Netanyahu urges restraint in segregated West Bank school row
Police fear mass Haredi protests over High Court decision to jail defiant Ashkenazi parents who refuse to desegregate an ultra-Orthodox girls' school in the settlement of Immanuel.
By Liel Kyzer, Jonathan Lis and Yair Ettinger Tags: Israel news West BankPrime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday appealed for restraint from all parties involved in the ongoing saga surrounding a segregated girls' school in the West Bank settlement of Immanuel.
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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu |
| Photo by: Emil Salman |
"At this critical moment, when Israel faces existential threats from our enemies, I call on all sides in the matter to show restraint, respect the law and solve the problem peacefully and amicably," Netanyahu said in a statement.
Israel Police are preparing for mass demonstrations on Thursday by ultra-Orthodox Jews, who plan to protest the High Court of Justice ruling two days earlier that threatened to jail defiant parents who refuse to desegregate the ultra-Orthodox Beit Yaakov school.
Police plan to deploy 10,000 officers across Israel in an effort to curb violence and keep the peace.
The High Court had earlier in the year instructed the school to figure out a way to run classes for both Ashkenazi and Sephardi girls without segregating them.
Jerusalem District Police Chief Aharon Franco on Wednesday approved a request from an ultra-Orthodox umbrella group to stage a protest in Jerusalem on Thursday in the wake of the High Court ruling.
Police will allow 20,000 demonstrators to gather in Jerusalem. The protest is planned to start at 1:30 P.M. on Yirmiyahu Street, from which the protesters will march to the jail within the city's Russian compound, where the defiant parents will be detained if they refuse to implement the court ruling to desegregate the school.
The demonstrators' procession is expected to pass through Yirmiyahu Street, Bar Ilan junction, Shmuel HaNavi and Shivtei Israel Streets on to Zmora Street, where the protest will be held. Alternate streets in the surrounding area will be closed from 1 P.M. until 5 P.M.
On Tuesday, the panel of justices headed by Edmond Levy ruled that the parents, all Ashkenazim, must notify the court by Wednesday of their intention to implement an earlier High Court ruling that required their daughters to share classrooms and teachers with peers of Sephardi origin. Failure to do so would result in a two-week jail term.
Police Commissioner David Cohen was expected to conduct a briefing on Wednesday to present ways to enforce the High Court ruling.
"The police are urging ultra-Orthodox community leaders to show responsibility and ask their community to exhibit restraint," a police spokesperson said.
Throughout the day on Wednesday mediators worked to get the Education Ministry, petitioners from the Noar Kahalacha nonprofit organization, which appealed to the High Court, and the parents to reach a compromise.
The discussions have focused mostly on reaching a deal to be implemented during the next school year and on the parents' request to open a new school in the settlement that would get limited government funding but be more autonomous.
Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef 'shocked'
Meanwhile, Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef on Wednesday made his first comments about the High Court ruling, saying, "I am shocked by the petition to the court." Rabbi Ovadia, whose son Rabbi Ya'akov Yosef is one of the petitioners against the school, is to decide Thursday whether to join the join the protests against the High Court ruling.
Earlier on Wednesday, a heated debate took place in the Knesset about the segregated school, one day after the High Court ruling on the matter.
MK Moshe Gafni (United Torah Judaism), who met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Justice Minister Yaakov Neeman, told the Knesset: "We, the ultra-Orthodox community, will not respect rulings, not of lower courts and not of the High Court, that contradict the Torah."
Gafni went on to say that there is an opportunity to prevent the parents from being jailed. "These pictures [of the parents being jailed] will be published worldwide and there will be no escape from thinking about what happened in other countries at other times when ultra-Orthodox Jews with side locks and beards went to jail."
Education Minister Gideon Sa'ar told the Knesset that court rulings must be respected, even when one disagrees with their content.
"I still this issue will be resolved," Sa'ar said. "I think the solution isn't that difficult or complex, especially since we are talking about a school year that ends in two weeks. I don't see a reason not to implement this ruling."
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Haredim are more of an obstacle to peace than Hamas
This will be like Tienanmen square! Why cant a religious minority educate their children as they wish. This has nothing to do with racism. Sephardi kids are welcome at the school if they adhere to the religious guidelines! Racism was picked up by te petioners and grabbed by the New Israel Fund that funded the suit simply as a way to bash the religious way of life. Typical Israeli intransigence and lack of diplomatic savvy... The high Court should not have accepted the petition. They are fanning the flames of a painful unnecessary religious civil war!
They justifiably fear admitting girls whose family values are different would corrupt their daughters. The issue is cultural not racial!
The only corruption here is being perpetrated by the parents of the ashkanazie girls by teaching their children hatred and intolerance. If they want to segregate themselves, then let them, but not on my dime. If they continue to be funded by the state, then they need to pay for it themselves.
The government funds religious schools and secular schools. I could be wrong, but it's my understanding that Beit Yaacov schools in Israel are more or less public religious schools. If this was happening in the U.S. the parents would lose in every court.
If the State funds a school, they can condition those funds as they like. But if any State in the world forces parents to send their children to specific schools against their will, there would be condemnation of such a State. When the world media reveals the truth, and pictures of nursing babies are being torn from their mothers who are being sent to jail for not submitting to send their children to a secular school, there will be a great world condemnation for the State that pays the salary for such wicked judgements. http://www.gokoogle.com/newsdetail.php?id=94
It is unacceptable.
and United Torah Judaism can decide whether the Torah wants gender or ethnic segregation in Israel. Back to the 17th C...
This case is not about desegregation but about halachic questions such as Tzniut, dress code, derech ertez and so on. There are parents who have a stricter hashkafa as exists in any school where this is part of a school policy. The very fact that the school in question has 35% of its students from sefardi background shows that this is not a dispute between Ashkenazim and Sefardim. Everybody who his interested can get the details from the various Haredi newspapers and magazins. It's sad that Ha'aretz doesn't stick to the facts but stirs a "racial" dish of information. As always, for the secular luminaries, the Haredi masses are retarded, superstitious, bigott, extremist and of course, racist as well. Have you ever thought why you are loosing more and more ground in this society?
Is this a private or public school? also school not in Israel but under Israeli control so this could affect other groups. As an American I'm for democracy and against any religion having too much control in government but people should be allowed to practise their religion freely with limited restrictions from government.
it is interesting to note that the said school is actually 33% sephardi. This is not racial segragation rather religious segregation. The other school is nowhere near on the same level religiously. I myself would not send to their school, but still respect the choice to bring up their kids on a jigher level of judaism. Why does the haaretz never write the story properly.
As citizens they should be allowed to peacefully protest. If they choose to become violent, however, remember the historic Israeli government prescription for how to deal with protesters: " break bones".
Really, its quite simple, the education ministry should cut all budgets to schools that insists on the ethnic segregation, and you can bet your last doller that they will change their tune quickly.
whatever segregation there is, is the continuation of ancient tradition where devoted people lived separately, not from black or whites, but from secular men. It is not so unique a tradition. Amish live separately in US. Is "segregation" the right word for Amish men? We have a misfortune of a myopic judge filled with desire to burn believers at stake. The only thing he will achieve is put in prison people who refuse to commit what they understand as more grave sin than to go to prison. With all due respect, this kind of decision making raises questions about qualification of judicial in Israel.
This article fails to elaborate on the reasons for segregation. On what basis do these ultra conservatives make their rulings for segregation? What harm will integration lead to?
On what halachic basis is this being done? And what exactly is being done? Is it so the students can observe Ashkenazi and Sephardi minhag? What is actually going on? If it is only Ashkenazi that are actively segregating, what do the Sephardi in the community say?
court ordering parents to send their child to a specific school!!! And arresting them!!! Who removed parents right to educate their children and to choose the proper schoo?
When the world sees these photos of ultra-orthodox jews getting arrested...FOR RACISM... the world will cheer. It is about time that justice is served on those who cause most of the problems in Israel/Palistine. I applaud the Israeli judicial system in enforcing the "desegregation" ruling. You talk about sephardim girls being a bad influence on your girls. This is the most rediculous assumption I've ever heard. If anything, it is the other way around. All I can see is that you teach your children hatred, and racism. You are a violent people, and I look forward to seeing more of your flock in prison, and your children in foster care!
and for a supposedly Jewish person to offer an opinion when light on facts and understanding, your ferocity and response demonstrates inner hatred of whom you are not. Foster care may have had a better influence on you!
Great ! then do not protect them. Let the Arabs deal with them! There are no obligations to people who don't care about the State of Israel laws.
Isn't it about time that average Israelis said "enough is enough!" These Jewish Taliban dressed up like Polish clowns are a dangerous cancer to Israeli society. Gafni said that he and his followers would not obey the law if it contradicts the Torah. Allowing religious fundamentalists to determine what laws they will follow is an affront to your democracy. These ultra orthodox fanatics and the settler movement only serve to make Israel look like Iran or Saudi Arabia.
One can't be serving G-d,without serving ISRAEL,the NATION OF GOD...GIVE THEM A GUN TO PROTECT THE STATE,GIVE THEM A SHOVEL TO WORK THE LAND, GIVE THEM ONLY THE BENEFITS EVERYBODY HAS FROM ISRAEL...THEIR "GODLINESS" IS ONLY AN EXCUSE NOT TO WORK FOR THE STATE
A community in israel states complicitly that the state of israel has no legal or moral authority over said community. Said community further states that only those rulings of the state of israel that said community are prepared to accept will be respected. Dammed Arabs. Oh wait, not Arabs; Jews. Thats alright then. Carry on.
Please correct your facts :The parents are not all Ashkenazim.This is the irony of it all.The Haredi community feel they have just not been understood.
The "segregationsist" will be allowed to do their thing. The state needs to do its thing : cut the public funding , cut supplying infra structure , ghousing subsidies , police protection ( IDF protection), social/welfare subsidies , health coverage etc... For one to be a citizen with benefits , one must abide by the law .
Only this time it's the Hasidim that are black. Just look at their clothing!
When Israel finally settles its dispute with the Palestinians, it should make sure these settlements end up in the newly formed Palestinian state. We will then see if these outlaws will follow the Palestinian state's orders or not. Lets see if Israeli politicians have some balls to finally stand up to these anti Israeli haredi communities.