Members of Knesset from the Sephardic-haredi Shas party have initiated legislation to regulate Jewish religious practice at the Western Wall of the Temple in Jerusalem's Old City in line with halakhah (Jewish law) under the rule of Jewish religious courts and Israel's Chief Rabbinate.
The bill includes language prohibiting practices "that are not according to local custom, which offends the sensitivity of worshipers to the place." Those prohibitions include mixed-gender services and services in the women's area that include taking out and reading of a Torah scroll, the blowing of a shofar (ram's horn) and the wearing of tallit or tefillin. Violations would be punished by up to half a year in prison and a fine of up to ten thousand shekels.