Netanyahu rejects court call to implement Western Wall mixed prayer

A justice ministry statement issued yesterday said the state attorney's office had informed the court that Netanyahu was sticking to his decision to freeze the January 2016 agreement, arguing it was non-binding and subject to government policy needs.

Netanyahu's right-wing government had agreed after a long campaign by reform Jewish groups to allow mixed worship at a section of east Jerusalem's Western Wall, the holiest place where Jews can pray. But under pressure from ultra-Orthodox political parties, whose support is vital for the government's slender parliamentary majority, Netanyahu in June froze implementation of the scheme indefinitely. The freeze angered the influential American Jewish community, the majority of whom follow more liberal strands of Judaism.

Israeli NGOs filed suit with the supreme court asking that it compel the government to honour the agreement and last month the court asked the government to reconsider the freeze. "If the answer is in the negative," the court wrote at the time, the state should address the question "if the possibility exists in law to compel the government to implement the agreement." The government's written response said "no" on both points. It said Netanyahu "considered all the circumstances of the matter and decided not to bring the issue of the Western Wall to

further discussion before the cabinet", the justice ministry statement said.