Protests at the Western Wall in Jerusalem opposing the Women of the Wall prayer group ended on Friday morning with the arrest of three haredi men suspected of disturbing the peace. Two police officers who suffered light injuries during the unrest were treated at the scene. A large number of security forces at the holy site attempted to create a human barrier between the men and women's sections. 
 
 
 
 Haredi protesters threw water bottles and other objects and shouted insults at the Women of the Wall activists, according to Israel Radio. 
 
 
 
 
 
 The Jerusalem Post 
 
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 Rabbi Susan Silverman, comedian Sarah Silverman's sister who prays with the Women of the Wall, was at the protest where she said that haredi men spit globs of spit on her three daughters, she told. Silverman also said that the haredim threw coffee at the Women of the Wall activists and that a little girl next to her was hit in the head with something hard.Silverman told thethat the haredi protesters represent "a fundamentalism and a belief in a single and very narrow view of God that I believe is idolatrous."Women of the Wall Spokesperson, Oshrat Ben Shimshon told Israel Radio, "Orthodox rabbis have determined that there is no halachik barrier to women praying with prayer shawls and tefillin and reading from the Torah."Meanwhile, chairman of the Jewish Agency for Israel, Natan Sharansky said that a sustainable solution is urgent and this morning's clashes at the Western Wall dramatically reinforce Israel's need to allow any Jew, group of Jews or Jewish community to pray at the Western Wall according to their own customs.Sharansky praised police for the appropriate and level-headed action they have taken under extremely complicated circumstances, dealing with clashes and riots, and ensuring respect was given to those engaged in prayer.Several thousand yeshiva students and haredi school girls convened at the Western Wall plaza in Jerusalem to protest the monthly prayer service of the Women of the Wall.The protesters shouted at the Women of the Wall activists as they were conducting their first monthly service without restrictions after a court ruling two weeks ago reinterpreted existing laws and allowed them to be able to perform their own customs, such as wearing prayer shawls and tefillin, without fear of being arrested.The idea to send haredi school girls to protest the Women of the Wall was devised by MKs from the United Torah Judaism party earlier this week in consultation with principals of haredi girls schools, on condition the initiative received approval from the leading haredi rabbis.According to a report on haredi website Kikar Hashabbat, spiritual leader of the haredi world Rabbi Aharon Leib Shteinman gave his blessing to the proposal on Thursday.Many participants in the Women of the Wall services don prayer shawls and perform other customs usually performed by men in Orthodox practice, that has until now been prohibited by state law, and as of late, women have been arrested on a frequent basis for wearing prayer shawls during the WoW services. A court ruling two weeks ago reinterpreted existing laws and the Women of the Wall will on Friday be able to perform their own customs.At a hearing of the Knesset Committee on the Status of Women earlier this week, a representative of the Jerusalem Police confirmed that the police would not act against the recent Jerusalem District Court ruling which decided that WoW’s customs did not contravene “local custom,” that has been the basis for outlawing the group’s non- Orthodox customs.United Torah Judaism MK Yisrael Eichler expressed outrage during the committee hearing at what he referred to as the Women of the Wall’s “provocations.” He asked if the police would allow the right of protest and demonstration against the group’s prayer service.The Women of the Wall issued a statement on Thursday celebrating their new found freedoms.“We have the great merit that Israeli women will arrive in their masses tomorrow for the prayer service for the New Month of Sivan. We call on the public which supports us, women and men, to come and pray with us, to liberate the Western Wall and to turn it into to the home of everyone,” the group said. ||||| Israel approves official separate area for mixed gender praying that will be registered in country’s Law of Holy Sites 
 
 A battle lasting more than a quarter of a century over the Western Wall, the religious site revered by Jews all over the world, has resulted in a historic deal to create a space where men and women are permitted to pray together in equality. 
 
 On Sunday, the Israeli government approved the creation of a permanent and official separate area for mixed gender praying at the site in Jerusalem’s Old City. Liberal and reform Jews hailed the move as a victory for Jews everywhere. 
 
 Women of the Wall has campaigned for equal prayer rights at the Western Wall for the past 27 years, holding monthly protests in the plaza in front of the wall’s ancient golden stones. The gatherings frequently ended in physical tussles and arrests. 
 
 The women’s demands were anathema to Israel’s ultra-Orthodox religious establishment, which manages the site. The rules governing worship – set by the Western Wall rabbi, Shmuel Rabinowitz – forbade men and women from praying together. A small section of the wall is sectioned off for women. 
 
 
 
 Women of the Wall also demanded an end to ultra-orthodox bans on women praying aloud, reading from the Torah and wearing traditional prayer shawls, known as tallit. 
 
 
 
 Thousands of Jews pray every day at the site, the last remnant of the retaining wall of the Temple Mount, pushing scraps of paper bearing handwritten prayers into the cracks between the ancient stones. The site also attracts thousands of tourists and international dignitaries, with Pope Francis, Barack Obama and Madonna among global figures who have prayed at the wall. 
 
 
 
 The new section for non-Orthodox mixed gender prayer will double the size and make permanent an area designated under a temporary compromise reached in 2013 after Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu ordered a solution to be found to the dispute. The expanded area, costing £6m, will accommodate 1,200 worshippers and be officially registered in Israel’s Law of Holy Sites. It will be administered by government officials. 
 
 
 
 The Israeli cabinet approved the plan without a formal vote. Ultra-Orthodox cabinet members criticised the move, with interior minister Aryeh Deri saying: “For all the years of its existence, the state of Israel has conducted itself based on traditional Judaism.” 
 
 
 
 Facebook Twitter Pinterest Women of the Wall wearing prayer shawls sing as they walk towards the women’s section of the Western Wall. Photograph: Jim Hollander/EPA 
 
 The Israel Religious Action Centre and the Israel Movement for Reform and Progressive Judaism hailed Sunday’s agreement as historic. “For decades, Israel has given full religious authority at the Kotel [the Western Wall] to Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox Judaism. That is about to change,” said Rabbis Noa Sattah and Gilad Kariv in a joint statement. 
 
 
 
 They added: “This will put an end to the embarrassing spectacle of male and female soldiers and officials being segregated at government and military events, and to situations where the Kotel’s Orthodox rabbi refuses to let women light menorahs or female soldiers to sing our national anthem, Hatikvah, in public. 
 
 
 
 “This landmark decision gives expression to a fundamental truth: there is more than one way to be Jewish. There is more than one way to pray. There is more than one way to connect to Jewish traditions and identity.” 
 
 Women of the Wall spokeswoman Shira Pruce said the decision was a “revolution for women and Jewish pluralism in Israel”. 
 
 
 
 “By approving this plan, the state acknowledges women’s full equality and autonomy at the Kotel and the imperative of freedom of choice in Judaism in Israel,” she said. 
 
 Rabbi Danny Rich, chief executive of Liberal Judaism, the sister movement of Reform Judaism in Israel, said: “This is a landmark decision for Jews across the globe. It recognises that Judaism is an inclusive religion with a variety of different but valid expressions. 
 
 “Equality of gender, ethnicity and sexual orientation are central to Liberal Judaism and now at last liberal Jews can celebrate a Judaism in keeping with the modern world at our most holy site.” 
 
 The Western Wall forms part of a huge compound in the Old City, known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as Haram ash-Sharif. It is the third holiest place in Islam after Mecca and Medina, and the site of the Dome of the Rock and the Al Aqsa mosque. 
 
 The Women of the Wall protests attracted global attention three years ago when the US comedian Sarah Silverman tweeted in response to the arrests of her sister, Susan, and niece, Hallel: “So proud of my amazing sister and niece for their ballsout civil disobedience. Ur the tits #womenofthewall.” ||||| Members of 'Women of the Wall' group wear prayer shawls and one (C) wearing Tefillin, leather straps and boxes containing sacred parchments, that Orthodox law says only men should don, during a monthly prayer session at the Western Wall in Jerusalem's Old City May 10, 2013. 
 
 A member of 'Women of the Wall' group (2nd R) wears a prayer shawl and Tefillin, leather straps and boxes containing sacred parchments, that Orthodox law says only men should don, during a monthly prayer session at the Western Wall in Jerusalem's Old City May 10, 2013. 
 
 Israeli policemen block ultra-Orthodox Jewish women as members of 'Women of the Wall' group (not pictured) leave the Western Wall after a monthly prayer session at the Western Wall in Jerusalem's Old City May 10, 2013. 
 
 An Israeli policeman (L) holds back ultra-Orthodox Jewish men as they protest against the 'Women of the Wall' group during a monthly prayer session at the Western Wall in Jerusalem's Old City May 10, 2013. 
 
 A member of 'Women of the Wall' group wears a prayer shawl and Tefillin, leather straps and boxes containing sacred parchments, that Orthodox law says only men should don, during a monthly prayer session at the Western Wall in Jerusalem's Old City May 10, 2013. 
 
 An Israeli policewoman (R) holds back ultra-Orthodox Jewish men as they protest against the 'Women of the Wall' group during a monthly prayer session at the Western Wall in Jerusalem's Old City May 10, 2013. 
 
 JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli police held back thousands of ultra-conservative Jews who tried to drive liberal women worshippers from Judaism's sacred Western Wall on Friday, marking a shift in the authorities' handling of a long-running religious schism. 
 
 Ultra-Orthodox protesters dressed in traditional dark clothing threw chairs and water at the women, then later stoned their buses. Two policemen were hurt. 
 
 Previously police detained members of Women of the Wall, a group challenging the Orthodox monopoly over rites at Jerusalem's Western Wall, for wearing prayer shawls in violation of Orthodox tradition. 
 
 This time police arrested five religious protesters instead. 
 
 The police response followed a court ruling last month that found that the group was not in violation of the law. 
 
 The issue is at the heart of a long struggle between a secular majority and an ultra-Orthodox minority over lifestyle in a country where institutions such as marriage, divorce and burial are controlled by religious authorities. 
 
 Dozens of border policemen formed a cordon to keep the protesters at the site - revered as part of the Biblical Jewish Temple compound - from charging at the approximately 100 women and some male supporters as they prayed. 
 
 "They're desecrating the site of our holy temple," shouted one of the hundreds of Orthodox women who also came to protest against Women of the Wall. 
 
 Yocheved Malachi called it shocking that women would wear prayer shawls or other religious gear, which Orthodox tradition reserves solely for men. 
 
 Friday's prayers were the first in weeks in which police avoided any showdown with Women of the Wall, whose members have been detained in the past and charged with disruption for violating Orthodox traditions at a holysite. They are seeking a greater role in prayer ritual. 
 
 "I'm seeing signs of progress," one woman worshipper, Lisa Kainan, said about the police presence at the site. 
 
 Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has asked former cabinet minister and Jewish leader Natan Sharansky to seek a compromise to permit the Women of the Wall to hold prayers without exacerbating tensions with the ultra-Orthodox Jews. 
 
 Sharansky has since proposed a formula to widen a separate zone at the Western Wall once designated for egalitarian prayer, a suggestion neither side nor the government has yet embraced. 
 
 Also spurring Israel's drive to resolve the dispute is the growing support for the Women of the Wall movement among Jews in the United States, Israel's main ally. 
 
 (Editing by Angus MacSwan) ||||| Haredi worshippers clashed with police in Jerusalem's Old City early Friday in the wake of the court authorization for the Women of the Wall to pray at the Jewish holy site. 
 
 Thousands of female haredi worshipers arrived at the site, heeding the call of community leaders rabbis Ovadia Yosef and Aharon Leib Shteinman who entreated female Ulpan students to hold a mass prayer at the Western Wall on Friday in an attempt to push aside the Women of Wall prayer set for the same time. However, the rabbis stressed there is no need to act provocatively or violently. 
 
 Holy Site Zionist rabbis vs. Women of Wall Kobi Nachshoni Religious Zionism leaders join battle against liberal female worshippers following court ruling allowing them to wear prayer shawl at Western Wall. Yeshiva students prepare to gather at holy site on Friday during women's monthly prayer Zionist rabbis vs. Women of Wall 
 
 A mass brawl erupted at the site at around 6:30 am, during which garbage, water, coffee and various objects were flung at dozens of Women of the Wall and police forming a human barrier between the female group and the ultra-Orthodox. Three yeshiva students were detained during the clashes. Two police officers were injured lightly. 
 
 
 
 
 
 Women of the Wall (photo: Gil Yohanan) 
 
 The protest comes in response to a Jerusalem District Court ruling last month, whereby the Women of the Wall may conduct their pluralistic customs in the holy site. 
 
 Knesset members Miri Regev (Likud ) and Tamar Zandberg (Meretz ) arrived on the scene. Zandberg described the scenes as "tumultuous and exciting," saying those objecting to the female group's right to pray at the site have shown themselves to be seeking antagonism at any cost. 
 
 Video courtesy of jn1.tv 
 
 Deputy Jerusalem Mayor Isaac Pindar (United Torah Judaism) branded Women of the Wall "the women of provocation." Pindar told Ynet the thousands of haredi women who came this morning to hold a mass prayer nearby were "the true women of the wall." 
 
 
 
 
 
 Police forces at the scene restraining a haredi man (photo: Gil Yohanan) 
 
 Reform Movement CEO Rabbi Gilad Kariv, who also arrived at the site, said the leaders of the haredi public "desecrated the sanctity" of the Western Wall by calling on ultra-Orthodox to confront the Women of the Wall. 
 
 The Rabbi of the Western Wall Shmuel Rabinovich said "these pictures hurt the eye. The Jewish Torah should unify and I ask the Lord above to give everyone the wisdom to overcome the controversy." 
 
 He added a compromise regarding the praying sectors at the site was achieved through a Supreme Court ruling over a decade ago, but "a small group nevertheless decided to start the argument all over." 
 
 The riot again brings to the fore the issue of religion’s role – and the authority wielded by religious authorities associated with religious practice – in the modern State of Israel . In addition to being portrayed as the epicenter of Jewish prayer, the Western Wall is simultaneously a holy site and a site used for ceremonies such as soldiers’ swearing-in ceremonies and other national activities. 
 
 Until now, the site has been run in the manner of an Orthodox synagogue, with a high partition separating men’s and women’s prayer areas. Women coming to attend a bar mitzvah (a coming-of-age ceremony for boys at age 13) have had to climb up on chairs to peek over the partition in order to be part of the festivities. 
 
 Women of the Wall's Catherine Leff, 17, whose father is a Conservative rabbi, said the events actually strengthened the group and encouraged the members to sing and pray even louder. She said that at some point the haredim began to spit at the women until police cleared them from the area. According to Leff, the bus which transported the Women of the Wall out of compound was pelted with huge stones, but no one was injured. 
 
 Students enrolled in the Reform Movement's pre-military academy were also on hand to support the Women of the Wall. "We arrived from Tel Aviv to show our support," one of them said. "It is also a lesson in democracy, as there is no law that forbids women from praying in this manner." 
 
 During the prayer, a woman approached the yeshiva students and yelled out "Israel's chief rabbi will be a woman." She was immediately removed from the area by police. 
 
 Yaakov, a 21-year-old haredi, said, "What these women are doing is disgraceful and against the Torah. We will continue to fight them. A woman draped in a tallit (prayer shawl) is ridiculous. Jews do not act this way. I am willing to get arrested. Some things justify a violent reaction." ||||| Israeli soldiers stand still as a siren sounds nationwide during a ceremony marking Memorial Day at the Western Wall in Jerusalem's Old City April 14, 2013. 
 
 JERUSALEM | 
 
 JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Women seeking equal prayer rights at the Western Wall are planning a further challenge to Jewish Orthodox tradition at the site after a court ruling bolstered their cause, an activist said on Sunday. 
 
 The Women of the Wall movement hopes to have its members read from a Torah (holy scriptures) scroll at the Jerusalem site, a ritual reserved under Orthodox practice for men only, when it holds its monthly prayer session there on May 10, according to Anat Hoffman, a leader of the group. 
 
 The women have already broken with tradition in gatherings at the Western Wall, which is divided into separate men's and women's sections, by wearing prayer shawls that Orthodox law says only men should don. 
 
 Israeli police, saying they were enforcing Supreme Court guidelines on keeping the peace and following local customs at the site, have routinely arrested women worshippers from the group during the prayer meetings. 
 
 The protests have exposed a rift between Israel's government, which supports Orthodox practice at the Western Wall, and the U.S. Jewish Reform and Conservative movements, in whose synagogues men and women sit together. 
 
 In a ruling that Women of the Wall called revolutionary, the Jerusalem District Court said on Thursday that customs change and women should not be arrested for wearing prayer shawls at the site. 
 
 Women reading from the Torah at the Western Wall, revered as part of the Biblical Jewish Temple compound, could cause further friction with Orthodox worshippers. 
 
 Earlier this month, an envoy appointed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to seek a compromise over religious practices at the holy site proposed adding a mixed-gender section for non-Orthodox denominations of Judaism. 
 
 Hoffman told Reuters she planned to meet with the envoy, former Israeli cabinet minister Natan Sharansky, on Monday. 
 
 "Then we will have a better understanding of what is on the table," she said. 
 
 Sharansky has said the plan to convert an old archaeological dig south of the Western Wall into an area where men and women would be allowed to mix and worship freely would not entail structural damage around nearby al-Aqsa mosque, Islam's third-holiest site. 
 
 The sites came under Israel's control in the 1967 Middle East war when it captured East Jerusalem and the West Bank. 
 
 (Reporting by Jeffrey Heller; Editing by Angus MacSwan)
– Thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews showed up to protest a prayer gathering by the "Women of the Wall" at Jerusalem's holy Western Wall today, hurling chairs, water, and garbage at the women and stones at their buses, Reuters reports. In a reversal, police held back and clashed with the protesters and arrested five of them; in the past, they've detained Women of the Wall worshipers instead. The changed police response follows a court ruling that stated women shouldn't be arrested for wearing prayer shawls there; in Orthodox tradition, only men are permitted to wear the shawls. Sarah Silverman's sister, Rev. Susan Silverman, was among the Women of the Wall contingent. "SO proud of my amazing sister @rabbisusan & neice @ purplelettuce95 for their ballsout civil disobedience," the comedian tweeted. "Ur the tits!" There were many women among the Orthodox protesters as well, including a contingent of Haredi school girls, in a move dreamed up by the United Torah Party, the Jerusalem Post reports. Politicians are lining up on each side of the dispute, with some decrying the protesters' aggression and others, like the deputy mayor of Jerusalem, calling the Women of the Wall "the women of provocation," according to Ynetnews.