After threat of a lawsuit, according to Kipa, Abu Kayak has reversed this decision and is now open to the public as usual, with each person being allowed in without any modesty police stationed at the entrance. The interesting argument presented by the Secular Forum spokesperson is that if this is allowed to happen, the country will need to operate separate tourist sites for religious tourists and for secular tourists as the two communities will not want or be able to travel Israel together.
It is a shame that a solution cannot be found for Haredi/Dati customers, even if just for a limited amount of days over the summer. The overwhelming majority of Israeli tourists during these three weeks from 9 Av until 1 Elul are Dati/Haredi and having such just regular mixed rafting with no dress limitations make sit difficult for them, even if until many of them went anyway.
I understand that whatever the policy, and they can go another day or to another rafting site or other options, it is difficult when you have planned your trip and show up and see you can't go in - even if you can go somewhere else or a different day. Maybe the other day isnt available according to your schedule or you dont want to drive the 10 or 15 kilometers to the other site or you took a hasaa or bus and now it will cost more. Whatever. I get that it is difficult for some if such a policy is in place, but is there really no way to find a solution to make the site more amenable to the overwhelming majority of customers during this short period of time?
Anyways, according to the recent psak of Rav Mutzafi, the religious tourists shouldnt be going there anyway, even if a policy of modest swimwear is enforced, as there is definitely still a problem of mixed swimming and mixed gender frolicking in and around the water, even in modest swimwear...
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