FEOS wrote:
They're not Jewish when you're trying to show how you're not being antisemitic. They are Jewish when you're trying to show how you're...not being antisemitic.
I've not said that at all. Its possible to criticise Israel without being anti-semitic, the fact that a small proportion of unequal citizens are from other religions is not relevant.
Some topical articles.
For thousands of years the way that ultra-orthodox Jewish children are taught has changed little and is based almost entirely on study of the Torah - the Jewish Bible.
But now a group of leading secular Israelis wants to force the ultra-orthodox, or Haredi, education system to modernise and adopt standard subjects like maths, science and English.
The reason, they say, is that thousands of Haredi students are unable or unwilling to participate in wider Israeli society and are becoming an increasing economic burden.
Last week, in ultra-orthodox Jewish neighbourhoods of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, more than 100,000 devoutly religious men took to the streets in protest.
On this occasion the men, clad in the traditional plain black clothing and distinctive headgear of Ashkenazi Jews, were campaigning for the right to educate their children separately from other Israelis - even from other Jews.
Education has become the focus of the many tensions between modern secular and ultra-orthodox Israelis.
A few days ago I was given rare access to the traditional and private world of ultra-orthodox education.
The Kol HaTorah Yeshiva, or religious seminary, in Jerusalem is regarded as one of the finest seats of learning for young ultra-orthodox boys.
In one, huge classroom several hundred boys - huddled together in groups of two or three - argued noisily.
Dressed in black trousers, plain white shirts with black velvet "kippas" or skullcaps, these teenagers were debating passionately - not about politics, history or sociology but about the Talmud - Jewish Bible studies.
It's all they study, day in day out.
About 10% of Israelis are ultra-orthodox, or Haredi - a figure that is growing, partly because they have very large families. One of the teachers at the seminary is Rabbi Yechezekel Koren.
He has 13 children of his own, all following an ultra-orthodox way of life.
The rabbi acknowledges that most of the boys he teaches will never work or participate in "wider" Israeli society - dedicating themselves instead to a life of religious study.
"We try to keep the way we've been doing things for generations - for hundreds, even thousands of years," he says. "It's the same idea of studying the Talmud, an explanation of the Torah. We see the success, the great success and don't want to change a thing."
....
"If you don't teach them maths, English or computing they cannot be integrated into Israeli society," says the professor, who has co-sponsored a petition before the Israeli Supreme Court which would force ultra-orthodox schools to teach some core, secular subjects.
"A growing number of Haredim, who don't know anything about the outside world is a real burden on the economy and wider society," he adds.
Some, less strict Haredi schools, have relented and now teach a few lessons from the wider curriculum. But, sitting studiously beneath pictures of famous rabbis and reading passages from the Torah, most of what they learn is still Bible studies.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/middle … 369998.stmUltra-Orthodox Jews have staged one of the biggest protests seen in Israel, to demand their children be educated separately from other Israelis. Police said 120,000 Ashkenazi Jews rallied in Jerusalem and near Tel Aviv.
They turned out to support parents who refused to let their girls share classrooms with Jewish pupils of Sephardic or Middle Eastern descent.
The protests were triggered by a court ruling sentencing some 80 Ashkenazi parents to jail.
"There is a set of rules [in the ultra-Orthodox community]. We don't want televisions in the home, there are rules of modesty, we are against the internet," Mr Litzman was quoted as saying by AFP news agency.
"I don't want my daughter to be educated with a girl who has a TV at home."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/middle … 338900.stmThese characters hold the balance of power in Israeli politics, it would be like the Westborough Baptist church running the US.
FEOS wrote:
And no...they don't use the Holocaust and their religion to justify their treatment of the Palestinians. They use the actions of Palestinian terrorist groups against Israeli civilians to justify their treatment of the Palestinians.
According to the bible God
wants them to slaughter all before them who stand in the way of them reaching Israel.
Ariel Sharon wrote:
"Israel may have the right to put others on trial, but certainly no one has the right to put the Jewish people and the State of Israel on trial"
They can do whatever they want to whoever they want.
Last edited by Dilbert_X (2010-06-22 06:23:17)
