The past week, the streets of West Jerusalem were rife with scenes of violence. Segments of the ultra orthodox have been protesting the arrest of an ultra orthodox woman accused of starving her three year old child. She was facing jail time and the ultra orthodox community is up in arms about how the state could apply law to their community in such a clear way. The response has been riots, violent riots. The community has taken to the streets in nightly protests which include rock and dirty diaper throwing as well as setting garbage on fire. This has resulted in, “At least 18 police officers were hurt over the course of the evening riots, nine of them hospitalized in various conditions. Six demonstrators were also wounded”. One official commented that, “We haven’t seen such things since the first intifada in Tul Karm,” For more commentary on this incident please see Ami Kaufman’s brilliant piece in Haaretz.
The state has arrested protestors but they have been released within the same day with no crime filed against them. The bottom line is that the ultra orthodox have succeeded in exerting force against the state, evident from achieving house arrest today for the woman accused of the crime. One could say that violence in this situation has proven successful.
The settler movement routinely uses violence against the authorities of the state with little or no ramifications. I am not referring to acts of violence against Palestinians, which is a routine aspect of settler life. Rather, I am talking about settlers using force against the IDF, the Israel Police and the Israel Border Guard. I have seen settlers punch police officers at various outposts and experience no consequences for their actions.
On the other hand, non-violent leftist Israelis are often attacked with grave force by the state authorities. One needs to look no further than my videos as well as the weekly protests at Bil’in. In Bil’in there have been reported incidents of rock throwing but this is attributed to international activists and Palestinians, not Israelis. Why are the non-violent protestors attacked and jailed while the rightwing violent protestors are able to use violence to their benefit? The primary reason is clear; we are resisting the occupation and doing it with Palestinians. Anyone working with Palestinians is considered one of them in a meaningful way thus receiving the same repressive treatment from the authorities. Of course, one of our goals is to improve Israeli society and enforce the rule of law here, but that goes unnoted as we are treated as traitors, self-haters, in cahoots with the enemy.
It is a sign of the burgeoning militancy in Israeli society that violent protests by settlers and the ultra orthodox not only go unpunished, but actually achieve results. Sure, a majority of Israelis may tell you that settlers are awful, that the religious are parasites, but what is anyone doing about it? How sad a situation we are in that violence pays.
#1 by Chadwick Meyer on July 18th, 2009
You make a great contrast between the unequal enforcement of law. A nation cannot tolerate preferential use of justice like this, it undermines the entire legitimacy of the state. It’s so frustrating to see the authorities manipulated by the religious right and go to extreme lengths to tolerate their self destructive agenda.
#2 by dana on July 19th, 2009
I think Israel will come to greatly regret its short sighted policy of coddling the ultra-orthodox and national religious. The fault lines between them and israel’s secular are increasing by the day, undermining any consensus regarding the state and its instruments.. The extent of the gap is bound to increase because of the disproportionate birth rate.
I read somewhere that the ultra-orthodox as a group are now 20% of Israeli society – which would seem to be reflected in the percentage of votes shas, united torah etc win in Israeli elections. Another 5-10% can be counted among the national religious, including immigrants from north america (an underestimate, surely). Anyone has actual numbers?
I did BTW, a little back of the envelope calculation using a factor of 2.0 (a good average, i think) for disparate birth rates between the ultra-religious and secular . I get that in less than 20 years the ultra-orthodox and national religious together reach over 35% of the total jewish population. Add to that 10-15% Russian who are still likely to be right wing in one generation, and one gets half of the total population on the side that has limited respect for law. Given the increasing trend of emmigration by Israel’s secular (an underreported trend) one can only wonder what kind of government will be in place 10-15 years from now.
Looks like resistance to the forces of darkness is a pretty secure career path. You better find some way of making money with it, Joseph.