We keep being told that Israel needs to be supported over Palestine because if Palestinians are ever granted independence, their treatment of women will be barbaric. That is undoubtedly true. Israel's attitude to women, however, is just as hateful and demeaning. The gall of the Haredim woman-haters is such as to allow them to erase female leaders from press release photos.
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| This is how the photo initially looked |
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| And this is the sanitized version with the images of Hillary Clinton and Audrey Thomason photoshopped out |
I don't want to hear anybody come here to screech about the so-called religious sensibilities of the nasty freakazoids who insulted women in this way. If they find the photo hurtful to their fanatical feelings, they could have avoided publishing it altogether. However, in our Western Civilization women now play an important role in all areas of existence. It is extremely insulting to have our reality that we worked hard to create being manipulated in this way to satisfy a bunch of miserable woman-haters.
Today, on the anniversary of the USSR's victory over the Nazi Germany, I want to remind my Jewish brothers and sisters that a very short time ago somebody also found their very existence insulting and attempted to erase them all from existence.
17 comments:
That newspaper is based in New York, I believe.
This is even more shocking.
With the JMP The Maoist's standard, Palestine is an oppressor nation, an Palestine should not separate to Isreal, like Quebec! ;)
We can take this argument far enough to the point where every single person on the planet will be an oppressor and shouldn't struggle for freedom.
And according to The Daily Kos (check their Midday Open Thread), what they did is illegal
Yes, I read that the White House releases all photos with a statement that prohibits any alteration of the photos for any reason.
The White House isn't likely to do anything about it, though, because freedom of religion is paramount.
The truth is that I am not shocked because I grew up knowing about the ultra-Orthodox traditions, although I am not ultra-Orthodox. If you look at the Brooklyn based Jewish newspaper The Yated Neeman,you would see that there is not a single woman featured in that "newspaper". This is taking the idea of modesty to the extreme, basically saying that a woman showing her face is wrong. According to them women should be barefoot and pregnant. The point is that the reason why I am not outraged by this is, because I am so familiar with this practice that I am not shocked. This is one reason why I am skeptical of religion
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This reminds me of how bemused I was when I discovered the invention of the "kosher" cell phone, with the camera and texting options removed to "preserve women's virtue". A couple hundred bucks extra for a phone with no features besides calling, receive calls, voicemail, and a calculator and a clock? Status symbol nonsense.
Oh, and believe it or not, a lot of people on other blogs are mistaking that newspaper for a Muslim newspaper. Even with the word "Hasidic" included to describe the paper.
People are idiots.
OT hey check out how many USSR regiments there were in Europe compared to other allies on 10 May 1945, it is quite interesting. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Allied_army_positions_on_10_May_1945.png ... I'd forgotten that Romania was a German ally ... I'd have liked to experience the news of WWII in real time although not the war itself. My father would listen to Hitler speeches on short wave radio and also Nazi rallies in the northern US, before we decided to go in on the other side, of course. Noam Chomsky says there were pro Nazi events in his very own neighborhood. Dad was living in Mex DF when Stalingrad fell and he says the parade was the largest thing he has ever seen.
Thank you for the link, friend! It's totally going into a separate post.
Only, unlike Gaza, Israel isn't under Haredi rule. They can leave Haredi communities and live differently. F.e. women may go to male barber, unlike being ruled by religious people:
Male hair stylists in Gaza are now under threat. A new order from Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, says any man who cuts a woman's hair will face legal consequences...
Barakat has owned his salon in Gaza for 19 years. He says he is one of only five men who cut hair in Gaza.
Fox News has learned that a bomb was even placed outside his salon recently by extremists.
http://shawarmamayor.blogspot.com/2010/03/sharia-paradise-in-gaza-finds-new.html
And this isn't Fox News propaganda. You can check other sources. I first read it in Hebrew.
Israel's attitude to women, however, is just as hateful and demeaning
Is simply untrue. Israel =/= Haredis or their rule.
Btw, today is Israel's 63-rd Independence Day.
How did this paper operate when Golda Meier was Isreali Prime Minister?
el: my friend, aren't you the person who told us all a horrible story about how women were treated like things in relation to divorce? About mamzers and stuff? Who cares about barbers when women can't even get divorced when they wish?
There is a huge difference. F.e. on the forum I was surprised to discover secular women claiming they would continue with their lives, give birth to children, mamzers or no, and not care what rabbinate says. In Gaza they would've been killed because of "family honor". Muslim women can't divorce either without husband's permission.
Haredim were given rule in some fields. In "Origins" there is a short, good explanation:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Status_quo_(Israel)
2 last points do create problems, but except family laws Israel in practice doesn't seem any more religious than US. It isn't like Iran or Gaza, where religion rules in every aspect of one's life and going against it is deadly dangerous.
So you are saying that the only choice is between different shades of barbarity? That isn't very heartening.
" but except family laws Israel in practice doesn't seem any more religious than US"
-Last I heard, nobody taught scripture in the US schools. Thank God.
In secular schools students don't pray or are told "God exists". We studied scripture as a book of stories written by different people at different times.
And I've never heard of attempts to prohibit biology teachers from teaching evolution in Israel or force them teach Creationism, as in US.
Where's the "like" button?? Well stated Clarissa. Soooo frustrating that they get away with this under the guise of religious & constitutional freedoms!!
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