I was cheered up this morning as I read in Haaretz that the state is being taken to task in court over the mahedrin bus lines. Egged which runs these lines is a PUBLIC transportation provider. These bus lines are meant for Haredim who want separate seating for women and men. Of course the women have to sit in the back. These bus lines should be illegal. The state doesn't see a problem. They say the seating is strictly voluntary. Tell that to the three women that have been beaten and verbally abused for not sitting in the back of the bus. Kudos to Naomi Ragen, well known author and the IRAC ( Israel Religious Action Committee) for taking up the cause. Naomi Ragen was one of the women abused by the Haredi men. All of the women were religious. So its not a case of some upstart secular women out to cause trouble. Until women will be wearing burkas they won't be religious enough for these Haredi bullies.
While we're on the subject of women I had to chuckle about a small article in the paper. The American Jewish Congress wanted to place an ad in Ms magazine promoting Israeli women. Our Foreign minister Tzipi Livni, our Supreme Court President Dorit Benisch and Knesset speaker Dalia Itzik would have been in the ad with the caption that reads This is Israel. Ms refused saying it would create a firestorm. Do you remember when they used to have balls?
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5 comments:
It's not because they have no balls. It's because they spelled her name wrong.....
it's spelled "Zippy"!!
I read somewhere that Ms. Magazine said that it objected to the fact that the ad featured Israeli women from only one political party, so it was unbalanced. That sounds a bit feeble to me.
This reminds me of the Jewish-American writer Alan Kaufman, who's also an artist. He has a show of his Jewish- and Israeli-themed paintings at a gallery in San Francisco. The gallery owner wouldn't publish the catalogue that was prepared for the show because he objected to the word "Zionism" in the title ("Visionary Expressionism: A Zionist Art"), and to the pro-Zionist views expressed in the catalogue's essays.
I think these two cases are similar. Both the gallery and the magazine are willing to include Jews or Israelis (Ms. Magazine was planning to run an article on Livni in a future issue), but they won't go further and actually praise or celebrate Israel or Zionism. That's now a taboo. Too bad.
As for the Haredim, well, I have no sympathy for them. They make ludicrous demands that must be fulfilled, yet their children don't even serve in the army. Maybe they should be reminded about JFK's old saw: "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country..."
Well, two of them are from the same political party, but that party's name does not appear anywhere in the ad. Of course, Ms. had no problem with the Nancy Pelosi story "This is a Speaker." I guess it's because the average Ms. reader has no idea what party Pelosi belongs to, but say Dalia & Zippy, and all they think is "Must vote Kadima..."
Joseph, LOL.
By the way, in my first comment, I should have written "he objected to the word 'Zionist'" instead of "he objected to the word 'Zionism'." This is a minor point, but I think it's worth correcting, in order to avoid even the slightest confusion.
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