How 'bout them Jewish Extremists?

[RobDownSouth]

Grotesque

A shy 8-year-old schoolgirl has unwittingly found herself on the front line of Israel's latest religious war.

Naama Margolese is a ponytailed, bespectacled second-grader who is afraid of walking to her religious Jewish girls school for fear of ultra-Orthodox extremists who have spat on her and called her a whore for dressing "immodestly."

Her plight has drawn new attention to the simmering issue of religious coercion in Israel, and the increasing brazenness of extremists in the insular ultra-Orthodox Jewish community.

"When I walk to school in the morning I used to get a tummy ache because I was so scared … that they were going to stand and start yelling and spitting," the pale, blue-eyed girl said softly in an interview with The Associated Press Monday. "They were scary. They don't want us to go to the school."

The girls school that Naama attends in the city of Beit Shemesh, to the west of Jerusalem, is on the border between an ultra-Orthodox neighborhood and a community of modern Orthodox Jewish residents, many of them American immigrants.

The ultra-Orthodox consider the school, which moved to its present site at the beginning of the school year, an encroachment on their territory. Dozens of black-hatted men jeer and physically accost the girls almost daily, claiming their very presence is a provocation.

Beit Shemesh has long experienced friction between the ultra-Orthodox, who make up about half the city's population, and other residents. And residents say the attacks at the girls' school, attended by about 400 students, have been going on for months. Last week, after a local TV channel reported about the school and interviewed Naama's family, a national uproar ensued.

The televised images of Naama sobbing as she walked to school shocked many Israelis, elicited statements of outrage from the country's leadership, sparked a Facebook page with nearly 10,000 followers dedicated to "protecting little Naama" and plans for a demonstration later Tuesday in her honor. As the case has attracted attention, extremists have heckled and thrown eggs and rocks at journalists descending on town.

"Who's afraid of an 8-year-old student?" said Sunday's main headline in the leading Yediot Ahronot daily.

Beit Shemesh's growing ultra-Orthodox population has erected street signs calling for the separation of sexes on the sidewalks, dispatched "modesty patrols" to enforce a chaste female appearance and hurled stones at offenders and outsiders. Walls of the neighborhood are plastered with signs exhorting women to dress modestly in closed-necked, long-sleeved blouses and long skirts.

Naama's case has been especially shocking because of her young age and because she attends a religious school and dresses with long sleeves and a skirt. Extremists, however, consider even that outfit, standard in mainstream Jewish religious schools, to be immodest.

The abuse and segregation of women in Israel in ultra-Orthodox areas is nothing new, and critics accuse the government of turning a blind eye.

The ultra-Orthodox are perennial king-makers in Israeli coalition politics — two such parties serve as key members of the ruling coalition. They receive generous government subsidies, and police have traditionally been reluctant to enter their communities.

The ultra-Orthodox Jews make up 10% of Israel's population and are its fastest growing sector because of a high birth rate. In the past, they have generally confined their strict lifestyle to their own neighborhoods. But they have become increasingly aggressive in trying to impose their ways on others, as their population has grown and spread to new areas.

Last week, a young Israeli woman caused a nationwide uproar when she refused a religious man's order to move to the back of a bus.

In Beit Shemesh, parents in Naama's school take turns escorting their daughters into school property to protect them. The parents, too, have been cursed and spat upon.

"They want to push us out of Beit Shemesh. They want to take over the city," said Margolese.

In accordance with Literotica General Board tradition, Ellie "Jews are victims, dammit! VICTIMS!" Talbot and the rest of the Israel-can-do-no-wrong committee will be along shortly to give us a heapin' helping of "but....but...MUSLIMS!"

 

[Liar]

I'll give you a but...but...CHRISTIANS!

Sounds like something straight outta an Eastern Orthodox playbook.

Only difference is that those guys were under half a century of communism, which codified secular norms into the law books. But get out in the countryside, where the hammer and sickle couldn't be arsed to bother, and it's the same crap.

 

[firenzi]

The ultra-orthodox extremists are nothing new. They hiss and spit and shout and throw things. The last vid out before this one they were throwing lawn chairs at female tourists.

Extremists of any religion are nutbars.

 

[Liar]

I think it's the hats. Cooks the brain.

 

[JBCorbell]

The ultra-orthodox extremists are nothing new. They hiss and spit and shout and throw things. The last vid out before this one they were throwing lawn chairs at female tourists.

Extremists of any religion are nutbars.

Thank you. Only the name of the religion changes. The atrocities remain the same. Jewish, Muslim, Christian (shrugs) all the same.

 

[The Mutt]

In the name of God.