Female soldier: Haredi called me a 'slut'

Soldier says cursed by ultra-Orthodox passenger in Jerusalem after refusing to move to back of bus. Internal security minister urges citizens to file complaints with police Yair Altman Published:     12.28.11, 15:09 / Israel News The Jerusalem police on Wednesday arrested an ultra-Orthodox man for calling a female soldier a "slut" during a bus ride in the capital. In response to the incident, the soldier, Doron Matalon, said: "This kind of behavior by our people is very hurtful. With all due respect, even though I'm secular and he's orthodox we belong to the same people." She added that this event is part of a "very unfortunate radicalization going on in the country." Matalon was traveling on bus No. 49 from the Neve Yaakov neighborhood to the Central Command base in Jerusalem. After approaching the front of the bus in order to pay the driver, she was told by a haredi passenger to move to the back. She refused, and he began cursing her. An Egged bus company worker called the police, and the man was arrested. In his investigation, he admitted calling her a "slut", explaining that the word was a proper response to "her provocative behavior". The soldier's father said the haredi man had referred to her as a "shiksa" (a disrespectful term in Yiddish for a non-Jewish woman). He added that his daughter had filed a complaint with the police. "When she called me, she was in tears. You must remember that she's just a girl," he recounted, adding that he was the one who encouraged her to file a complaint. He said it was not the first time his daughter was attacked. "Two weeks ago it ended with shoving. She's afraid to get on this bus, but there's no other way. We must not give in to their whims." Women protest exclusion in Tel Aviv (Photo: Moti Kimchi) Opposition leader Tzipi Livni spoke with Matalon's father, telling him that "Doron was caught in an unbearable reality and her adamant stance against those radicals is commendable." Meanwhile, State Prosecutor Moshe Lador addressed the exclusion of women phenomenon for the first time Wednesday. Speaking during a conference on traffic laws in the community of Yad Hashmona, near Jerusalem, Lador said that "the State Prosecutor's Office will work with the police to eradicate the extremism among haredim. "We understand that we must act against the exclusion of women and the violence we have been witnessing recently." Internal Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch called on citizens not to be afraid to complain. "I demand and ask citizens to file complaints with the police; that's the most important thing," he said. "The moment complaints are filed, investigations will be opened and indictments will be served. The police's duty is to defend the country's citizens, not to file complaints." Aharonovitch pointed a finger at local authorities, saying that "authority heads must wake up and do their job. At the end of the day it's a social phenomenon, which we've identified a long time ago. We have a similar story in Jerusalem's Mea Shearim neighborhood with the Sicarii faction."   'Spitting on young girl a crime' Also Wednesday, some 250 women marched on Tel Aviv's Rothschild Boulevard as part of a protest against the exclusion of women organized by the Women's International Zionist Organization. Tova Ben-Dov, chairperson of World WIZO Executive, said during the rally: "What is happening in Israel is a danger to democracy. It's a shame that we need Hillary Clinton and foreign television networks to warn us about it." WIZO Israel Chairperson Gila Oshrat said, "This isn't a fight for women's rights, but for the character of the Israeli society.  De-legitimization of women has made them inferior, and it's a short road to physical violence. "Excluding women from the public sphere is violence. Spitting on a nine-year-old girl is a crime. We must stop this violence immediately." Aviad Glickman and Yoav Malka contributed to this report

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4168181,00.html

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• Published 16:46 28.12.11 Latest update 16:46 28.12.11

Israeli female soldier accosted for rebuffing Haredi bus segregation

Jerusalem resident Doron Matalon says ultra-Orthodox man, 45, chided her for not moving to back of bus, calling her 'gentile' and 'prostitute.'

By Oz Rosenberg

A day after a massive rally in central Israel protested gender segregation and discrimination in Israel, a female Israel Defense Forces soldier reported being accosted by a Haredi man on Wednesday over her refusal to move to the back of a segregated bus in Jerusalem.

	Doron Matalon in Jerusalem, Dec. 28, 2011.
	Photo by: Emil Salman

 According to the soldier, Doron Matalon, a 45-year-old man asked her to move to the back of the bus, threatening her, and calling her "prostitute."

"I didn't want to move back, both on principle and because there wasn't any room. It's always stuffy and disgusting in the back," Matalon said, adding that "everything was fine, I was almost at my stop, and then the conductors came on."

At that point, the IDF soldier said, the ultra-Orthodox man chastised a woman who had come over to the front of the bus to have her ticket checked, saying: "You don't have to come up front to check your ticket, a woman shouldn't move to this side of the bus."

	Ultra-Orthodox men riding a sex-segregated bus in Jerusalem.
	Photo by: Emil Salman

"And then he turned to me," Matalon said, and said 'you too soldier, move back, and then he called me a prostitute." According to the IDF soldier, the man was soon joined by other religious men in the bus, who proceeded to yell out "prostitute," and "Shikse "(gentile woman).

Matalon said that at that point she "felt threatened and a huge commotion began. I yelled out for the conductor to come quick, and two male conductors rushed in. They pushed him away from me and said: 'Why are you shouting, she's a soldier,' but he continued to be abusive."

The bus was ordered to stop in the city's Levi Eshkol Blvd, where the conductors called the police. Eyewitnesses reported that the Haredi men continued his disruptive behavior even after a police officer arrived at the scene.

All those involved were taken to questioning, with the ultra-Orthodox man the only one to be arrested following the incident.

"This isn’t the first time this has happened, I just asked for help this time," Matalon said, adding that she had experienced "worse incidents on this line," including one in which she was shoved off the bus when her stop arrived."

"I'm slowly calming down, but I'm not over it yet," the IDF soldier said.
Police sources indicated that the suspected was to be held until Thursday, at which point he will face a court remand hearing.

http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/israeli-female-soldier-accosted-for-rebuffing-haredi-bus-segregation-1.404158

Palestinians in a 'Jewish state'

Palestinians living in Israel face institutionalised discrimination and segregation in a supposedly democratic state. Last Modified: 27 Dec 2011 09:39 Palestinians who live in Israel, not in the West Bank or Gaza Strip, face daily discrimination [GALLO/GETTY] Israel's crimes in the occupied Palestinian territories - like the settlements, the killing of civilians and the demolition of homes - are openly condemned in the West by human rights groups and others like never before. But as the peace process remains stuck, and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu forces the issue of Israel as a "Jewish state" into the spotlight, understanding the situation of Palestinian citizens of Israel has become crucial to grasping the core of the entire conflict.  So-called "Israeli Arabs" have got it better than most Palestinians, who are either under military rule or forcibly excluded from their homeland. But the institutional discrimination they have faced since 1948 goes to the heart of the contradiction that Israel is "Jewish and democratic". Many people will concede that the military occupation of non-citizens for over 40 years is undemocratic. Yet, inside the pre-1967 borders, Israel is far from the "liberal democracy" central to the propaganda, in areas like land, planning, housing, immigration and state budgets. Rhetoric and policies associated with the far-right in Europe - like an obsession with "demographics" and birth rates, or boosting one kind of population in a given area to counterbalance an "undesirable" minority - are mainstream in Israeli politics. In my new book, Palestinians in Israel: Segregation, Discrimination and Democracy, I unpack some of the core elements of how Israel's Palestinian citizens have been treated since 1948. One aspect is the area of nationality and citizenship rights, as this short extract explains: A poorly understood aspect of Israel as a Jewish state is the distinction between "citizenship" and "nationality", an issue confused by the fact that, in English, the two terms can often be used interchangeably. In Israel, "'nationality' (Hebrew: le'um) and 'citizenship' (Hebrew: ezrahut) are two separate, distinct statuses, conveying different rights and responsibilities". Palestinians in Israel, as non-Jews, can be citizens, but never nationals, and are thus denied "rights and privileges" enjoyed by those "who would qualify for Israeli citizenship under the 1950 Law of Return". Professor David Kretzmer, law scholar at Hebrew University and member of the International Commission of Jurists, has explained how this concept of "nation" helps maintain "the distinction between citizens of the state who belong to the Jewish people and those who do not... [and] strengthens the dichotomy between the state as the political framework for all its citizens and the state as the particularistic nation-state of the Jewish people". International human rights expert Miloon Kothari, who served as UN Special Rapporteur on adequate housing for eight years, summed it up thus: Nationality status in Israel is not linked to origin from, or residence in a territory, as is the norm in international law. Rather, the basic theocratic character of the Israeli legal system establishes ethnic criteria as the grounds for the enjoyment of full rights. The Israeli Citizenship Law (ezrahut), officially mistranslated as 'Nationality Law', establishes a civil status distinct from 'Jewish nationality'. The difference between "citizenship" and "nationality" has been affirmed by Israeli courts. One such example is related by Bernard Avishai, in his book The Hebrew Republic, when in the early 1970s, a Jewish Israeli called George Tamarin petitioned the High Court to change the official registration of his nationality from Jewish to Israeli. Avishai records the High Court's ruling: that "there is no Israeli nation separate from the Jewish nation", an assessment complemented by the then-president of the High Court Shimon Agranat, who said that a uniform Israeli nationality "would negate the very foundation upon which the State of Israel was formed". In 2008, a group of petitioners again unsuccessfully requested for their nationality to be marked "Israeli", claiming, "that it made no sense for them to be Jews 'for internal consumption' and Israelis 'for external consumption"'. A 'Jewish' state While this use of "nationality" as a means of privileging Jewish citizens at the expense of Palestinians is long-standing in Israel, in recent times there has been a further assault on the minority's citizenship rights. In 2003, the "temporary" Nationality and Entry into Israel Law was passed by the Knesset, and at the time of writing, has been renewed ever since. This law "prohibits the granting of any residency or citizenship status to Palestinians from the 1967 Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPTs) who are married to Israeli citizens" (amended in 2007 to include citizens of "enemy states" Iran, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon). In a press release at the time, the Head of the Delegation of the European Commission to the State of Israel described the law as establishing "a discriminatory regime to the detriment of Palestinians in the highly sensitive area of family rights". In 2008, Adalah, the Legal Centre for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, commented: "It should be emphasised that no other state in the world denies the right to conduct a family life on the basis of national or ethnic belonging." The public justification for this law was that it aimed to prevent Palestinians using "family unification" as a means of gaining entry to Israel and committing terrorist attacks. Yet the "security" rationale was flimsy: as the Legal Advisor to the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) pointed out, Israel's security services had "previously approved the entry of 20,000 Palestinian workers into Israel", showing it was entirely possible to "assess the extent of the 'danger' posed by Palestinian residents". But the "security" excuse is further undermined by remarks made by Israeli officials themselves, such as Gideon Ezra, then minister without portfolio and ex-deputy head of the Shin Bet, who affirmed that "the state of Israel is not prepared to accept a creeping right of return; no one wants our state to cease to be a Jewish state". In April 2005, the Israeli press reported that the government was "planning legislative amendments that will make it more difficult for non-Jews to receive Israeli citizenship or permanent resident status in Israel", a move "aimed against granting legal status to Palestinians and other foreigners who have married Israeli citizens". This legislation - "based on the demographic consideration of ensuring a solid Jewish majority" - was linked in the reports to the 2003 "temporary" measure, and quoted then Prime Minister Ariel Sharon as unashamedly admitting: "There is no need to hide behind security arguments. There is a need for the existence of a Jewish state". Ha'aretz observed that there is "broad agreement in the government and academia" that any such policies "must be strict and make it difficult for non-Jews to obtain citizenship in Israel". Finally, this was also part of the context for the successfully-passed "loyalty oath" initiative, which obliges non-Jewish candidates for citizenship to swear loyalty to a Jewish state. In July 2010, a government source said "the wording of the declaration was designed to make it more difficult for Palestinians married to Israeli Arabs to gain citizenship on the basis of family unification". Ben White is a freelance writer, specialising in Palestine and Israel. To purchase Palestinians in Israel: Segregation, Discrimination and Democracy click here.

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2011/12/201112258544842602.html

Haredim: Women excluding themselves

Leaders of Beit Shemesh's ultra-Orthodox district issue official statement renouncing zealots' violence, but threatening to place segregation signs all over city should they be removed again

Kobi Nahshoni
Published:     12.27.11, 07:46 / Israel Jewish Scene
  

Leaders of the ultra-Orthodox district in the city of Beit Shemesh are breaking their silence and, for the first time, commenting on the row sparked by the exclusion of women in their neighborhood.

In an official statement issued by senior officials, who are responsible for the community's official stand, they renounce violent acts committed by haredi zealots but blame the media for the recent radicalization.

According to the statement, issued for the "general media" and obtained by Ynet, "Marginal events, which individuals in the margins of the camp are responsible for, are being presented as the actions of the entire haredi public living in the city.

"We condemn any type of violence, but we also condemn the media's wild attacks… The press is initiating intentional provocations in a bid to ruin the reputation of the residents, who are calm, quiet and tolerant people, living their lives according to their faith.

"In some cases, media crews initiated the arrival of immodest women to the neighborhood in order to inflame the situation and reach 'media achievements'. They will pay the price in the conventional ways."

Not giving up on signs
As for the segregation sign placed once and again near the synagogue area, even after being removed by the municipality, the letter states: "If it only depended on the women – they would exclude themselves from the synagogue area out of their own free will.

"The haredi district's women stand behind the sign – which has been in the place for more than a decade – just as much as the neighborhood's men, and are proud of it.

"Due to the wild media attack, the municipality decided last night in a forced move and without any legal justification, to remove the sign…

"The neighborhood's residents and activists declare that these signs – which were placed out of respect for women and due to the fact that Judaism orders a separation between men and women in the public sphere – will be placed against and again and again and again…

"A media and police war against this sign will lead to similar signs being placed next to every synagogue across the city."

At the end of the statement, its writers clarify that "the haredi public is a quiet public which only seeks to live its life according to its own worldview, and there will be no compromise on this issue.

"The residents of Beit Shemesh's haredi district bought their homes with the purpose of living in a haredi-homogeneous area where they could educate the young generation according to the tradition of our forefathers, which has been passed from generation to generation. No one has the right to prevent them from doing so."

Security cameras? Don't count on it

The Beit Shemesh Municipality and the police announced Sunday that 300 to 400 security cameras would be placed across the city in a bid to fight the extremists humiliating women and children.

According to the plan, some of the cameras will be placed near the Orot school for girls, whose students have been the target of violent acts by haredi zealots.

 http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4167228,00.html

Haredi violence is damaging Israel's image, U.S. rabbis say

 Published 19:46 27.12.11 Latest update 19:46 27.12.11

As news of clashes between police and ultra-Orthodox activists reaches Brooklyn's Hasidic neighborhoods, the response is clear: A denouncement of violence.

By Shlomo Shamir

 

 Violent clashes between Israel Police forces and ultra-Orthodox activists amid a public outcry over the exclusion of women from the public sphere is damaging the image of the Haredi community in the United States, Brooklyn community leaders told Haaretz on Tuesday.

"The violent clashes show Israel in a horrible light and cause a great deal of damage to its image in America," one Hasidic rabbi, a resident of the Borough Park neighborhood told Haaretz.

	Ultra-Orthodox Beit Shemesh residents underneath a sign instructing women to use the other sidewalk.
	Photo by: Shiran Granot

 
"If Jews strike Jews, what will the gentiles say?" asked one rabbi.

Reports of violent clashes between radical Haredi activists and security forces in the central Israel town of Beit Shemesh have been slowly spreading through Brooklyn's ultra-Orthodox communities.

But when community leaders are asked on their take on recent unrest in Israel, their response is as unified as it is harsh – an unequivocal denouncement of extremism and violence.

"The extremists in Israel's Haredi camp are giving a bad name to the virtue of modesty," the leading rabbi told Haaretz, with other leaders expressing dismay at what they called the "moderate" response of Israeli authorities.

New York Democratic New York State Assemblyman Dov Hikind added that "if a young Hasidic man would have spat on or hurt a girl in Borough Park he would have been immediately arrested and handled in the most stern of way."

"Incidents of harassment and injury against people of all race and creed are unacceptable and unforgivable where we are," Hikind added.

When it was recently discovered that a local Brooklyn bus line was enacting gender segregation, the city put an immediate stop to the custom and the line was cancelled. Segregation is only tolerated in private bus lines which service religious neighborhoods.

Speaking with Haaretz, some rabbis explained that cases of religious extremism were rare in Brooklyn, since the religious population of those areas was mostly homogenous. "95 percent of Borough Park residents are Hasidic Jews," Hikind said, "which is also the case in Williamsburg and Flatbush."

Even outbursts within those communities rarely reach the public eye, community leaders added, with Hikind saying that "a factor which prevents ugly riots of the kind we're seeing in Beit Shemesh is the general feel of 'what would those among whom we live would say?'"

Jewish leaders have also said that Hasidic communities have also been maintaining an exemplary coexistence with the many Arab and Muslim immigrants who have settled into the area in recent years.

http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/haredi-violence-is-damaging-israel-s-image-u-s-rabbis-say-1.403935

Religious extremists threaten democracy in Israel

 Published 01:50 28.12.11 Latest update 01:50 28.12.11

Israel must develop a policy enabling police, state prosecution and the courts to apply the law to deal with the rioters and their spiritual leaders, who encourage them to run wild.

Haaretz Editorial


The violent incidents in Beit Shemesh this week, beginning with little Na'ama Margolese, who was spat on and cursed on her way home from school, and followed by an attack on television crews that had come to cover the news, should set off major alarm bells. The public at large has sensed the danger and Tuesday evening they came to Beit Shemesh in large numbers to demonstrate against this extremist violence and against the ominous threat that it represents. The demonstration is welcome and is evidence of civic involvement and concern and the need to protect society from those who come to destroy it. Even so, it should be remembered that Beit Shemesh is an extreme case, that the hard core among the rioters represents a problematic exception and that most of the ultra-Orthodox population decries this extremism and has itself suffered greatly from it.

The Israeli experience teaches that sweeping hatred of the ultra-Orthodox is the easy way out for every populist, whether in politics or in the media. This hatred could have ruinous consequences. In the best case, it could only strengthen ultra-Orthodox isolationism. In the worse case, it could intensify the violence.


The rioters in Beit Shemesh are criminals in every sense of the word. They cannot hide behind their religious worldview, behind their rabbis' rulings on matters of halakha, Jewish religious law. Nor can they hide behind the argument (which in and of itself is correct ) that government authorities have preferred to ignore the growing lawlessness in this increasingly ultra-Orthodox city and have allowed a reactionary group to terrorize the city's residents and turn them into defenseless hostages.

As a result, it is the government's task, in the words of the Hanukkah song, to dispel the darkness and make it clear to the extremists that Israel is a country of law, and that the overwhelming majority of Israelis do not want to live in a backward country governed by halakha. Instead they prefer to live as law-abiding citizens in a free, open and enlightened society.

The government must develop a firm and unambiguous policy that will enable the police, the state prosecution and the courts to apply the law to deal with the rioters as well as their spiritual leaders, who encourage and incite them to run wild. These people are endangering the well-being of the public in whose midst they are living and are threatening to undermine democracy and Israeli society as a whole.
 
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/religious-extremists-threaten-democracy-in-israel-1.404009