Source: Jerusalem Post

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1092712291334

On August 17, 2004 the Jerusalem Post reported, "A secluded section of the Western Wall set aside for women's and mixed prayer services was officially inaugurated Tuesday. The site, located on a section of the Wall next to Robinson's Arch, now home to an archeological garden, will be used starting Wednesday for periodic all-women's prayer services conducted by the Women at the Wall group, as well as for irregular mixed services carried out by Israel's Masorti (Conservative) movement, which has been using the site unofficially for the past five years. The area's separate entrance will separate the group from direct contact with haredim who frequent the wall, and are vehemently opposed to women's public prayer. The site was constructed in response to a watershed High Court ruling last year barring the Women of the Wall group from publicly worshiping at the Western Wall. Israel's highest court ruled 5-4 that the government had to assign a nearby alternative site for such prayer within a year or allow women to pray at the Wall... Tuesday's inauguration of the site - which was ignored by the Haredi-run municipality, which did not even announce the event - was welcomed by Israel's Masorti Movement, who have been conducting periodic mixed prayer services at the site, but was met with intense disappointment by the Women at the Wall, who view it as a discriminatory move."