Thwarted Attempt To Transport Jerusalem Riots Stateside
By Nathaniel Popper
The streets around the Israeli consulate in Midtown Manhattan had the normal midday rush at 2:30 p.m. on Tuesday, but there was not a black hat or protestor was in sight.
The absence was notable because ultra-Orthodox organizers had called for a protest against the Israeli government at 2:30, across the street from the consulate on Second Avenue and 42nd Street. This was an apparently unsuccessful effort to import to America the ultra-Orthodox protests that have rocked Jerusalem every weekend for the last two months.
The ultra-Orthodox began their protests in Israel in response to the Jerusalem municipality’s decision to open a parking lot during the Sabbath, and grew when an ultra-Orthodox woman was arrested for allegedly starving her child. It got particularly bad this weekend when the Israeli government arrested a number of protestors and declined to release them on bail. The whole mess has signaled a new low in relations between Israel’s government and its ultra-Orthodox citizens though some who live in Israel have declined citizenship due to a belief that the Israeli government is illegitimate.
July 27, 2009, 10:27am
Offbeat Israel: Medical Clowning, Neighbors, and Dead Sea PR
By Nathan Jeffay
Israeli doctors are having a laugh at the taxpayers’ expense. Literally.
In 2006, Haifa University’s Department of Theatre began a special bachelors’ program for a group of medical clowns who wanted to build on their knowledge. It has now decided to launch a degree program that will train and accredit medical clowns.
The new program is intended for newcomers to the profession. It will focus on fields of knowledge related to therapy, such as nursing, developmental psychology and the history of medicine, as well as theatrical skills that are necessary for clowning, such as comedy acting, improvisation, street theater and juggling.
It includes practical studies in clowning, medical clowning, acting skills, the history of theater and the history of clowning. Graduates of this program will also possess tools for providing therapy and will know what the medical effects of their work will be.
One in two secular Israelis says that they would not like an ultra-Orthodox neighbor, according to a new poll.
Commissioned by the Ynet news website and Gesher, a movement which promotes secular-religious understanding, the poll also found that 73% of Haredi participants said they do not want a neighbor who is not an Orthodox Jew. You can read the results in this Ynet article.
The poll was taken as secular-Haredi tensions are high following several weekends of rioting over car parking in Jerusalem.
It also comes on the back of riots over the arrest and subsequent bail of a Haredi woman suspected of starving her son as a result of Munchausen by proxy syndrome, in which the person affected makes someone else ill, usually a child, in order to get attention. Haredi leaders who have protested the woman’s arrest claim that she is innocent and that the boy is weak because he suffers from cancer. They have likened the arrest to an antisemetic blood libel, and even called for a boycott of Hadassah hospital where the boy was taken.
Unrest on the Day of Rest: The Irony of the Haredi Parking Lot Protests
By Nathan Jeffay
Shabbat is known as the “day of rest,” and the etymology of Jerusalem is often said to be “city of peace.” But this Shabbat in Jerusalem was neither restful nor peaceful. Some 28 Haredi demonstrators were arrested during riots over the opening of a parking lot. Six people were wounded.
On Friday night, thousands of Haredim went out to the city thoroughfare of Bar Ilan Street for what was billed as a mass prayer rally to protest the opening of the facility. Secular residents asserting the right to open the car park held a counter demonstration.
Then on Saturday, there were riots. The organizers of the prayer rally are billing it as a success, while insisting that they are not responsible for the riots.
So what’s the struggle all about? It’s a rather odd fight to pick, at first glance. Driving on Shabbat is prohibited though, of course, roads rarely close. So people can drive, which as we’ve just established, is the act of Sabbath desecration. It’s ironic, therefore, that the Haredi leaders are against people stopping driving — by parking.
Maybe the secular counter-demonstrators got it wrong. Perhaps a more effective demonstration would have been to take, en masse, to the streets in their cars, and fill the holy city with the noise of Sabbath desecration all through Shabbat. They could have held placards out of their windows saying “less parking equals more Sabbath desecration, not less.”
But alas, the Haredi campaign does not seem to be about a devout desire to reduce the occurrence of Sabbath desecration. After all, if you think about it, the irony is that as a result of the protests and riots, there was probably more Sabbath desecration – among both Haredim and others – than there would be on a normal Saturday even if people were parking cars.
Here are a few examples of how:
1). Haredi rioters taking actions prohibited on Shabbat, such as throwing stones.
2). Hareim arrested. The policemen don’t say – “do you want to take a Sabbath stroll to the station?” They are hauled in to the back of a van and end up traveling on Sabbath.
3). Protests and riots necessitate breaking of Shabbat by police, for example by using vehicles, radios etc.
4). Cameramen and journalists flock to report on what is going on.
5). Thousands of news junkies turn on the television, log on to the web or turn on their radios to find out what is happening.
Instead of a real bid to reduce the occurrence of Sabbath desecration we have a turf war, and a very interesting one at that. Beyond the obvious religious-secular tensions coming to the surface, there’s something else going on – some internal Haredi politics – which are easy to miss.
The opposition to parking facilities being open on Shabbat has been drummed up by the hard-line body the Eida Haredit, backing more mainstream leaders into a corner. With the issue of parking forced on to the agenda, they had to come out for or against it, and could hardly come out in favor.
In short, what the Eida Haredit has done is to force more moderate elements in the Haredi community, most importantly the Haredi political parties, to get involved in a fight it is widely believed they wanted to keep out of. There was a strong indication of this process in play ahead of Friday’s “rally,” with top rabbis from the Ashkenazi and Sephardi Haredi sectors — Shalom Elyashiv and Ovadia Yosef respectively — joining the Eida in promoting the gathering.
June 22, 2009, 2:14pm
Offbeat Israel: Gay Pride Brings Religious Zionists to Arab Neighborhoods
By Nathan Jeffay
Here in Israel, there has been no shortage of secular-religious tensions in recent weeks.
As the Bintel Blog discussed here, there have been the turf wars of Ramat Aviv where secular residents fear a Haredi takeover.
More recently we’ve had violence over recreation. Haredi residents of Jerusalem, where there is no public transport on Shabbat, became furious earlier this month when the municipality opened a parking lot on Shabbat in a bid to give weekend visitors somewhere to park and stop them from blocking the streets.
There were violent protests organized by the hard-line Eida Haredit, which scored something of a coup. On June 12 mayor Nir Barkat agreed to a police request to close the parking lot in question for two Saturdays in an attempt to find a solution that is acceptable to Haredim and non-Haredim. “This was not a capitulation to violence,” said the mayor who was elected on a platform of stemming Haredi control of the city.
Now comes the Jerusalem Gay Pride parade — a source of annual tension as mentioned in this story in the latest edition of the Forward. It is due to take place on Thursday.
Interestingly, the Haredi reaction this year is expected to be measured. But the right-fringe of the religious-Zionist camp is stepping in and planning on making two points at once.
Protestors, led by National Union lawmaker Michael Ben Ari, plan to raise their objections to the Gay Pride parade during marches through Arab towns. This is a strange prospect, as many residents of Arab towns have the same disdain towards gay rights that Ben Ari and his supporters do. Of course, it’s unimaginable that locals in these towns will join in, given that Israeli flags will be waved alongside anti-gay banners.
The rationale behind Ben Ari and company taking their protest against Gay Pride to Arab towns is an intriguing one: They posit that Jerusalem is a predominantly religious city; the majority its residents are opposed to the parade. If that is not enough to stop the Gay Pride march from happening in Jerusalem, then why, they ask, should they not exercise what they deem a parallel right to march with Israeli flags through Arab villages?
“One rule must apply to all,” the Israeli media quoted Ben-Ari saying. “The people from the Open House” — a Jerusalem-based organization that serves the GLBT community — “are not the only ones who have the right to march.”
May 19, 2009, 11:14am
Offbeat Israel: Posh Tel Aviv Residents Protest Haredi Influx
By Nathan Jeffay
When the people of Ramat Aviv are taking to the streets in protest, you know the end really must be nigh. The high-life-living residents of this exceedingly wealthy Tel Aviv neighborhood are more likely to be seen corking a fine bottle of wine than waving a banner.
So what has happened in the past couple of weeks to bring this privileged population out in protest?
The supposed ill: The relocation of Haredi families to their neighborhood. Around 100 Ramat Aviv residents held a meeting at which they voiced alarm that Haredi families are moving in and opening Orthodox institutions such as kindergartens.
The residents resolved to pressure local businesses to stop Haredim from encouraging the laying of tefillin near their businesses. They also vowed to send vigilantes to check that nobody is handing out religious literature near schools, and even went so far as to map apartments where Haredim currently live and encourage people to rent apartments to others instead. They held protests against a Haredi influx.
Some residents at the meeting suggested trying to entice local Haredim in to secular culture.
“If anyone were to behave this way toward Israeli Arabs, the residents might raise a hue and cry, but when it comes to Haredim the gloves are off because attacking the ‘blacks’ is the fashion,” Haaretz journalist Gideon Levy, who is generally far from complimentary about the religious community, wrote in response to the protests.
Levy concluded: “Until we learn to accept those who are different or exceptional, we cannot call ourselves a tolerant and just society. Hatred of Haredim in Ramat Aviv, or Arabs in Safed, is the same disease. Is the cashier in your supermarket wearing hijab? That’s heartwarming. Next let’s let her wear a hat, or a wig.”
The big sticking point in all Israeli-Palestinian talks is the right of return for Palestinians, with Israelis across the political spectrum opposing this notion. It’s fascinating, therefore, that an Israeli lawmaker has decided that Israel should welcome some Palestinians. The twist is that he isn’t talking about a right of return, but rather the possibility of Israel becoming a sanctuary for Homosexual Palestinians. See the Ynet report on this intriguing proposal.
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