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Residents of a West Bank village with no electricity have been helped out of the darkness by unlikely benefactors – a group of Israelis who installed solar panels and wind turbines to illuminate the Palestinians' makeshift homes. The villagers of Susya live in tents and caves with power lines darting right above their dwellings, connecting a nearby Jewish settlement to the power grid while bypassing them entirely. It was this lack of basic services that drew the physicists from Comet-ME, a group of pro-peace Israeli scientists and activists, to this dusty, desolate area. Now the entire village of 300 people has access to power that is reliable, free and green. http://www.makeahistory.com/index.php/your-details/43054-israeli-scientistsactivists-bring-green-power-to-west-bank-village-susya-south-hebron-mountains-Residents of a West Bank village with no electricity have been helped out of the... more
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worrg
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13 days ago
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Well Andrew Adler may be gone but there are still many unanswered questions that remain regarding this alleged "special relationship" that the US shares with Israel.
I'm still waiting on the Glenn Becks, the Rachel Maddows, the Wolf Blitzers, the Chris Matthews, the Joe Liebermans, the Janet Napalitanos or even a White House spokesperson to comment on this.
Their silence in all of this is telling.
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The owner and publisher of the Atlanta Jewish Times, Andrew Adler, who suggested Israel should assassinate U.S. President Barack Obama, has resigned from his post, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported on Monday.
Adler, who has since apologized for his article, listed three options for Israel to counter Iran’s nuclear weapons in an article published in his newspaper last Friday.
The first is to launch a pre-emptive strike against Hamas and Hezbollah, the second is to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities and the third is to “give the go-ahead for U.S.-based Mossad agents to take out a president deemed unfriendly to Israel in order for the current vice president to take his place and forcefully dictate that the United States’ policy includes its helping the Jewish state obliterate its enemies.”
Adler goes on to write: “Yes, you read “three correctly.” Order a hit on a president in order to preserve Israel’s existence. Think about it. If have thought of this Tom-Clancy-type scenario, don’t you think that this almost unfathomable idea has been discussed in Israel’s most inner circles?"
According to JTA's report, Adler announced Monday that he is “relinquishing all day-to-day activities effective immediately,” and that he named John McCurdy as interim managing editor.Well Andrew Adler may be gone but there are still many unanswered questions that... more
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Earlier today, an Israeli military sniper opened fire at demonstrators in the village of Nabi Saleh, injuring one in the thigh. The protester was hit by 0.22" caliber munitions, which military regulations forbid using in the dispersal of demonstrations. Late in 2001, Judge Advocate General, Menachem Finkelstein, reclassified 0.22” munitions as live ammunition, and specifically forbade its use as a crowd control means. The reclassification was decided upon following numerous deaths of Palestinian demonstrators, mostly children. http://www.freeturbine.com/index.php/news/recent-politic/item/live-sniper-fire-injures-protester-in-nabi-salehEarlier today, an Israeli military sniper opened fire at demonstrators in the village... more
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worrg
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1 month ago
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The six Freedom Riders chose to board a bus that serves Jewish-only settlements in the West Bank on it's way to Occupied East Jerusalem, wearing kuffiyehs (Palestinian scarfs) and t-shirts reading 'Justice', 'Freedom', and 'We Shall Overcome'. They took this bold action to expose the racism and policies of segregation that pervade every aspect of life in occupied Palestine. To send the message to the world that separate is not equal. Not in the United States and not in Israel or Palestine. They also wanted to bring attention to the role of Israeli and international companies, such as Egged and Veolia, who operate these segreated bus lines, in perpetuating and profiting from the occupation. http://www.makeahistory.com/index.php/recent-news/43025-forbidden-roadsThe six Freedom Riders chose to board a bus that serves Jewish-only settlements in the... more
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worrg
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3 months ago
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Live video footage of what is happening on the bus is available at the link
A small number of brave Palestinians will risk attack and arrest to commit a forbidden act -- they have boarded a public bus.
"Lacking their own state, Palestinians are forbidden to use buses and roads reserved for non-Arabs -- part of a host of race-based rules that US President Jimmy Carter has called "apartheid". 50 years ago, African-Americans in the US challenged these rules by simply and non-violently refusing to follow them. In a few hours, Palestinians will take the same approach, and their actions will be live webcasted by Avaaz teams at the link below.
As diplomats stall in the fight for a Palestinian state, the Palestinian people are taking the fight into their own hands, one public service at a time. And they're doing it with the simple, elegant and unstoppable moral force of non-violence in the tradition of Gandhi and Martin Luther King. The Palestinian spring begins right now - click below to watch it LIVE, register support, and give these brave activists the global solidarity and attention they urgently need to win:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/palestine_freedom_riders/?vl
Non-violence is the game-changing force in this long-standing conflict. Boarding buses is a symbolic act, but so was Gandhi's salt march, and Rosa Park's own courageous ride on a segregated bus in the US. Just as non-violent protest was able to topple dictators in Egypt and Tunisia, so can it finally free the Palestinian people from 40 years of crippling military oppression by a foreign power.
There are many dangers. Israel has been arming the extremist settler population, a tactic which is likely, if not intended, to provoke awful violence that will draw the news cameras away from the brave acts of non-violence. Even the Palestinian authorities are pushing back on the action which they fear will start a democratic protest movement that they cannot control. But these few brave Palestinians have had enough, and if we stand with them now, we can help them ignite a flame that will burn its way all the way to a free and peaceful Palestinian state:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/palestine_freedom_riders/?vl
We have no idea what will happen in the next 24 hours. Maybe the authorities will crush this brave action. Maybe it will spark into a massive conflagration. Maybe it will sow the first seed of an unstoppable movement with tremendous integrity. But we can watch it live, and lend our voices to the effort. And maybe one day, we can tell our grandchildren that we were there when Palestinians boarded the buses that would ultimately take them to freedom."Live video footage of what is happening on the bus is available at the link
A small... more
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pdy
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3 months ago
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In September of 2011, the Israeli cabinet approved a plan to relocate up to 30,000 Bedouin from unrecognised villages in the Negev. A national strike is planned in Israeli Arab areas in protest at this move.
The Bedouin are the indigenous owner-occupiers of the Negev – they have been there for thousands of years. Since 1948 Israel has built dozens of Jewish towns, villages, kibbutzim and farms while pushing the Bedouin into ever smaller enclaves. In Rahat, for example, there are 52,000 Bedouin living on 21,000 acres, while the regional council of Bnei-Shimon covers 440,000 acres and is home to just 6,000 Jews.
Watch the video and read the article in its entirety.
http://equalitynow.blog.com/2011/10/17/evicting-the-bedouin-people/In September of 2011, the Israeli cabinet approved a plan to relocate up to 30,000... more
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mab001
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4 months ago
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Nabi Saleh - a new campaign was launched called ‘Refusing to Die in Silence’, which documents and confronts colonist “settler” attacks on unarmed citizens in the West Bank. The project aims to warn the colonists and make them feel pressured by the presence of media crews ready to document the attacks..... The group uses a coordinated system of cars and video cameras to monitor, respond to and intervene in settler attacks occurring this September across the West Bank. Speaking of the need for the group this September, Bil’in resident Mohammed Khatib of the Popular Struggle Coordination Committee noted on the committee’s website that "If anyone needed further proof that Palestinians cannot count on Israeli authorities to prevent settler violence, recent events show beyond doubt why we need to organize to defend ourselves. This is exactly what these volunteers will do in a civic and peaceful manner". http://www.makeahistory.com/index.php/recent-news/43012-refusing-to-die-in-silenceNabi Saleh - a new campaign was launched called ‘Refusing to Die in... more
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worrg
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4 months ago
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SO THE PALESTINIANS MADE SUCH A BIG DEAL ABOUT STATEHOOD.
IN THE END IS THAT WHAT THEY WANT?
OR JUST ANOTHER MANIPULATIVE PLAY TO PIT ISRAEL AS THE BAD GUY.SO THE PALESTINIANS MADE SUCH A BIG DEAL ABOUT STATEHOOD.
IN THE END IS THAT WHAT... more
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At the time of her death in 2005 Dahlia Ravikovitch was Israel's second best loved poet after Yehuda Amichai. She was also a committed peace activist, yet her readers included Israelis from all points on the political spectrum. Two years ago a new translation of her complete poetry was published by New York publisher W.W. Norton, and last week a paperback edition of Hovering at a Low Altitude: The Complete Poetry of Dahlia Ravikovitch was released (perfect for poetry loving commuters). In my New York Journal of Books review of the book I describe Ms. Ravikovitch's work as "sophisticated, intelligent, conscientious, and empathic," and Chana Bloch and Chana Kronfeld's translations as "strong and moving English poems in their own right." My review includes biographical background with references to her feminism, her political activism, her secularism, her mental health issues, and excerpts from her poems.At the time of her death in 2005 Dahlia Ravikovitch was Israel's second best... more
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El designer israelí Kobi Levi está llamando la atención de las mujeres con sus originales e inusitados modelos de calzado inspirados en aves, personajes históricos, cantantes, etc.El designer israelí Kobi Levi está llamando la atención de las... more
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Israel found New Labour to be a friendly force in an uncertain world but has been caught off-guard by the distinct new tone the Coalition is bringing to the Middle East Peace Process.
Comments best characterised as blunt have emanated from David Cameron and William Hague at regular intervals.
Israeli diplomats had expected Nick Clegg and his Liberal Democrat colleagues to provide awkward moments as the centrist party catered to its supporters views.
But the Conservatives were supposed to be different. Instead Mr Cameron visited Turkey and called Gaza a “prison camp.”
The words sent a shiver down the spines of Israeli officials, who by and large have not retorted in public, but cannot hide their disbelief.
In theory the Right-wing party should fall for the tropes of the Israel lobby just like their counterparts in America.
But the Conservatives long tradition of nurturing Britain’s historical ties to the Arab world has a firm advocate in Mr Hague.
The Foreign Secretary has close links to the Gulf and other Muslim states.
His philosophy of building ever stronger ties involves listening to his counterparts.
Their views that the region will be ridden with problems as long as peace is in abeyance in the Holy Land gets a more sincere hearing in Whitehall under Mr Hague.
For Israel this is an uncomfortable new development. It hardly helps that the Israeli government’s own strategy is to use regional unrest as a pretext for not taking the uncomfortable path of compromise with the Palestinians.
Mr Hague says Israel's “belligerent” tone is partly responsible for the faltering peace process.
Only Tony Blair now wholeheartedly reflects the Israeli point of view. His dark warnings of the rise of Muslim fundamentalists in the winds of change shaking the Middle East are the only message Israel really wants to hear from British representatives.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/8313405/Britains-relationship-with-Israel-increasingly-fraught.htmlIsrael found New Labour to be a friendly force in an uncertain world but has been... more
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An Israeli group of prominent rabbis' wives has urged Jewish girls not to date or work with Arabs, underscoring the rising power of the religious Right and fuelling fears of growing racism in the country.
A letter, signed by 27 wives, called on Jewish girls not to go out with Arabs, work with them or perform national service in places where Arabs are employed. It states: "There are quite a few Arab workers who give themselves Hebrew names. Yussef turns into Yossi, Samir turns into Sami, and Abed turns into Ami. They ask to be close to you, try to find favour with you, and give you all the attention in world. They know how to act with courtesy, as if they really care for you, but their behaviour is only temporary. The moment you are in their hands, in their village, under their control, everything changes.
"Your life will never go back to the way it was, and the attention you so desired will turn into curses, beatings, and humiliations."
Rabbi Gilad Kariv, the head of Israel's Reform branch of Judaism, condemned the letter. "Israeli society is falling into a deep, dark pit of racism and xenophobia," he warned.
Among the women who signed the letter were the wives and daughters of senior rabbis, including the daughter of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, the spiritual head of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, a member of Israel's coalition government.
The letter was distributed by a group called Lehava (Flames), an organisation influenced by the ideology of Rabbi Meir Kahane, who was elected to Israel's Knesset parliament in 1984 before his Kach party was outlawed as racist.
The incident is the latest in a series of anti-Arab initiatives by Israel's religious Right. Earlier this month there was outrage after dozens of municipal rabbis signed a petition urging Jews not to rent or sell homes to non-Jews. The petition was widely condemned, including by Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister. But a poll published this week found that 44 per cent of Israeli Jews supported the rabbis' call, while 48 per cent were opposed.
A few weeks ago Jewish residents protested in the Tel Aviv suburb of Bat Yam, warning Jewish women to stay away from Arab men.
On Tuesday, dozens of pupils and parents demonstrated in Jaffa, a mixed Jewish-Arab neighbourhood of Tel Aviv, after a school banned pupils from speaking Arabic in the classroom. The parents complained that Jewish immigrant children from the former Soviet Union were not prevented from speaking Russian in the school.
LINK: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/8229831/Rabbis-wives-call-on-Jews-not-to-date-Arabs.htmlAn Israeli group of prominent rabbis' wives has urged Jewish girls not to date or... more
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Moshe Katsav, the former president of Israel, has been convicted of twice raping an employee when he was a cabinet minister.
Katsav, 65, now faces up to 16 years in prison for the crimes, which included the two counts of rape against an employee in 1998 when he was tourism minister and counts of indecent acts and sexual harassment involving two other women who worked for him when he was president.
Katsav served as a minister in several right-wing Likud governments before he was elected president in 2000. He has denied the rape charges, claiming he was a victim of a political witch hunt and suggesting he was targeted because he comes from Israel's Sephardic community.
Katsav, who is a father of five, was ordered to surrender his passport while awaiting sentencing. His lawyers said they would appeal.
The conviction capped a long saga that stunned Israelis since it broke in 2006. The then-president initially complained that a female employee was blackmailing him but the woman went to police with her side of the story, and that prompted other women to come forward.
According to the indictment, Katsav forced one woman to the floor of his office at the Tourism Ministry in 1998 and raped her. A second time that year, he summoned her to a Jerusalem hotel to go over paperwork and raped her on the bed in his room. The indictment alleged that Katsav tried to calm his victim by saying: "Relax, you'll enjoy it."
The indictment also alleged that he harassed two women during his term as president, embracing them against their will and making unwanted sexual comments.
On Katsav's 60th birthday in 2005, an assistant offered congratulations. He then hugged her at length, sniffing her neck, according to the indictment. She complained to police, and the indictment said Katsav later tried to persuade her to change her testimony, earning him an additional charge of obstruction of justice.
The conviction by a three-judge panel was widely praised as a victory for Israel's legal system and for women's rights.
Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister, said: "The court sent two clear and sharp messages: that everyone is equal and every woman has the full right to her body." He called the verdict a sad day for Israel and its citizens.
Katsav resigned in 2007, under a plea bargain that would have required him to admit to lesser charges of sexual misconduct. But in April 2009, he rejected the deal and vowed to clear his name in court.
Around that time, he held a bizarre news conference in which he lashed out at prosecutors and the media and denied any wrongdoing. He shook in anger, waved a computer disk that he said proved his innocence and screamed at reporters in the room.
The president of Israel is head of state but holds a largely ceremonial post. It is currently held by Shimon Peres.
LINK: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/8231865/Former-Israeli-president-guilty-of-rape.htmlMoshe Katsav, the former president of Israel, has been convicted of twice raping an... more
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Survivors of the Holocaust have warned of the first stirrings of neo-fascism in Israel following the emergence of a Right-wing campaign to cleanse Arabs from predominantly Jewish parts of the country.
Until this month, the shadowy Lehava organisation was best known for issuing an eccentric demand in March urging Bar Refaeli, an Israeli model, not to marry Leonardo DiCaprio, the American actor, because he is a gentile.
But in recent weeks it has taken on a more sinister hue by spearheading a series of actions that included a rally in the coastal city of Bat Yam to denounce Jews who rent their homes to Arabs.
In the broader political spectrum, there is growing unease in Israel after the message about renting homes was effectively endorsed by 300 rabbis.
[LINK: http://current.com/news/92859496_israeli-rabbis-warn-landlords-not-rent-or-sell-to-non-jews.htm]
The rabbis, some of them of senior rank, signed up to an edict issued last month that declared: "It is forbidden in the Torah to sell a house or a field in the land of Israel to a foreigner."
With its undertones reminiscent of 1930s Berlin, where Jews were relegated to second-class status and denied the right to rent German-owned properties, the pronouncement has appalled Holocaust survivors.
"As someone who suffered as a Jew and underwent the Holocaust, I remember the Nazis throwing Jews out of their apartments and city centres in order to create ghettos," said Noah Flug, the chairman of the International Association of Holocaust Survivors.
"I remember how they wrote on benches that no Jews were allowed, and of course it was prohibited to sell or rent to Jews. We thought that in our country this wouldn't happen."
As part of a campaign to "purify" the land of Israel, Lehava has also invited informants to denounce Jewish neighbours who have Arab tenants by telephoning a hotline. This week it distributed a letter from a group of rabbis' wives calling on Jewish girls not to go out with Arabs, work with them or perform national service in places where Arabs are employed.
The provenance of Lehava -- whose Hebrew acronym stands for "Preventing Assimilation in the Holy Land" -- remains largely a mystery, although there is evidence to suggest that it comprises remnants of Kach, a far-Right movement banned in 1994. One of the only individuals publicly associated with Lehava is Baruch Marzel, a former Kach spokesman.
Lehava has caused widespread concern by concentrating its attention on Israel's Arab minority, which makes up 20 per cent of the population. Israeli politicians, including Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister, as well as a large number of rabbis have denounced the edict.
Yet Israel's reputation of tolerance and inclusion towards its Arab minority has been tarnished. Chanting "death to the Arabs", a group of ultraorthodox Jews threw bottles and stones at a block of flats housing Arab students in the northern town of Safed. Elsewhere in the country, there have been several reported cases of Jewish gangs beating up Arabs on the street.
Mr Flug, who said many fellow survivors of the Holocaust had called him to express their anxiety, appealed to the Israeli government to take action against the rabbis. "Can you imagine what would happen if a Jew in Germany or Switzerland or Britain wanted to rent an apartment and neighbours or the mayor said no?" he said. "You must stop this kind of thing when it begins."
LINK: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/8233929/Holocaust-survivors-warn-of-stirrings-of-neo-fascism.htmlSurvivors of the Holocaust have warned of the first stirrings of neo-fascism in Israel... more
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Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, has asked Barack Obama to pardon an American who spied for the Jewish state.
Mr Netanyahu told parliament on Tuesday evening that he received a letter from Jonathan Pollard asking him to openly make an official request for his release.
The letter, read out by Mr Netanyahu, said: "Honourable president, in the name of the Israeli people I am turning to you to request a pardon for Jonathan Pollard.
In Washington, a White House official confirmed receipt of the message and said they would review it.
Pollard, a former US Navy analyst, is serving a life sentence for passing thousands of secret documents about American spy activities in the Arab world to Israel between May 1984 and his arrest in November 1985.
The issue of Pollard, a US-born Jew who was given Israeli citizenship while in prison, has been a thorn in the side of relations between Israel and its main ally Washington.
His arrest sparked a crisis in ties that only ended with Israel promising to end all espionage activities on US soil.
But Israelis say Pollard's punishment and the long-standing US refusal to commute his sentence have been particularly harsh, given that he gave information to a friendly nation.
Israeli prime ministers have repeatedly tried, in vain, to secure Pollard's release.Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, has asked Barack Obama to pardon an... more
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Israeli troops killed a 65-year-old Palestinian while he slept on Friday during a raid to arrest his neighbour who was affiliated with Hamas, the dead man's wife and local residents said.
The man, Amr Qawasme, was asleep when soldiers broke into his home before dawn. His wife, Sobheye, said they brushed past her into the bedroom, where she heard several shots fired. When she went in, she found her husband in a pool of blood.
"I was praying when they entered. I do not know how they opened the door. They put their hand to my mouth and a rifle to my head," she told Reuters after Qawasme's body was removed.
"I was shocked. They did not allow me to talk. I asked them, 'What did you do?' They asked me to shut up."
Reuters Television footage showed Qawasme's sodden bed and bullet casings on the floor.
An Israeli military spokeswoman had no immediate comment on the raid.
LINK: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/8245440/Israeli-troops-kill-Hamas-mans-neighbour-by-mistake.htmlIsraeli troops killed a 65-year-old Palestinian while he slept on Friday during a raid... more
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An Israeli activist who defied orthodox Jewish custom by leading a group of women in open prayer at Jerusalem's Wailing Wall has been told to expect years in prison for breaching the peace.
Many in the country's rapidly growing ultra-orthodox community believe that a woman's role at the wall should be limited to silent worship. Women should not be allowed, they believe, to read aloud, sing or read from the Torah.
Anat Hoffman has been awaiting her fate since being arrested in August amid a worsening debate about her campaign to allow women to pray at Judaism's holiest site in the same way as men. The police have now chosen to ask prosecutors to charge her with "disrupting a policeman performing his duties under dire circumstances", a crime that carries a mandatory prison sentence of up to three years.
That she is facing so stern a request for punishment from the authorities is evidence, Mrs Hoffman said, of the rise of the religion Right in what is allegedly a secular country, which deems inter-faith and inter-racial marriage illegal.
Mrs Hoffman's case is a stark illustration of the growing power of religious groups in Israel, particularly in Jerusalem where the segregation of the sexes is becoming more common. She and her followers have been taunted and even assaulted by ultra-orthodox men at the Wailing Wall, part of the western wall of the Jewish Temple that was otherwise destroyed by the Romans in 70AD.
"The religious world in Israel has become more and more extreme," Mrs Hoffman said. "Much like in Islam, religiosity is now measured by the distances at which women are kept from society."
In August, she recalled recently: "They took me to the jail and told me: 'we're going to put an end to this behaviour; you won't get away with it any more'."
There are now over 100 state bus routes, many of them in Jerusalem, that offer segregated services requiring women to sit in the back. Israel's High Court yesterday ruled that the practice could continue. Many offices in the city also keep the sexes apart while a growing number of clinics require men and women to book appointments on different days.
"The religious world in Israel has become more and more extreme," Mrs Hoffman said. "Much like in Islam, religiosity is now measured by the distances at which women are kept from society."
Despite the threat of jail, Mrs Hoffman and her supporters are continuing their monthly services at the Wailing Wall. Mrs Hoffman and her fellow members of the Women of the Wall group test the boundaries of religious strictures by singing and praying out loud but they refrain from reading the Torah.
As they broke into song at a recent gathering, the men's section grew more restive as resentment started to stir. A bearded man, his black cloak marking him as ultra-orthodox, shook a fist at the women and yelled: "Burn in hell, you dogs."An Israeli activist who defied orthodox Jewish custom by leading a group of women in... more
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About 20 Israeli suppliers will help build the first modern Palestinian city in the West Bank but only after promising they will not use products or services from Israeli settlements, the projects developer said Tuesday..
http://www.indiareport.com/India-usa-uk-news/ap/International/71893About 20 Israeli suppliers will help build the first modern Palestinian city in the... more
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Fifty Israeli rabbis have signed an open letter warning Jews not to rent or sell property to non-Jews, saying those who do should be "ostracised".
"Anyone who sells (property to a non-Jew) must be cut off!!"
"In answer to the many questions, we say that it is forbidden in the Torah to sell a house or a field in the land of Israel to a foreigner," they wrote, referring to the Pentateuch - the first five books of the Bible.
The letter, which was signed mostly by state-employed rabbis,...Fifty Israeli rabbis have signed an open letter warning Jews not to rent or sell... more
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