Tel-Chai Nation

Aryeh Deri once again caused embarrassment that was entirely avoidable:

A bill put forward Thursday by the ultra-Orthodox Shas party seeks to penalize all types of Jewish prayer at the Western Wall besides strict ultra-Orthodox custom.

If the proposal, being promoted by Shas party leader Aryeh Deri, passes it would make it a criminal offense to dress immodestly and play music at the location. The vote on the bill to be held next week.

This is the part that's most objectionable. The whole notion that any women, no matter their political standings, should have to suffer fines and/or arrest over an Orwellian Thoughtcrime is despicable. What Deri and Shas have done only provided the left with something to raise a whole uproar over, and all the while more serious issues like Islamofascism abound.

One of Judaism's holiest sites, the Western Wall has been in recent years the site of bitter contention between Israel's ultra-Orthodox religious establishment and more liberal streams of Judaism, including the feminists of the Women of the Wall (WOW) movement.

The proposed bill stipulates fines to the tune of NIS 10,000 or six-month prison sentences for violating the status quo custom codified by the Chief Rabbinate Council and the Rabbi of the Western Wall, which includes a strict dress code for women.

According to the proposal, some actions would be prohibited in the Western Wall among them holding any religious ceremony that is not in accordance with local customs and could offend those praying in the complex.

According to the proposal, wearing an immodest attire, providing religious services of any kind without proper authorization, playing musical instruments, listening to music, and singing without permission, and mixed prayers - will all be punishable by law.

Again, the parts about immodesty and music are the most offensive, along with the part about the fines and prison sentences over petty issues. The left-wing feminists working in WotW are bad, but that doesn't mean Shas should be giving them ammunition to use against conservatives. And then, here's something mighty fishy:

Members of the Shas party defended the proposed law. MK Uriel Busso, who drafted the bill alongside Religious Services Minister Michael Malkieli, said, “Would anyone think about entering a mosque dressed inappropriately? Everyone understands the sanctity of the Western Wall - we need a law that regulates this issue."

Something tells me somebody thinks burkas and niqabs are perfectly acceptable, and that's bad too. We're supposed to consider Islamic beliefs acceptable, along with body-shaming? Absolutely not.

However, if we're talking about leftists, there is valid reason to believe that by sharp contrast, many of them have virtually no issue wearing modest clothing to a mosque, based on their kowtowing for the Religion of Peace. And that's reprehensible. As a result, their outburst over this does ring hollow, because nobody's showing the courage to acknowledge failure to criticize the conduct of Islam is only worsening the situation.

Fortunately, there have been objections in the coalition to this PR embarrassment:

The law was also criticized by members of the coalition. Culture and Sports Minister Miki Zohar wrote on Twitter that the Western Wall “belongs to all of the people of Israel and is sacred to all Jews, there is no need for laws to preserve its sanctity. Maintaining the status quo is critical to preserving our unity.”

Here's more:

Justice Minister Yariv Levin (Likud), who heads the Cabinet Committee on Legislation, assured on Thursday that a proposed Shas bill will not be on the committee’s agenda when it meets on Sunday. The bill lays out rules of conduct for the Western Wall Plaza, including jail time and a fine for those who violate it and drew outrage from all sides of the political landscape.

Likud chairman and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a statement Thursday afternoon reassuring the public of the maintenance of the status quo at the site: “The status quo at the Kotel, which is precious to the entire nation of Israel, will continue to be as it is today. I spoke with my colleagues, the party chairmen, and everyone can agree that the law isn’t going to come to a vote right now,” he said.

[...] “Even if it were to come to a vote,” he added, “the clauses about criminal consequences for inappropriate attire or musical instruments that were written 40 years ago would not have been included.”

Shas chairman Aryeh Deri was barred by the Supreme Court from serving as the country’s health and interior minister due to his criminal convictions. The bill, dubbed the ‘Kotel Law’, was expected to be voted on in the upcoming meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Legislation on Sunday. The Likud, Israel’s largest party and Shas’ coalition partner, was blindsided by the proposal, as it was not supposed to be on the committee’s agenda at all, Ynet reported.

Well I think we can understand why it's no loss if Deri's not a minister now. Even a Haredi news site took issue with this atrocious proposal:

Israel's largest Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) news site Kikar HaShabbat published an editorial on Thursday bashing the Shas Party bill promoting six months in prison or a NIS 10,000 fine for women who wear a prayer shawl, dress immodestly or reads from the Torah at the Western Wall.

"Imprisonment for immodest clothing; The ultra-orthodox law that will increase the desecration of the Western Wall," is the headline of the editorial. "It is clear that this bill will only increase the provocations at the Western Wall and intensify the desecration of the most sacred place [for Jews] - along with increasing the polarization of the nation and the hatred of the religious communities," Kikar HaShabbat said. "Take a step back right now," the headline concluded.

The editorial explained that the Shas bill "does not befit the sanctity of the Western Wall," and "is causing a public and political uproar - rightly so."

Rare and dramatic opposition

This is a dramatic opposition to the Haredi leadership, something the ultra-orthodox media rarely do since many of them are also funded by the different parties. Kikar HaShabbat is an independent business and therefore, at times, they are brave and daring when it comes to ideological issues.

"The bill stunned the media, and [stunned us] too - but not for the same reasons," the editorial said. "There are many religious or traditional Jews, in the country and in the diaspora, for whom Judaism is very important, some of them even made aliyah out of an aspiration to fulfill the will of the creator, while leaving a comfortable and happy life in the diaspora... Those families want the country to be Jewish and preserve its Jewish identity at all costs, which is very important to them."

But they explained that "most ultra-orthodox Israeli Jews don't want their personal religious affiliation to be the only affiliation in the country."

"During all the years of the state's existence, the ultra-orthodox public never aspired to rule or be in the leadership of the state. The ambition has always been to receive what we deserve, and to live our lives of Torah and holiness, quietly and modestly.

Well they could do better, by knocking off all this modesty obsession of theirs, right down to their hysteria over women singing. That's not helpful, and only enforces a negative perception of Orthodox Judaism as a whole.

Following this whole affair, the goverment won't even be putting this to a vote. But Shas and Deri still owe an apology, and they'd do well to reevaluate their ultra-Orthodox conduct, and encourage their subjects to rise above it. This was another entirely avoidable scandal that we didn't need.

Labels: dhimmitude, haredi corruption, islam, Israel, Jerusalem, Judaism, Knesset, misogyny, Moonbattery