Hi, this is Don Kedal with another Israel Report, and today I want to report to you about the latest happenings here in Jerusalem.
Just the other day, during the beginning of the new month of Alul, which is the month of repentance,
the month leading up to the Feast of Trumpets and the fast of Yom Kippur.
So it's a very important time in Judaism, wanting to get our hearts right, our minds right during this month.
To signify the new month, the women at the wall movement, which is a western wall, liberal women's organization,
basically liberal Jews who believe in liberal Judaism, they have a liberal expression of Judaism,
and women, for example, wearing kippas, wearing prayer shawls, and those kind of things.
All of this is very provocative to Orthodox Judaism and to Judaism as a whole,
because most Jews in Israel who are observant Jews are going to keep Orthodox observance.
They're not going to keep a conservative observance.
In fact, all growing up here in Israel, I never even heard of conservatism until in the latest aliyah of Jews coming from Europe
and mainly coming from the US and coming with a Judaism that I've never heard of, I've never experienced in my life.
And so you can imagine for us, this is a huge shocker and asking and demanding for certain rights.
Now, what are the rights they're demanding for?
They're demanding to be treated equally, allowed access to the western wall like everyone else, and so on and so forth.
No problem. Technically, they can do that.
The problem is that they want to bring in their own Torah scrolls and they are provocative.
Now those who are interested with keeping the peace at the western wall,
they're the ones who have to hire out security and basically protect this organization from being hackled by other Jewish groups
who are not so excited about this organization coming to pray in one of the most holiest places in Judaism
and doing it in such a provocative way.
So this bothers them, they don't like it, and I was there just the other day.
And what happened was that the women at the wall were being attacked by the Orthodox Jews who basically couldn't handle it.
And each one was provoking the other one and calling names and the whole deal,
and a few fights broke out and they were broken up and all that.
So here's one of the hot items that came out from the event in the news, in the media was that,
and I believe it was because the women at the wall, they submitted some footage
and probably a complaint about how they felt that they were being mistreated and we should feel bad for them.
What they did was, is they accused the security personnel that were there at the entrance to the western wall
of asking them to lift up their skirts and basically to expose themselves so that there could be a proper security,
so the proper security check could be done.
Now first of all, that's absolutely false, I can tell you that for a fact, that's not what the security personnel at the entrance said.
They did not request women to basically expose themselves.
In fact, that's forbidden at the security checkpoint as a fact.
What there is, is that you have a separate area where you can go with another female security personnel
and that the female personnel basically does a body search on you.
Why? You might ask, well, great question, because for one, they're wearing the tour scrolls,
they're hiding on their bodies and this is why the security personnel is forced to do what they have to do.
And by the way, they're not the only ones who are treated and singled out in such a way.
The other group that is singled out is another provocative group.
They come there and they come there with whistles and being loud and obnoxious
and they're trying to provoke and hackle the women at the wall organization.
So they come there with a provocative mission and so therefore they're also treated different than everybody else.
And like I said, so would I and so would anyone else who comes there with a different agenda.
Not just coming there to enjoy a time of prayer and to write a note and put on the wall or whatever the norm is.
If you're not part of the norm and you're coming and you're stirring things up, they don't want troublemakers there.
Legit makes sense, right? You don't go into church and start to clap your hands or yell out loudly and be obnoxious, right?
So that's why these women at the wall are singled out.
That's why other organizations are singled out.
Other people, other individuals, because they try to keep the peace at this holy place.
Not an easy job. I can assure you it's not easy for the Western Wall organizations.
It's not easy for the security personnel to try to just keep the peace from all these groups trying to tear each other apart.
So this is Don Kedah reporting to you from Jerusalem. Thank you for listening. Shalom.
