall’s egalitarian prayer section, intensifying a dispute that has come to symbolise broader tensions over religious pluralism in Israel. 

In a decision issued on Thursday, 19 February, an expanded seven-justice panel of the High Court of Justice ordered the national government and the Jerusalem Municipality to move forward with building permits needed for repairs and infrastructure improvements at the Ezrat Israel prayer platform, the area designated for mixed-gender and non-Orthodox worship south of the main Western Wall plaza. 

The ruling imposes strict procedural deadlines aimed at ending what the justices described as years of exceptional delay following a 2016 deal to permit egalitarian prayer at the holy site. Acceding to pressure from haredi Orthodox politicians, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu froze the deal the following year, triggering a legal petition by Judaism’s Reform and Masorti/Conservative movements, Women of the Wall, and Israeli religious pluralism advocacy groups. 

Today, the groups say, the area remains difficult to access, lacks adequate facilities, and doesn’t provide meaningful proximity to the Wall’s stones — conditions they view as discriminatory toward non-Orthodox worshippers. 

“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, told The Times of Israel. “Now, the court is ordering an end to the foot-dragging.” 

The court didn’t revisit legal questions surrounding prayer rights at the site, emphasising that the decision focused on the “practical implementation” of matters already litigated. Instead, the justices targeted bureaucratic obstacles that have repeatedly slowed or blocked construction, particularly disputes involving planning approval and the Israel Antiquities Authority. 

The court ruled that existing government approvals are still valid, and that any remaining sign-off from the Antiquities Authority must be decided within 14 days, removing key grounds for further delays. After that, the state must file new building permit requests within 14 days. If officials don’t respond within 45 days, it will count as a rejection and the state must appeal. The state and city must also update the court within 90 days. 

The decision arrives amid renewed friction at the Western Wall, Judaism’s holiest site and a focal point of Israel’s long-running struggle over religious authority. It also comes just one day after Israeli police detained two leaders of Women of the Wall during the group’s monthly Rosh Chodesh prayer service marking a new Jewish month. 

The activists were briefly held after conducting a Torah reading near the site. Women of the Wall, which campaigns for expanded women’s prayer rights, has clashed for years with authorities over practices permitted under non-Orthodox traditions but restricted in the gender-segregated main plaza. 

Pluralism advocates hailed the court’s intervention as a significant victory, noting both the unanimity of the decision and the ideological diversity of the judicial panel. 

“An expanded panel of the Supreme Court, including conservative jurists, has unanimously ruled that the government of Israel and the Jerusalem Municipality must put an end to their foot-dragging and get to work,” said World Zionist Organisation Vice Chairperson Yizhar Hess, a senior representative of the Masorti/Conservative movement. 

Hess accused authorities of maintaining an “endless, creative litany of excuses” to block repairs necessary to ensure direct access to the Wall’s stones at the egalitarian platform.  

“This is a victory for those who believe in Jewish pluralism in Israel and that every Jew from every stream should have equal opportunity to pray according to their custom at our holiest site,” he said.