Boom! (1985)
February 4, 1985
Today's Golden Oldie is from 1985.The "BOOM!" in Israel these days is the snowballing story of a cultural war against Israeli society by elements of the population that want public buses and sidewalks to be segregated between men and women.It is portrayed by the media as a battle for Israel's future.
They may be right.The "latest" as I write this:
Haredim riot in Beit Shemesh after segregation signs removed
Dozens of haredim riot, hurl stones as officers, municipal inspectors remove signs calling for women's exclusion; some signs already put back up; municipality to install hundreds of security cameras. "Police forces accompanied by Beit Shemesh municipal inspectors removed public signs calling for segregation between men and women in the city on Sunday. This prompted dozens of haredim to crowd around the officers. They hurled stones and cursed the officers. Some haredim called police "Nazis." There were no reports of injury."-more
Labels: anti-female, demonstrations, Haredim, Secular, sexism, unrest
8 Comments:
What is the opposite of tzedakah? Do the haredim think that they are tzadikim?
An Israeli friend once told me that it is no accident that Beit Shemesh and Beit Shimooz
have almost identical spellings. I have always pleaded ignorance about that. In this case, it may well smell the same.
Attacking fellow Jews! No wonder the third Beis HaMikdosh can't built, the same behavior that led to the destruction of the last one continues...
When will you issue this year's shmendrik awards. We may have to take up a collection to pay for all the awards that have to be given out.
Except that this isn't true. I am trying to plough through the muck of politics and anti-semitic incitement that passes for an Israeli press (at least on the internet) to find some actual facts, and I have been having a hard time of it. One of the cute parts is how it is always "the Chareidim", as if we are all alike.
There is, for example, a huge moderate largely anglo Chareidi area of Beit Shemesh, where Chareidim, Religious Zionists, and Secular all live together peacefully. There is a religious Zionist school near the border where serious trouble has come from some thugs who come from another neighborhood where there is a very extreme element. If if they are dealt with, some good can come out of this, but I wouln't blame that entire neighborhood either because of some thugs.
This started, remeber, with some religious Zionist soldiers who were denied religious freedom. Instead of deiscussing the issue, the media decided to go after the Chareidim again. Basically, an extreme element (the media) is trying to get everything they want, even if they have to spread anti-semitic hatred among the entire population.
It is hard to know anything about the signs, because the papers aren't interested in facts. As far as I can understand from the pictures and the little I could read, they did not ask to seperate men and women on the sidewalks, as I had been led to believe. (MZK1)
Apology for a typing error. In my previous comment I wrote "Beit Shimooz". That should have been "Beit Shimoosh",as shmoozing is not normally done in a beit shimoosh.
It's not a battle for Israels future, its the media bashing the charedim like always. Nothing is "spreading" anywhere. The segregated buses are not new, this week is just the first time someone secular ever took one of them! The segregated sidewalks are only in Me'ah Sha'arim and only during Succot, when there are way more people than should actually fit in the neighborhood and the women much prefer to not have to worry about being sexually harassed.
People like to say live and let live, so other than stopping violence (which is caused by a VERY small percentage of the chareidim) just let them do their own thing in their own bubbles. If the bubble breaks, which isn't going to happen, that's can be a problem. But if we try to dissolve the bubble by mutual understanding and dialogue, like what the army is trying to do, we can turn this disastrous situation around. Until then, we're unjustly forcing our way of life onto other people in areas that don't affect us.
All the events that seem like the bubble is breaking (Beit Shemesh, parking lots in J-lem, Tanya Rozenblit's bus ride, etc.) are caused by the same <0.1% of the Israeli population that are a violent group of people that should be stopped by the police. No one has any right to generalize about anyone outside of this over-sized but relatively tiny group.
The whole situation needs to be no more than any other criminal situation, but because the criminals have a kippa on their head, suddenly it's a national problem?
B"H - Besides, what's the point in having a so called "Jewish State" and run it as if it was San Francisco? Let's make no mistake about this: Muslims have tens of huge countries running according to their faith and so do xtians. When on xmas eve the popo talks to the whole world in more than 70 languages, it is taken for granted. The only people who have nothing, zero, are the religious Jews. If Israel wants to be just like all the other nations, Esau and Ishmael, what a Jew supposed to do? Let it happen? The answer of course is NO! On Chanukah we celebrate the Jewish victory over the Hellenists!
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