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Fundamentalist
vigilante movement growing within Israel against secular Jews Hanna
Pasternak, 58, an Orthodox Jew and feminist, said she has suffered a series of
humiliating confrontations with ultra-Orthodox men when she has chosen to sit
at the front of the bus. "In
one incident, a man demanded I sit at the back, but I refused," she said.
"The journey lasted an hour, and he didn't stop shouting at me for one
minute. He called me various bad names." http://www.jkcook.net/Articles2/0330.htm Israeli
women fear writing on the wall 'Modesty
patrols' in Haredim neighborhoods have started a vigilante movement that
targets those who fail to live up to their moral laws Jonathan
Cook The
National <http://thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll/frontpage>
September
09, 2008 Known
locally as Haredim (literally, "God-fearing people"), they are the
fastest growing community in But
faced with what they see as the threat of modern culture, sections of the
Haredim are demanding a more rigorous enforcement of Jewish religious laws, or
halakha. Under the label of "modesty patrols", groups of ultra-Orthodox
men are turning into vigilantes, targeting in particular Haredi women whose
behaviour they disapprove of. Reports
of women being attacked on the street or in their homes have been steadily
rising in the local media. In
one widely publicised incident over the summer, a 14-year-old girl from Upper
Beitar, a large ultra-Orthodox settlement in the West Bank south of The
girl told a paramedic treating her that she had been repeatedly threatened
before the attack. According to local media, the girl was wearing loose-fitting
trousers at the time of the attack. Several
rabbis have denounced women as immodest for wearing trousers. One of the most
prominent, Rabbi Shlomi Aviner, ruled last month: "In general, a woman
must always wear modest clothes even when she is alone and in the dark." Last
week an ultra-Orthodox man, Elhanan Buzaglo, was indicted on suspicion of
breaking into the home of a woman in an ultra-Orthodox neighbourhood of According
to the charge sheet: "The defendant and the others shoved the complainant,
dropped her to the floor, beat her, slammed her head against the floor and
kicked her all over her body." Other
complaints against Buzaglo soon came to light, including an attempt to run down
a girl with a car. Inat
Horvi, of the Religious Action Centre, associated with the more liberal Reform
Judaism movement, said modesty patrols have probably been a feature of Haredi
life for decades. But
she said there was a growing trend of religious extremism among the
ultra-Orthodox, as well as more generally in Israeli society. "Older
ultra-Orthodox women report that their daughters cannot wear clothes that they
themselves wore when they were their age," she said. She
said that in most Haredi communities men and women remain strictly separate in
public places, with examples of segregated shops and even pavements. The
modesty patrols have also been running a campaign against MP3 players,
threatening store owners and in some cases burning down shops. Not
all communities, however, are taking the growing wave of vigilantism quietly.
In Beit Shemesh, a town west of The
demonstration followed two incidents involving the patrols. In one, five
ultra-Orthodox men attacked a man and woman for sitting together on a bus, and
in the other, a family was threatened because their television screen was
visible from the street. Women also say they have been warned not to jog in the
town. The
key battleground for the modesty patrols has been the segregation of men and
women on public buses, known as mehadrin or "kosher" lines. Modesty
patrols insist that women sit at the back of buses only. The
Religious Action Centre is currently petitioning the Supreme Court to force the
national bus company, Egged, and the transport ministry to end their official
co-operation with the practice on 30 routes. Many additional routes are
informally segregated, enforced by ultra-Orthodox passengers. "We
do not, in principle, dispute the right of the Haredim to demand segregated
buses inside their own communities," Ms Horvi said. "But our petition
is designed to stop Egged and the transport ministry from using public funds to
enforce segregation on services open to the general public." Ministry
officials have washed their hands of the issue, saying the mehadrin lines are the
outcome of agreements between Egged and the Haredim. However, the court has
ordered a response to the petition from both Egged and the transport ministry
by the end of this month. Ms
Horvi said a growing number of bus routes between major towns have become
segregated in the past few years following demands from ultra-Orthodox
passengers, although none is marked as segregated. "Egged
has caved in because it knows that the Haredim feel strongly enough that they
will stop using the services and set up their own unlicensed bus lines. It also
knows that in most cases the non-Haredi public has no choice but to carry on
using the lines, even when they are segregated." A
dozen women who have suffered threats or beatings are party to the petition.
One, Naomi Ragen, a 58-year-old writer, has termed the segregated routes
"Taliban lines". Hanna
Pasternak, 58, an Orthodox Jew and feminist, said she has suffered a series of
humiliating confrontations with ultra-Orthodox men when she has chosen to sit
at the front of the bus. "In
one incident, a man demanded I sit at the back, but I refused," she said.
"The journey lasted an hour, and he didn't stop shouting at me for one
minute. He called me various bad names." Later
he turned to other men and talked to them in Yiddish, a language spoken by
older central European Jews. "He didn't realise that I understood
everything he said. I heard him telling the men that they should find out where
I lived and teach me a lesson. I left the bus terrified." Not
all rabbis agree with the new emphasis on modesty. Israel
Rosen, a leading settler rabbi, decried the Haredi tradition of omitting
women's names from newspapers and invitations. "Is there no psychological
connection between the hypocrisy of concealing the name and hiding the face
under the 'Taliban-style' veil?" __._,_.___
<http://www.incredimail.com/index.asp?id=109094&rui=93607731>
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