Police arrest teen who asks about shooting WOW

Thousands of ultra-Orthodox expected to gather at Western Wall on Sunday "to express the outcry of faithful Judaism."

By JEREMY SHARON
Women of the wall tefillin 370 (photo credit: REUTERS)
Women of the wall tefillin 370
(photo credit: REUTERS)
Police arrested a 17-year-old on Thursday after he asked a rabbis on the website “Kippa” if it was “permitted to shot at the Women of the Wall when they arrive to wear talit[ot] on Sunday at the Western Wall,” Army Radio reported.
The youth was reportedly arrested during an annual trip taken by the yeshiva in which he studies.
A mass haredi protest is being organized to take place this Sunday at the Western Wall to express opposition to the Women of the Wall activist group who plan to hold their monthly prayer service at the site.
“A mass prayer service will be conducted at the Western Wall in order to express the outcry of faithful Judaism against the severe injury to the holiest and most beloved place of all of the Jewish people, wrote a reporter for the haredi Yated Ne’eman daily on Thursday.
“The Jewish world will not be quiet and will not be reconciled to the humiliating conspiracy to turn the remnant of our holy sanctuary into a Reform temple and a media spectacle, God forbid,” the reporter continued.
The senior haredi rabbinic leadership has approved the protest, but has specifically called upon attendees to behave “in accordance with the Torah.”
Yated Ne’eman reported that only married yeshiva students and adults were being asked to come to the demonstration, specifically saying that younger men and boys should not attend.
This directive is most likely intended to reduce the possibility of the demonstration turning violent, as it did last month, by prohibiting the more combustible haredi youth from attending the protest.
The article reported that the haredi prayer demonstration would be commencing at 6:30 a.m., and said that the worshipers “are requested not to be dragged along after the provocations whose only purpose is to harm the community of worshipers, and to behave according to the path of the holy Torah and to sanctify God’s name.”
Thousands of haredi school girls packed into the women’s section of the Western Wall Plaza last month to protest the Women of the Wall’s service, and haredi boys and men scuffled with the police. Various objects were also hurled at the group’s worshipers.
The HaPeles newspaper – mouthpiece of a hardline haredi faction – carried a similar article but also warned protest attendees not to react to “provocations.”
Women of the Wall will be holding its prayer service at 7 a.m. The group said on Wednesday that it would be reading from the Torah in the women’s section of the wall for the first time.
In a recent landmark ruling, the Jerusalem District Court gave permission to the Women of the Wall group to conduct their prayers services according to their own customs, including wearing prayer shawls and tefillin and performing other religious practices usually conducted only by men in Orthodox Judaism.
Jerusalem Post staff contributed to this report.