JERUSALEM: Israeli police held back thousands of ultra-conservative Jews who tried to drive liberal women worshippers from Judaism’s sacred Western Wall yesterday, marking a shift in the authorities’ handling of a long-running religious schism.

Ultra-Orthodox protesters dressed in traditional dark clothing threw chairs and water at the women, then later stoned their buses.

Previously police detained members of Women of the Wall, a group challenging the Orthodox monopoly over rites at Jerusalem’s Western Wall, for wearing prayer shawls in violation of Orthodox tradition.