For years the Western Wall has drawn hordes of visitors, heartfelt prayers, and no small amount of friction between various Israeli groups, including Reform Jews, over how prayers are conducted at the holy site. Now, it is possible that a solution has been found that would put an end to that. Knesset Member Aliza Lavie (Yesh Atid) and Jewish Agency Chairman Natan Sharansky have written a proposal that in addition to the men's and women's sections at the Western Wall, there be an egalitarian section, called the "Israeli plaza," which would be open to all without gender or religious restrictions. According to the plan, the plaza will be opened to the right of the women's section, under the Mughrabi Bridge, near Robinson's Arch, south of the existing Western Wall compound. "The main problem today is that the Western Wall is operated like a synagogue," Lavie said, "For instance, families that want to celebrate a bar mitzvah with men and women seated together cannot do so. Reform women who want to put on tefillin or a tallit may not do so, or people who want to come to the Western Wall on Shabbat and take a picture, cannot. As soon as there is an 'Israeli plaza' which is not a synagogue, it will solve the problem." On Thursday, the Women of the Wall will hold a communal prayer service in honor of the first of the Hebrew month of Iyyar. On Tuesday, the commander of the Jerusalem police district Maj. Gen. Yossi Preinti said that the police intend to enforce the High Court of Justice decision forbidding women from wearing tallitot at the Western Wall. "I will oppose everything that goes against Halachah and I will support this plan," said Western Wall Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovitch.
