The Israeli Supreme Court, sitting as the High Court of Justice, on Thursday instructed the government to move forward with plans to upgrade an egalitarian prayer section at the Western Wall in Jerusalem, setting deadlines for state authorities to complete long-delayed bureaucratic procedures.
The justices ordered the state and the Jerusalem Municipality to provide a status update within 90 days, saying that no additional approvals were required to proceed. Under the ruling, authorities must obtain building permits, and if no response to their application for permits is received within 45 days, they must appeal to the Jerusalem District Planning and Building Committee.
The ruling followed a hearing on Tuesday regarding the Ezrat Israel egalitarian plaza, a prayer area designated for mixed-gender worship south of the main Western Wall prayer sections. The key petitioners were the Reform Movement in Israel and affiliated advocacy groups.
The decision drew immediate backlash from Israel’s chief rabbis, who demanded that the High Court refrain from intervening in religious matters related to the site.
“The Chief Rabbis of Israel view the High Court’s decision with great severity, as it was rendered while exceeding authority and constitutes improper intervention in the holiest site of the Jewish people,” Chief Rabbis Kalman Ber and David Yosef said in a joint statement. “This is not a technical issue, but a fundamental question concerning the sanctity of the Western Wall and the preservation of the generations-long traditions practiced there.”
Attorneys Ori Narov and Orly Erez-Likhovski, representing the Reform Movement in Israel, welcomed the High Court’s decision.
“For nine years, the state and the municipality have been dragging their feet and refusing to promote an egalitarian, respectful and accessible alternative,” they said in a statement. “Now, the court is ordering an end to the foot-dragging.”
The dispute over pluralistic prayer arrangements at the site has simmered for years, reflecting broader tensions in Israel between Orthodox religious authorities—who administer the main prayer plaza according to traditional Jewish practice—and non-Orthodox Jewish movements seeking formal recognition and expanded access.
The egalitarian section was created by the Israeli government under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in 2013, following a recommendation by then–Jewish Agency Chairman Natan Sharansky to create a compromise solution allowing mixed-gender prayer, but development plans to expand the area have repeatedly stalled amid political and legal challenges.
