Woman in Western Wall bikini protest against proposed ‘immodesty’ law

An Israeli woman stripped down to a bikini at the Western Wall on Sunday to protest against a new law that would make “immodest dress” at holy sites a crime.

The 35-year-old, who was arrested in the women’s section under the current “insult to religion” law, has not been named but is understood to live in Jerusalem.

Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovitch, who heads the group charged with administering the site, said: “We are horrified by the despicable act of provocation… which desecrated the holiness of the site and deeply offended the public and worshipers”.

He added that the Western Wall was “a sacred site for every Jew and Jewess… It is not a place for dispute or provocation of any kind”.

Current Israeli law prohibits anything that “destroys, damages or defames a place of worship or any object considered holy to a group of people, with the intention of degrading religion or with the knowledge that their action would be seen as insulting religion”.

Police said the protester, who had the word ‘Bibi’ [the nickname of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu] written on her leg, could face up to three years in jail.

Netanyahu’s coalition partner Shas, which is a Charedi political party, had insisted on a new law criminalising “immodest dress” as well as anyone participating in mixed-gender prayer or anyone behaving “inappropriately”.

In the proposed bill, inappropriate behaviour would prohibit women from wearing ritual garments traditionally reserved for men such as a tallit or tefillin, reading from the Torah, or playing musical instruments.

However, in a Twitter message late last week, Netanyahu appeared to put the brakes on these plans, saying it needed discussion first.

Progressive Jewish groups, alongside protesters aligned to the Women of the Wall collective, have conducted services in a separate prayer area since 2004, but Shas is one of several Orthodox parties to have criticised the practice.

It is not the first time Israeli women have stripped in protest. In 2019, several Jerusalem women stripped to their bras in counter-protest at a group of Charedi men protesting against Shabbat shop opening. They left to avoid looking.