Israeli Cabinet minister resigns from Western Wall committee

JERUSALEM – An Israeli Cabinet minister says she is stepping down as head of a committee responsible for expanding a mixed-gender prayer area next to Jerusalem’s Western Wall.

Culture Minister Miri Regev said on Thursday her conscience won’t allow her to approve such a plan, hotly contested by hard-line Israeli Jews who are her key constituents. The resignation could delay implementation, which would outrage the more liberal American Jewish Diaspora and potentially spark a court ruling that could cause a government crisis.

The status of prayer at the Western Wall, the holiest place where Jews can pray, is at the heart of mounting tensions between the world’s two largest Jewish communities.

The Israeli government has previously frozen plans for an expanded egalitarian prayer section because of ultra-Orthodox Jewish pressure.