Recent Western Wall Clashes Expose a Schism in World Zionist Politics

Ever since the members of Women of the Wall began holding their monthly prayer service at Jerusalem’s Western Wall more than 30 years ago, they have been subject to harassment by ultra-Orthodox worshipers. As the ultra-Orthodox see it, the practices these progressive women embrace – singing while they pray, reading out loud from the Torah and wearing prayer shawls and phylacteries – represent the epitome of religious heresy.

In that sense, what took place at the Jewish holy site two weeks ago was far from unusual. Hundreds of ultra-Orthodox seminary girls had arrived at the Western Wall on organized buses just in time for the start of the Women of the Wall prayer service. Equipped with whistles to drown out the voices of the praying women, these religious seminary girls taunted and spat on them.

Subscribe0:00-- : --What made this prayer service different from others, however, were the World Zionist Organization flags they were waving. It showed that these ultra-Orthodox girls were acting with the tacit support of the representative body of the international Zionist movement.

Officially, they were supposed to be taking part in an event to commemorate the 125th anniversary of the first Zionist Congress. But that was merely a pretext, considering that it was organized by two departments in the WZO that are run by ultra-Orthodox movements – not especially known for their warm embrace of Zionism – and that it was specifically timed to coincide with the monthly Women of the Wall prayer service.

Essentially, this was a way for the ultra-Orthodox movement to retaliate against their liberal counterparts in the WZO who had organized a special egalitarian service at the Western Wall a day before to mark Israel’s Independence Day.

The two departments sponsoring the event that erupted into a violent protest against Women of the Wall were the World Shas Movement (Shas is an Israeli political party that represents ultra-Orthodox Mizrahi Jews) and Eretz Hakodesh (“The Holy Land”), a relatively new American Haredi movement with close ties in Israel to United Torah Judaism, the ultra-Orthodox Ashkenazi party. To pull it off, the WZO teamed up with Liba, an extremist right-wing group that is fiercely opposed to egalitarian prayer at the Western Wall and often organizes mass events that target...