‘Women of the Wall’ chairwoman Anat Hoffman confirms signing a police order banning her from the Kosel for 30 days after being arrested on Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan after reciting Shema out loud.
The battle of these women has been ongoing for many years, returning to the Kosel every rosh chodesh, trying to put on talis and tefillin and davening aloud with a minyan. A High Court of Justice ruling permits them to do so at the location in the plaza known as Robinson’s Arch, but they remain adamant in their quest to do so in the ezras noshim of the Kosel.
The daily Haaretz quotes Hoffman as saying “I was arrested, I was strip-searched, hand-cuffed and leg-cuffed, and I had to sleep on the floor. My wrists are bruised from being dragged on the floor.”
Hoffman, 58, a former American, explains that in the past 24 years she has been detained many many times, questioning the legitimacy of the action of police.
Police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld explains that Hoffman could have been released shortly after being detained but when she refused to sign the 30-day ban she was detained overnight.
Hoffman adds police also wanted a 5,000 NIS bail guarantee that she will comply with the ban. She demanded to bring this matter to a court of law and she was brought before a court the following morning, Wednesday, the second day of Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan 5773. The court reduced the bail guarantee to 2,500 NIS. She paid, signed the conditional release and left, vowing the women will continue their struggle.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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5 Responses
Wait a minute. They do their shtick on Rosh Chodesh, and their banned from the wall for 30 days from Rosh Chodeh Cheshvan? You know when the ban ends? On Rosh Chodesh Kislev! What genius!!
Reminds me of the illegal sukkah built on public property. The city came on Erev Sukkos and gave them an order to remove the illegal structure within 10 days…
The feminist nut should have been banned for thirty Rosh Chodeshes.
#1, If this was the first day of Rosh Chodesh, and the 30 days start from that day, then it runs out on Erev Rosh Chodesh Kislev. But if it was the second day, then the 30th day is Rosh Chodesh, so she’d be banned that day.
She should know that the Israel police are not fancy hotel door men; the Israeli jails are not the Hilton either. Maybe that she will add to her righteous protests the Israel police and jail system too.
If you read that in another country a Jew was arrested, shackled, stripped and roughed up for praying the Shema in public and wearing a talis you’d be horrified by that country (and rightly so). That is how how Israel appears to many Jews for this arrest.