Devil Soul
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Israeli Girls Plight Highlights Extremism
TV Images Of Naama Sobbing En Route To School Have Shocked Many
BEIT SHEMESH, Israel, Dec 27, (AP): A shy 8-year-old schoolgirl has unwittingly found herself on the front line of Israels latest religious war.
Naama Margolese is a ponytailed, bespectacled second-grader who is afraid of walking to her religious Jewish girls school for fear of ultra-Orthodox extremists who have spat on her and called her a ***** for dressing immodestly.
Her plight has drawn new attention to the simmering issue of religious coercion in Israel, and the increasing brazenness of extremists in the insular ultra-Orthodox Jewish community.
When I walk to school in the morning I used to get a tummy ache because I was so scared ... that they were going to stand and start yelling and spitting, the pale, blue-eyed girl said softly in an interview with The Associated Press Monday. They were scary. They dont want us to go to the school.
The new girls school that Naama attends in the city of Beit Shemesh, to the west of Jerusalem, is on the border between an ultra-Orthodox neighborhood and a community of modern Orthodox Jewish residents, many of them American immigrants.
The ultra-Orthodox consider the school an encroachment on their territory. Dozens of black-hatted men jeer and physically accost the girls almost daily, the students say.
Televised images of Naama sobbing en route to school have shocked many Israelis, elicited statements of outrage from the countrys leadership, sparked a Facebook page with nearly 10,000 followers dedicated to protecting little Naama and plans for a demonstration later Tuesday in her honor. As the case has attracted attention, extremists have heckled and thrown eggs and rocks at journalists descending on town.
Whos afraid of an 8-year-old student? said Sundays main headline in the leading Yediot Ahronot daily.
Beit Shemeshs growing ultra-Orthodox population has erected street signs calling for the separation of sexes on the sidewalks, dispatched modesty patrols to enforce a chaste female appearance and hurled stones at offenders and outsiders. Walls of the neighborhood are plastered with signs exhorting women to dress modestly in closed-necked, long-sleeved blouses and long skirts.
Naamas case has been especially shocking because of her young age and because she attends a religious school and dresses with long sleeves and a skirt. Extremists, however, consider even that outfit, standard in mainstream Jewish religious schools, to be immodest.
This week Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke out against the violence. The Israel police are taking, and will take, action to arrest and stop those who spit, harass or raise a hand. This has no place in a free and democratic state, he told his Cabinet.
Thousands of people were expected at Tuesday evenings demonstration. Ahead of the gathering, President Shimon Peres urged the public to attend.
The demonstration today is a test for the people and not just the police, Peres told a gathering of Israeli ambassadors. All of us ... must defend the image of the state of Israel from a minority that is destroying national solidarity and expressing itself in an infuriating way.
TV Images Of Naama Sobbing En Route To School Have Shocked Many
BEIT SHEMESH, Israel, Dec 27, (AP): A shy 8-year-old schoolgirl has unwittingly found herself on the front line of Israels latest religious war.
Naama Margolese is a ponytailed, bespectacled second-grader who is afraid of walking to her religious Jewish girls school for fear of ultra-Orthodox extremists who have spat on her and called her a ***** for dressing immodestly.
Her plight has drawn new attention to the simmering issue of religious coercion in Israel, and the increasing brazenness of extremists in the insular ultra-Orthodox Jewish community.
When I walk to school in the morning I used to get a tummy ache because I was so scared ... that they were going to stand and start yelling and spitting, the pale, blue-eyed girl said softly in an interview with The Associated Press Monday. They were scary. They dont want us to go to the school.
The new girls school that Naama attends in the city of Beit Shemesh, to the west of Jerusalem, is on the border between an ultra-Orthodox neighborhood and a community of modern Orthodox Jewish residents, many of them American immigrants.
The ultra-Orthodox consider the school an encroachment on their territory. Dozens of black-hatted men jeer and physically accost the girls almost daily, the students say.
Televised images of Naama sobbing en route to school have shocked many Israelis, elicited statements of outrage from the countrys leadership, sparked a Facebook page with nearly 10,000 followers dedicated to protecting little Naama and plans for a demonstration later Tuesday in her honor. As the case has attracted attention, extremists have heckled and thrown eggs and rocks at journalists descending on town.
Whos afraid of an 8-year-old student? said Sundays main headline in the leading Yediot Ahronot daily.
Beit Shemeshs growing ultra-Orthodox population has erected street signs calling for the separation of sexes on the sidewalks, dispatched modesty patrols to enforce a chaste female appearance and hurled stones at offenders and outsiders. Walls of the neighborhood are plastered with signs exhorting women to dress modestly in closed-necked, long-sleeved blouses and long skirts.
Naamas case has been especially shocking because of her young age and because she attends a religious school and dresses with long sleeves and a skirt. Extremists, however, consider even that outfit, standard in mainstream Jewish religious schools, to be immodest.
This week Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke out against the violence. The Israel police are taking, and will take, action to arrest and stop those who spit, harass or raise a hand. This has no place in a free and democratic state, he told his Cabinet.
Thousands of people were expected at Tuesday evenings demonstration. Ahead of the gathering, President Shimon Peres urged the public to attend.
The demonstration today is a test for the people and not just the police, Peres told a gathering of Israeli ambassadors. All of us ... must defend the image of the state of Israel from a minority that is destroying national solidarity and expressing itself in an infuriating way.
