t wasn’t
the first time that Doron Matalon had been verbally harassed on the way
home. A young soldier, she had boarded a bus on December 28 (2011), not
far from the military base where she served. Shortly before reaching her
stop, a 45-year-old man accosted her and demanded that she move to the
back of the bus. The man was demanding that Matalon comply with
unwritten rules prescribed by ultra-orthodox Jews in Israel, decrees
which require women to sit at the back of the bus or use different
pedestrian routes or sidewalks than men do.
Matalon however had no intention of abiding by the
edicts and refused to move – out of principle, as she told the Israeli
daily Haaretz. And because the back of the bus was stuffy. The
man immediately began insulting Matalon, calling her a whore, and others
quickly joined in the harassment. The bus-driver stopped and called the
police. The man, a father of 11, was arrested and charged on December 29
before being released against a bond worth the equivalent of Rs 2.5 lakh.
He is not allowed to ride the bus until his court date.
It is just a single incident but it shows a growing rift
in Israeli society. Just 10 per cent of the six million people in Israel
are ultra-orthodox and a percentage of that group is extreme and
militant. It is a small minority but extremely vocal and becoming more
so. Whereas Tel Aviv is almost radically western and secular, the
ultra-orthodox are attempting to impose their world view – a primary
element of which is gender separation – on the public life of an ever
greater number of places within the country.
On December 29, the Haredi, as the ultra-orthodox are
known, had planned a demonstration in the town of Beit Shemesh, just
west of Jerusalem, in order to promote their brand of social order. When
it was cancelled at the last minute, riots ensued. Garbage dumpsters
were lit on fire, several demonstrators threw stones and three were
arrested. No injuries were reported.
Even prior to this incident, the town had become
something of a symbol of the societal clash. On December 27, thousands
of Israelis took to the streets in protest against a recent incident in
the town which saw an eight-year-old girl spat on and insulted by
ultra-orthodox men on her way to school because they considered her
clothing to be insufficiently modest. “Israel is not Tehran”, read some
of the signs held by the protesters. Prior to the protest, President
Shimon Peres had urged widespread participation.
Incidents of harassment have not been limited to the
Israeli hinterlands. Women in Jerusalem too have been bombarded with
stones or spittle for not wearing long enough skirts or for not covering
their heads. Indeed even religious Jews have begun to resist the trend.
Just a few weeks ago a rabbi called Uri Ayalon began a media campaign
after he noticed that even modest advertising campaigns have been
altered such that women are no longer shown – replaced either by objects
or by male models.
“It is the first time in the history of the Israeli
state that something like this has happened,” Sergio DellaPergola, a
professor of demography and Jewish history at the Hebrew University of
Jerusalem, told Spiegel Online. In recent days Prime Minister Binyamin
Netanyahu has said that such intimidation of women is unacceptable.
Israel, he told the country’s Parliament, will take action “against
anyone who harasses women, anyone who harasses people in the public
sphere”.
The recent clashes however put Netanyahu in a difficult
position. Religious parties are a key part of his conservative governing
coalition and his political survival depends in part on the
ultra-orthodox. DellaPergola calls the extreme religious the “decisive
10 per cent”.
Furthermore, the ultra-orthodox were granted a protected
status when the state of Israel was founded. In order to secure their
support for the establishment of the country, they were granted broad
privileges by the first Israeli prime minister, David Ben-Gurion. They
were exempted from military service and receive substantial financial
support from the state so that they don’t have to work and can devote
their time to the study of religious texts.
Experts have different explanations for the most recent
wave of radicalisation. Rabbi Uri Ayalon says that the ultra-orthodox
are in crisis. “The Internet, the labour market and the media have
exposed youth to tremendous influences from which their parents want to
protect them. Their weakness makes them more militant,” he says.
Mordechai Kremnitzer, from the Israel Democracy
Institute, says however that the recent problems have come as a result
of demography and a relative growth in the power of the ultra-orthodox.
On average, the Haredi have three times as many children as other
couples. And though they represent but 10 per cent of the population,
roughly a quarter of all first-graders come from ultra-orthodox
families. Because of this, says Kremnitzer, they have “more influence
than ever before” on the Netanyahu coalition.
Ayalon and Kremnitzer agree that progress made in the
negotiations with the Palestinians as well as the 2005 clearing of
settlements in the Gaza Strip also radicalised the orthodox. Both have
made clear to them that their vision – that of a Greater Israel achieved
through settlements – is no longer possible. “The return to a supposed
authentic Judaism has become a replacement ideology. The various
religious currents are now wrestling over who is the more puritan,” say
the experts.
DellaPergola fears that more violence and aggression
could be on the way unless Netanyahu clearly shows where he stands.
Already, tougher penalties against the discrimination of women have been
promised. But Israel’s head of police fears that won’t be enough. He
would like to see Israeli rabbis join together in denouncing such
radicalisation. For the moment however that appears to be unlikely.
