Bnei Brak mayor wouldn't meet with female IDF chief because she's a woman?
Maj. Gen. Orna Barbivai, the head of the Israel Defense Forces Manpower Directorate, and the first woman to attain such a high rank in the army, was supposed to visit the predominantly ultra-Orthodox city of Bnei Brak on Tuesday, but the visit was recently cancelled over fear of sparking anti-enlistment protests by haredim.Unfortunately, there's every chance that was an excuse, and even if her being a woman wasn't a big deal to the mayor, there's a chance he could be negative to the army, or the yeshivas in his neighborhood don't want to speak to her based on these possibilities. Well if the haredis were to act hostile, that would only give another bad image they'd be better off without, and the army shouldn't be acting scared about this. I would think the best thing to do here is go on the tour without the mayor accompanying.
Barbivai was scheduled to meet with municipal officials and tour yeshivas in the city in order to encourage haredi enlistment in the IDF.
IDF officials on Monday did not deny on Monday the possibility that internal haredi politics played a role in the cancellation of Barbivai's visit.
The IDF Spokesperson's Unit said that Barbivai's visit was cancelled at the request of the Bnei Brak municipality.
The Bnei Brak municipality said that the mayor had prior commitments that prevented him from meeting with Barbivai on Tuesday and had offered to postpone the meeting.
Labels: haredi corruption, Israel, Judaism, military, misogyny
Well,at first, the MAYOR must respect the civil law as he 's a simple citizen like another one. I mean, there is only one law for all, and he is not better than another citizen. On the contrary, he has the same "status" as all citizen form the "polis".And, as he's represents the degree of local authority, he must be punished ...and another worst crime : discrimination! Teresa
Posted by teresa | 12/12/2012 06:27:00 PM