I am thoroughly disgusted. Although not surprised. Here it is, from Jodi Rudoren at the New York Times:
Ten women, including two American rabbis, were detained by the Israeli police on Monday for praying at the Western Wall wearing prayer shawls that are traditionally used by men, in the latest escalation of a conflict over one of Judaism’s holiest sites.
Didn’t I read something recently about how Bibi Netanyahu was reviewing this problem and considering how to deal with it?
Not fast enough, Bibi! And this should be a warning to all governments everywhere. This is what happens when you allow religious fundamentalists into your government: they will control it and you.
As an excellent post script, here is a letter written in response to this article, to the New York Times:
Women at the Western Wall
TO THE EDITOR:
Re “Arrests of 10 women praying at Western Wall Add to Tensions Over a Holy Site” (news article, Feb. 12):
Natan Sharansky, the head of the Jewish Agency and onetime Soviet activist for human rights, claims that there is no simple solution to the problem of women wearing traditionally male shawls to pray at Jerusalem’s sacrosanct Western Wall.
I respectfully disagree: the simple solution is to allow women to pray there wearing whatever they want.
—Justin Kaplan, Cambridge, Mass., February 12, 2013