Alsumaria News / Baghdad 
Israeli Agriculture Minister Uri Ariel joined the country's leading rabbis to pray al-Asqqa in hopes of ending the drought that is sweeping the country. 

Ariel, a member of the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community, led the ascetic prayer at the western wall of Jerusalem,known as the Wailing Wall. 

The four-year-old severe drought has depleted the country's water resources and has brought water supplies to low levels.




But the minister has received a number of criticisms that the owners felt that Ariel must address the crisis in more practical ways. 

The drought that affected Israel had a major impact on its farming communities and led to the country's dependence on desalination plants on the Mediterranean coast. 

"We have drastically reduced the cost of water and we are doing a lot of studies on how to save water in different crops, but prayer can certainly help," he said. 

"Prayer is not a bad thing, but the minister has the ability to influence matters a little more in a worldly way," the newspaper Yediot Aharonot wrote. The newspaper suggested that the minister should, for example, promote climate change reduction policies.