Police detained six members of a women’s prayer group at Jerusalem’s Western Wall this morning, reportedly for refusing to remove their prayer shawls.
The group, Women of the Wall, gathers regularly for Rosh Hodesh and held a special prayer service for the residents of Israel’s southern regions, which is currently under rocket fire from Gaza.
Among those detained by police were Lesley Sachs, director of Women of the Wall and board member, Rahel Cohen Yeshurun. Anat Hoffman, chairwoman of the organization, was not at the service, as she had been banned from the Western Wall for 30 days following her arrest at last month’s Rosh Hodesh service on Oct. 17.
The detained members were interrogated by police individually and asked to accept a five-day restraining order, which many refused to sign. “No Jewish woman should be banned from the Kotel for praying in her own way,” Sachs said. “Not even for a day.”
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