Al-Ahram Weekly 18 - 24 February 1999 Issue No. 417
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875

---

	Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Features Special Travel Living Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters

Israel at war over its 'Jewish character'

By Khaled Amayreh

West Jerusalem was the scene of huge demonstrations by Israel's Haredi Jews protesting recent high court rulings which they charge impinged on their religious life.

Clad in bulky black suits and broad-brimmed hats, an estimated 250,000 Haredi males held prayers in unison and attentively listened to rabbis who lashed out at the high court, accusing it of "corroding the Jewish character of our society".

The massive rally, which jammed several streets in West Jerusalem, was addressed by Menachem Porush, a former Knesset member of the Ultra-Orthodox Party, Agodat Yisrael, who told the huge gathering, "There is no law above the law of the Torah." Porush accused the high court of "persecuting Judaism and betraying traditions", charging that the court was "interfering with the relationship between man and God." Toward the end of the demonstration, he told reporters, "Don't think for a moment that this is the end of the campaign. It is only the beginning."

Meanwhile, a smaller demonstration of some 50,000 secular-minded Israelis was held not far from the Haredi protest. The demonstrators chanted slogans in defence of the high court and democracy and hit at what they said was "religious coercion" and "the cultural war that is being waged by the fanatics against the character of Israel."

Taking part in the demonstration were several lawmakers representing left and right-wing political parties, including Yossi Sarid of the Meretz, Rafael Etan of T'somet and even Israel's Minister of Justice Tshahi Hanegbi.

However, Israeli leaders who had earlier denounced Haredi attacks on the high court, such as Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, Labour Party Leader Ehud Barak and the Centrist Party leader Yitzhak Mordechai, chose to stay away, ostensibly to avoid any possible damage to their respective election campaigns.

Sarid, whose party traditionally spearheads opposition to Haredi hegemony, scolded the ultra-orthodox camp for trying to "decapitate democracy in Israel.

"This is a war, you must understand. This is a war over the character of our beloved country," said Sarid before the politically heterogeneous crowd, united only in its opposition to Haredi despotism.

Sarid strongly criticised Netanyahu, Barak and Mordechai for not participating in the demonstration. He singled out Barak for criticising the Haredis and for failing to face reality.

Tens of thousands of ultra-orthodox Jews demonstrating in Jerusalem this week (photo: AP)

"This is the arena for the struggle against Haredi blackmail," said Sarid, alluding to Barak's oft-repeated charges that the Haredi sector was reaping money and power at the expense of hard-working Israeli citizens.

Other than Sarid, however, other speakers, such as Gesher leader David Levy, spoke in a compromising tone, reflecting their unwillingness to challenge the Haredi camp.

The Haredis have a long list of grievances including recent high court decisions which enabled representatives from the despised reformist and conservative sects to sit on local religious councils. Needless to say, the orthodox establishment, including the powerful High Rabinnate, does not accord "Jewish legitimacy" to reformist and conservative Jews, often accusing them of blasphemy and endangering the survival of the Jewish people.

Porush, who organised the Haredi demonstration on Sunday, did not hesitate to describe reformist and conservative Jews as "those who brought spiritual disaster to the people of Israel."

Reform and conservative followers are often subjected to various forms of harassment by orthodox Jews, and are often barred from worshipping at the Wailing Wall. On several occasions, orthodox hooligans, backed by the Haredi leadership, have dragged off and even thrown human faeces at reform and conservative worshippers at the Wailing Wall.

Moreover, the Haredis have been angered by two recent court rulings; one allows kibbutz shopping centres to open on the Sabbath (the ultimate sacrilege in the view of the ultra-orthodox). The other paves the way for recognition by the state of conversions to Judaism performed at the hands of reformist and conservative rabbis. Haredi leaders see this as spelling disaster for the Jewish people and a prelude to assimilation.

Finally, there was the court recommendation that the state either begin to conscript Haredis into the army or make them carry out alternative public service, which the Haredi leadership views as a departure from the status quo, effectively extant since Israel's creation 50 years ago.

The secular establishment, for its part, with its various symbols such as the high court, often dismisses Haredi grievances as examples of their hostility to democracy and the cardinal principle that all Jews are equal before the law.

Indeed, many Israelis don't hide their belief that they are being exploited by the Haredi movement and its various political wings, such as Shas, Agodat Yisrael, Yahdut ha Torah and the National Religious Party. These movements and parties, it is often argued, wield power and influence far greater than their actual size and, through blackmail and smart political manipulation of the Israeli political system, regularly obtain huge financial allocations for their religious and social institutions estimated at hundreds of millions of dollars. All that, many Israelis have come to feel, is done at their expense one way or the other. The Haredis, it is believed, are allowed by the state to have their cake and eat it as well.

For while they are exempted from conscription, they enjoy preferential treatment in virtually all spheres of life and receive economic and social benefits unavailable to the vast majority of Israelis.

The exploitation of the secular by the religious originates in the theology of some religious movements. For example, the founding fathers of the National Religious Party (the Mifdal), such as Abraham Cook who immigrated to Palestine in 1925, taught his followers that secular Jews represented the donkey or colt upon which the Messiah, the redeemer, would ride. Hence, many, probably most, Haredis believe it is perfectly legitimate for religious Jews awaiting the redemption to use, exploit and manipulate secular Jews to expedite the coming of the Messiah and the attainment of redemption.

This Haredi ideology and the preferential treatment they receive prompted Barak to refer to them as "parasites and lice" who live off the pockets of hard-working Israeli men and women.

While Barak's analogy may be true in some respects, it is clear that no serious politician, let alone a candidate for prime minister, would ignore, much less challenge, the powerful Haredi camp. For, like it or not, the Haredis have proven they are a power to be reckoned with. It would be politically reckless if any politician was to turn his back on them.

Indeed, this explains the conspicuous absence from the demonstrations of the likes of Barak and Netanyahu. The two men probably calculated that the safest route was to stay away.

	weeklyweb@ahram.org.eg