Anat Hoffman, leader of the Women of the Wall prayer group, was arrested at the Western Wall on Monday for holding a Torah scroll. Hoffman was taken to a nearby police station, while her fellow group members protested outside the building.

Women of the Wall Public Relations Director Michelle Handelman told The Jerusalem Post on Monday that Hoffman was not reading from the Torah, but only holding it, which is not against the law according to the high court ruling. "[Hoffman] was holding the Torah in the women´s section and walked out with it. The Kotel Police told her to stop and she didn´t. They tried to forcefully remove the Torah from her hands. They almost ripped the Torah from it´s covering. They were physical. People fell and they pushed her the entire time."

The Masorti Movement said in response, "The arrest of the Women of the Wall chairwoman is a foolish act. We never called and will never call for violation of the law, but such selective enforcement – against a non-violent act – is puzzling. The Western Wall plaza belongs to all of the people of Israel and the haredim have confiscated the Wall from the people."  Western Wall Rabbi Shmuel Rabinoviech, on the other hand, told Ynet: "Thousands of worshippers arrived at the Western Wall this morning, and instead of isolating themselves with the holiness of the site, they were forced to witness a fanatic, political battle of an extremist group."

Read more:

http://www.jpost.com/Israel/Article.aspx?id=181166

In ruling on the petition of Women at the Wall as well, harm to the sensitivities of the ultra-Orthodox justified limiting freedom of expression, freedom of worship and even freedom of occupation of ordained women rabbis, as well as their religious sensitivities. That is what the cabinet decided, as well as the High Court, in a ruling by the ostensibly activist justice Aharon Barak.

That is how male superiority is preserved. Moreover, Women at the Wall are praying publicly in prayer shawls and sometimes in skullcaps, absolute male accoutrements, and that fact alone is enough to be perceived by ultra-Orthodox and even secular people as sacrilege. After all, even very liberal men want their women "feminine."

For the entire article:

http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/sensitivities-for-men-only-1.301593

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