I heard two stories this past week about Israel, and found both of them disturbing. I read Gershom Gorenberg's new book a couple of weeks ago, which I plan to review; it is about the political power of the religious right, and the strain the settlements put on such concepts as law and democracy. I think it probably made me more alert to stories like these.
Please, if anyone knows more about these issues, comment on them.
I received an e-mail from the New Israel Fund which highlighted a CNN story about increasing gender segregation in Jerusalem. There was a recent protest with artists contributing - a dance company opened its curtains and performed in the windows. An all-women rock group performed in black full hijab.
But there are segregated buses, segregated hours at some stores that serve the haredi community, segregated streets on holidays, and the trend is reported to be growing.
Then I heard a story on PRI's The World on 12/16 about Christian tourism to Israel. The last bit was about a group of American Evangelical ministers and broadcasters, who met with various Israeli officials including the Minister of Public Diplomacy, who encouranged political as well as cultural and religious messages to folks back home. A member of the group talked about how Israel's giving away land doesn't sound like a solution to "the problem" which he does not define.
I find any kind of fundamentalism scary, and the political influence of the religious right both here and there is disproportionate to their numbers. The idea of both groups coming together in some way to share that influence is truly frightening to me.
Again, if anyone here knows more about such things, please join the discussion.
11:43 AM PT: The Troubadour has a diary on the rec list about an incident on a bus.
http://www.dailykos.com/...
