Jewish gender segregation turns violent

**observer7** · 27 Dec 11,, 04:14

Jewish gender segregation turns violent | Herald Sun

CLASHES have erupted between police and several hundred ultra-Orthodox Jews from a town near Jerusalem who are campaigning for men and women to be segregated.

Israeli police had stepped up their patrols in Beit Shemesh following unrest sparked by discrimination against women imposed by a radical fringe of the town's religious Jews.

Several demonstrators were taken in for questioning on Monday after police and journalists were roughed up and

Residents of Beit Shemesh, a town of some 80,000 people 30 kilometres west of Jerusalem, showered police and television crews with eggs and also set fire to garbage bins.

The majority of the town's residents are religious Jews, among them a large and growing ultra-Orthodox community.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said one policeman was slightly hurt by a thrown stone.

Earlier, Rosenfeld said a man from Beit Shemesh had been arrested over an assault on Sunday on a TV crew filming a sign instructing women to cross the street to avoid walking past a synagogue.

Other signs posted in an ultra-Orthodox neighbourhood instructed women to dress "modestly" in long sleeves and calf-length skirts.

The Haaretz newspaper said the cameraman from commercial station Channel Two was thrown to the ground and his sound recordist grabbed by the throat in the attack by ultra-Orthodox men.

Other journalists were also attacked and a police car stoned.

"A male was arrested and is being questioned in connection with the incident which took place on the Channel Two team," Rosenfeld told AFP.

Unnamed ultra-Orthodox activists representing the Beit Shemesh community issued a statement in which they spoke out against the scuffles and stoning events, but blamed it on the media.

"We condemn violence in any form and shape, but at the same time condemn the wild incitement of the media that initiates deliberate provocations in order to make the peaceful, quiet and tolerant residents, who live their lives according to their beliefs - look bad," read the statement.

Images broadcast on Channel Two last week of an ultra-Orthodox man in Beit Shemesh spitting at a woman led to his arrest on Saturday night. He was freed by magistrates on Sunday.

The same broadcast featured a religious eight-year-old girl terrified to walk the short distance between her home and school, since she is subject to verbal abuse of ultra-Orthodox men who claim her attire is not sufficiently "modest".

On Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to crack down on acts of gender separation and ultra-orthodox violence towards women.

The violence came after a wave of incidents elsewhere in Israel in which women have been compelled to sit at the back of segregated buses serving ultra-Orthodox areas or get off, despite court rulings that women may sit where they please.

Women's rights activists say the ultra-Orthodox - around 10 per cent of the population - have become increasingly radical over gender segregation and are winning concessions that harm women.

Meanwhile, secular activists have organised a demonstration against the ultra-Orthodox coercion and violence, to take place in Beit Shemesh this evening and say they expect 10,000 participants.

I guess religious extremism share certain similarities.

**Bigfella** · 27 Dec 11,, 07:14

Just further proof that Islam is a savage & medieval religion that has no place in a modern, civilized world.

**xinhui** · 27 Dec 11,, 07:40

huh?

**Bigfella** · 27 Dec 11,, 08:19

Originally Posted by xinhui

huh?

Think about it for a while, you'll get there.

**bigross86** · 27 Dec 11,, 08:31

BigFella, is that honestly the most constructive thing you can come up with? All religions when taken to extremes have no place in this world, and I've been fighting and protesting against Jewish extremism for quite a while now. Why turn a thread in what could be an interesting discussion to a low blow against Islam bashers?

**crooks** · 27 Dec 11,, 12:48

It's a perfectly acceptable statement. If this was Iran we'd have dozens of comments on the "religion of peace" and Islamic extremists. But no, it's in the self-proclaimed "liberal bastion of the Middle East". All religions do have extremists but then that's what those of us defending Europe's Muslim minority have been saying for years, nice to see you agree. The test for Israel is, like with the nutter settlers and the welfare queen rabbis how the government responds - Netenyahu has made welcome comments but do these guys vote for members of his coalition? His feet should be held to the fire and frankly there should be soldiers on the street enforcing civil laws if neccisary. Israel cannot afford theocratic conclaves, in PR, territorial or moral terms.

**Doktor** · 27 Dec 11,, 15:16

BF, Crooks, are you deliberately equaling the two? While their stances are wrong I don't think it is the same.

These are Jews in Israel. A small group that should be cracked and according to the article it is what is done.

To my knowledge, gender segregation was never a case in Israel, they even had a female PM.

There are extremists everywhere and obviously these nuts don't have a ground. Should stay that way, I agree.
In their defense these nuts still haven't stoned someone, nor forced someone how to dress.

**bigross86** · 27 Dec 11,, 15:38

Wrong, Dok, they already have forced their women to dress a certain way. There are Jewish "Taliban" that walk around in burqhas and are covered head to toe in black cloth. They may not have stoned someone yet, but they're headed there. They already throw stones on passing cars and on the police. I've got a friend who used to be a cop. When there was talk of having the gay parade in Jerusalem, the ultra-Orthodox went crazy, someone dropped a microwave out a window that missed her head by about 6 inches. Let's not forget that they also rioted and started burning the streets (on the Sabbath), when the city of Jerusalem decided they were going to open a public parking lot on Saturdays. These scum need to be smacked down and brought into the 21st century real quick. They need to learn that their word is no longer law.

**crooks** · 27 Dec 11,, 15:44

Originally Posted by Doktor

BF, Crooks, are you deliberately equaling the two? While their stances are wrong I don't think it is the same.

These are Jews in Israel. A small group that should be cracked and according to the article it is what is done.

To my knowledge, gender segregation was never a case in Israel, they even had a female PM.

There are extremists everywhere and obviously these nuts don't have a ground. Should stay that way, I agree.
In their defense these nuts still haven't stoned someone, nor forced someone how to dress.

"The same broadcast featured a religious eight-year-old girl terrified to walk the short distance between her home and school, since she is subject to verbal abuse of ultra-Orthodox men who claim her attire is not sufficiently "modest"."

They ARE equal or there abouts in many ways, both have the same quantatitive goals (repression of women, demonization of sex, death or shunning to homosexuals etc), just in the name of different Gods. Religious extremists are more or less identical regardless of which imaginary friend they talk to, only difference in their success or failure is whether there's a secular, nationalist, civil society strong enough to repulse their repugnant ideas from become a moral prism to view society. Israel is a nation of laws with a proud secular tradition that must be defended. It's just interesting how those who consider Islam the big brown threat to Western Culture (and in it's extremist forms they are certainly right, it is incompatable with Western Values) never even acknowledge these psychopaths.

**Doktor** · 27 Dec 11,, 18:25

The thing is this is still news in Israel.

Ben, I see your point, the thing is we all have wackos around.

**bigross86** · 27 Dec 11,, 18:27

This is news because the media has decided this is what needs to be on the daily agenda. Not a minute too soon, if you ask me, most likely far too late for anyone to be able to change anything anymore

**Parihaka** · 27 Dec 11,, 18:40

Originally Posted by crooks

It's a perfectly acceptable statement. If this was Iran we'd have dozens of comments on the "religion of peace" and Islamic extremists. But no, it's in the self-proclaimed "liberal bastion of the Middle East". All religions do have extremists but then that's what those of us defending Europe's Muslim minority have been saying for years, nice to see you agree. The test for Israel is, like with the nutter settlers and the welfare queen rabbis how the government responds - Netenyahu has made welcome comments but do these guys vote for members of his coalition? His feet should be held to the fire and frankly there should be soldiers on the street enforcing civil laws if neccisary. Israel cannot afford theocratic conclaves, in PR, territorial or moral terms.

There are indeed nutters everywhere. I think there are two reasons why this doesn't attract the same venom Islam does is because firstly the anti-Jewish crowd tends to be segregated off into their own forums and secondly the ultra-orthodox Jews have yet to fly planes into buildings and blow trains and buses the way the ultra-orthodox Muslims have.
Kind of like equating the statement 'those damn snails have eaten my cabbages' with 'the neighbour's sprayed DDT on my garden'.

**Doktor** · 27 Dec 11,, 18:46

The media can decide all they want but it wont be news for KSA or Iran

Want something more weird?

Caption: Greek Orthodox priests swear in former banker Lucas Papademos as the new prime minister.
Credit: Kostas Tsironis / Bloomberg

Greece is EU member state.

**Mihais** · 27 Dec 11,, 18:52

Pari +1. There are about 0 chances Jewish nutters will ever influence anything outside Israel and even Israel is a long shot for them.

In principle the 2 sorts of nutters are the same.What some miss are just numbers(boring stuff,compared with the opportunity to pat themselves on the back).For every Jew wacko there are 500 Muslim wackos.I might exagerate,by reducing the proportion

.

Dok,what's your point?

**Doktor** · 27 Dec 11,, 19:15

Originally Posted by Mihais

Pari +1. There are about 0 chances Jewish nutters will ever influence anything outside Israel and even Israel is a long shot for them.

In principle the 2 sorts of nutters are the same.What some miss are just numbers(boring stuff,compared with the opportunity to pat themselves on the back).For every Jew wacko there are 500 Muslim wackos.I might exagerate,by reducing the proportion

.

Put in % and you will get same numbers

Dok,what's your point?

About the pic? That's the only government in the western world that I am aware of that swears in front of religious leaders. The man in the background is the Greek president.