Board of Deputies of British Jews President Jonathan Arkush has condemned the decision of the Government of Israel not to implement a plan to create separate spaces for mixed prayer at the Western Wall.
He said: “I fully share the deep disappointment voiced by Natan Sharansky, Chairman of the Jewish Agency for Israel, with yesterday’s decision by the Government of Israel to suspend the implementation of its own decision to establish dignified spaces for prayer at the Western Wall for all streams of Judaism. I am profoundly dismayed that the Kotel HaMaaravi (Western Wall) should become a religious and political football. Yesterday’s decision will precipitate disharmony between Jews both in Israel and elsewhere in the Jewish world. It is a Chillul HaShem, a desecration of G-d’s name. I call on the Government of Israel to reverse the decision immediately and to honour the arrangement for prayer at the Kotel that was reached after years of painstaking negotiation.”