Shimon Peres urges Israelis to rally against extremism

[Zabaniyah]

Israel's president has urged Israelis to rally against ultra-Orthodox Jewish extremism in what he called a fight for the "soul of the nation".

Shimon Peres was speaking as hundreds gathered in the town of Beit Shemesh to protest against the way some ultra-Orthodox Jews treat women.

There have been two days of clashes in the town after a girl said she had been harassed on her way to school.

Some ultra-Orthodox in Beit Shemesh are seeking to segregate men and women.

Mr Peres said today was a "test for the nation", not just the police.

"The entire nation must be recruited in order to save the majority from the hands of a small minority," Mr Peres said.

He said the demonstration was a defence of the "character" of the state of Israel "against a minority which breaks our national solidarity".

'Afraid to go to school'

Protesters, some holding signs reading "Free Israel from religious coercion" and "Stop Israel from becoming Iran", gathered in large numbers on Tuesday evening.

Anger spilled over after an eight-year-old American girl, Naama Margolese, said she was afraid to walk to school in the town because ultra-Orthodox men shouted at her.

"When I walk to school in the morning, I used to get a tummy ache because I was so scared... that they were going to stand and start yelling and spitting," she said in a subsequent interview with The Associated Press on Monday.

In his statement, Mr Peres said: "No person has the right to threaten a girl, a woman or any person in any way. They are not the lords of this land."

Women have reported similar incidents in the town of 100,000, some 18 miles (30km) south-west of Jerusalem.

Sarit Ramon described the situation in the town, where religiously observant immigrants live alongside Israelis embracing a more modern lifestyle, as having been "catastrophic for years".

"When I told that I was spat at a year and a half ago, people raised an eyebrow, and that was about it," she told Reuters.

Microcosm

Alisa Coleman told the BBC that she had been called a prostitute when dressed in a short-sleeved T-shirt and a skirt.

Though underlining that this behaviour was carried out by only a tiny proportion of the community, she said what was happening in Beit Shemesh was "a microcosm of what's happening in the whole country".

On Monday, one police officer was slightly hurt and a number of Orthodox Jews were detained after a group of some 300 ultra-Orthodox residents pelted police with stones and eggs in an incident reportedly triggered after police tried to remove a sign ordering segregation.

A television crew attempting to film in the town were surrounded and harassed - the second alleged attack on journalists in as many days.

On Sunday, a crew from Channel 2 news, which originally aired Naama Margolese's story, were attacked as they were filming, say reports, with rocks allegedly thrown at their van.

After Monday's clashes, unnamed ultra-Orthodox activists from Beit Shemesh issued a statement condemning the violence, but also accusing the media of initiating "deliberate provocations in order to make the peaceful, quiet and tolerant residents, who live their lives according to their beliefs, look bad".

Such clashes have become more frequent in Israel in recent years as the authorities have challenged efforts by ultra-Orthodox Jews to segregate women in public places.

The BBC's Jon Donnison, in Beit Shemesh, says the events have highlighted what is a growing religious divide in Israel.

Ultra-Orthodox Jews make up 10% of the population in Israel. The community has a high birth rate and is growing rapidly.

Source: BBC News - Shimon Peres urges Israelis to rally against extremism

mmm...it'd be interesting!

 

[majesticpankaj]

Israeli girl Naama Margolese's plight highlights Jewish extremism

BEIT SHEMESH (ISRAEL): A shy 8-year-old schoolgirl has unwittingly found herself on the front line of Israel's latest religious war.

Naama Margolese is a ponytailed, bespectacled second-grader who is afraid of walking to her religious Jewish girls school for fear of ultra-Orthodox extremists who have spat on her and called her a ***** for dressing ``immodestly.''

Her plight has drawn new attention to the simmering issue of religious coercion in Israel, and the increasing brazenness of extremists in the insular ultra-Orthodox Jewish community.

``When I walk to school in the morning I used to get a tummy ache because I was so scared ... that they were going to stand and start yelling and spitting,'' the pale, blue-eyed girl said softly in an interview with The Associated Press Monday. ``They were scary. They don't want us to go to the school.''

The new girls school that Naama attends in the city of Beit Shemesh, to the west of Jerusalem, is on the border between an ultra-Orthodox neighborhood and a community of modern Orthodox Jewish residents, many of them American immigrants.

The ultra-Orthodox consider the school an encroachment on their territory. Dozens of black-hatted men jeer and physically accost the girls almost daily, the students say.

Televised images of Naama sobbing en route to school have shocked many Israelis, elicited statements of outrage from the country's leadership, sparked a Facebook page with nearly 10,000 followers dedicated to ``protecting little Naama'' and plans for a demonstration later Tuesday in her honor. As the case has attracted attention, extremists have heckled and thrown eggs and rocks at journalists descending on town.

``Who's afraid of an 8-year-old student?'' said Sunday's main headline in the leading Yediot Ahronot daily.

Beit Shemesh's growing ultra-Orthodox population has erected street signs calling for the separation of sexes on the sidewalks, dispatched ``modesty patrols'' to enforce a chaste female appearance and hurled stones at offenders and outsiders. Walls of the neighborhood are plastered with signs exhorting women to dress modestly in closed-necked, long-sleeved blouses and long skirts.

Naama's case has been especially shocking because of her young age and because she attends a religious school and dresses with long sleeves and a skirt. Extremists, however, consider even that outfit, standard in mainstream Jewish religious schools, to be immodest.

This week Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke out against the violence. ``The Israel police are taking, and will take, action to arrest and stop those who spit, harass or raise a hand. This has no place in a free and democratic state,'' he told his Cabinet.

Thousands of people were expected at Tuesday evening's demonstration. Ahead of the gathering, President Shimon Peres urged the public to attend.

``The demonstration today is a test for the people and not just the police,'' Peres told a gathering of Israeli ambassadors. ``All of us ... must defend the image of the state of Israel from a minority that is destroying national solidarity and expressing itself in an infuriating way.''

The abuse and segregation of women in Israel in ultra-Orthodox areas is nothing new, and critics accuse the government of turning a blind eye.

The ultra-Orthodox are perennial king-makers in Israeli coalition politics _ two such parties serve as key members of Netanyahu's coalition. They receive generous government subsidies, and police have traditionally been reluctant to enter their communities.

The ultra-Orthodox Jews make up 10 percent of Israel's population and are its fastest growing sector because of a high birth rate. In the past, they have generally confined their strict lifestyle to their own neighborhoods. But they have become increasingly aggressive in trying to impose their ways on others, as their population has grown and spread to new areas.

``It is clear that Israeli society is faced with a challenge that I am not sure it can handle,'' said Menachem Friedman, a professor emeritus of Bar Ilan University and expert on the ultra-Orthodox, ``a challenge that is no less and no more than an existential challenge.''

Most of Israel's secular majority, in cities like Tel Aviv and Haifa, is not directly affected, but in a few places like Beit Shemesh _ a city of 100,000 people that include ultra-Orthodox, modern Orthodox and secular Jews _ tensions have erupted into the open.

Last week, a young Israeli woman caused a nationwide uproar when she refused a religious man's order to move to the back of a bus, and in Jerusalem, the country's largest city, advertisers have been forced to remove female faces from billboards because of persistent vandalism.

In Beit Shemesh, parents in Naama's school take turns escorting their daughters into school property to protect them. The parents, too, have been cursed and spat upon.

Hadassa Margolese, Naama's 30-year-old Chicago-born mother, an Orthodox Jew who covers her hair and wears long sleeves and a long skirt, says, ``It shouldn't matter what I look like. Someone should be allowed to walk around in sleeveless shirts and pants and not be harassed.''

On Monday, dozens of ultra-Orthodox men heckled AP journalists who were filming a sign calling for segregation of sidewalks outside their synagogue, chanting ``shame on you,'' ``get out of here'' and ``anti-Semites.''

Also Monday, dozens ultra-Orthodox men threw rocks at TV crews and police, and set a trash can on fire, police said. Six men were taken into custody.

City spokesman Matityahu Rosenzweig condemned the violence but said it is the work of a small minority and has been taken out of proportion. ``Every society has its fringes, and the police should take action on this,'' he said.

For Margolese, the recent clashes _ and the price of exposing her young daughter _ boil down to a fight over her very home.

``They want to push us out of Beit Shemesh. They want to take over the city,'' said Margolese.


Israeli girl Naama Margolese's plight highlights Jewish extremism - The Times of India

 

[PteX]

Yes, this is sadly true. Thousands are protesting as we speak in Beit Shemesh against these pigs.

I wouldn`t mind if some of them happened to fall of a cliff, but they are what we call "Taliban" Jews, the one`s that hate Israel and disgrace Jewish values and traditions.

 

[westtowel]

Being ultra-Orthodox is the only way jews & Israel can survive.

 

[PteX]

Being ultra-Orthodox is the only way jews & Israel can survive.

Ultra orthodox who aren`t loyal to the country, nor work, nor serve the army are a disgrace.

 

[Zabaniyah]

Being ultra-Orthodox is the only way jews & Israel can survive.

How?

I really hope you are not trolling.

Seems to me like a case of déjà vu to me

 

[Pakistanisage]

All that ISLAMOPHOBIA has comeback to bite ISRAEL in the Kabooz. This is what happens when you elect a BIGOT for a Prime Minister ( Natanyahu ) - You fan the fires of extremism.

 

[Zabaniyah]

All that ISLAMOPHOBIA has comeback to bite ISRAEL in the Kabooz. This is what happens when you elect a BIGOT for a Prime Minister ( Natanyahu ). You fan the fires extremism.

erm...me think those Ultra-Orthodox Jews are...different. Probably even more extreme.

 

[PteX]

All that ISLAMOPHOBIA has comeback to bite ISRAEL in the Kabooz. This is what happens when you elect a BIGOT for a Prime Minister ( Natanyahu ) - You fan the fires of extremism.

Islamophobia didn`t nor does it need PM Netanyahu, it`s quite extensive in Europe and many other places either way, more than it is in Israel where Muslims(Muslim women too) are elected in Parliament(Traitors they may be).

 

[Pakistanisage]

erm...me think those Ultra-Orthodox Jews are...different. Probably even more extreme.

I agree with you that Ultras are to the extreme right of Natanyahu, but electing a right wing Prime Minister has made them bolder. Let's not forget that Natanyahu govt. is in cahoots with these people as they are coalition partners with the Natanyahu govt.

 

[silko]

Ultra orthodox who aren`t loyal to the country, nor work, nor serve the army are a disgrace.

doesnt netanyahu's party have a coalition with lieberman and some other right wing/ultra orthodox lunatics parties?

and i heard it is a law that defends theese people. i've seen countles videos on youtube where people get harrased by some long bearded rabbi or something with his fellow worshippers and the police dont do anything against them, even after those people pushes the police away!?

 

[PteX]

doesnt netanyahu's party have a coalition with lieberman and some other right wing/ultra orthodox lunatics parties?

and i heard it is a law that defends theese people. i've seen countles videos on youtube where people get harrased by some long bearded rabbi or something with his fellow worshippers and the police dont do anything against them, even after those people pushes the police away!?

They are jailed and Lieberman is a nationalist, not religious but there are religious factions in the coalition.
Not enough is done to punish these animals, there is a protest at the moment with thousands protesting against these people.

They are anti-Israel, disgrace Judaism and Zionism.
They are Pigs, nothing less.

 

[Drawn_Sword_of_God]

if they are against Zionism then they do something right

 

[Meengla]

if they are against Zionism then they do something right

No.
Despite my very strong feelings against the Israeli treatment of the Palestinians, I think 'Zionism' WAS/IS (?) more like the quasi-religious/quasi-nationlist movement akin to the Muslims of the Sub-continent seeking a 'homeland' pre 1947, resulting in Pakistan.

 

[silko]

PteX take a look at this... in 1:35 he pushes, i dont know if that can be called an assault on a officer. and the police does nothing?