The article is a sobering read, but unfortunately not a surprising one.
Demographically, Israel is split in 3 with secular Jews having a below replacement fecundity, orthodox Jews being off the charts (think 5 or 6 children per woman) and Israeli Arabs being around replacement.
This means that the orthodox community is getting bigger and bigger in the population, and this trend shows no sign of stopping.
Since orthodox women don’t work and orthodox men don’t serve in the army and often do religious studies, this means the community is becoming a bigger and bigger weight on Israeli society.
The current moves seem aimed at trying to appease the orthodox, and stave off an economic collapse in a few decades. Unfortunately by then the orthodox could well be a majority, and women look like the big loosers in this situation.
I remember when “the silent majority” were the ultra conservative and religious nutjobs who helped bring Reagan to power.
I don’t know, but I don’t think they were the majority and they certainly weren’t being very quiet, let alone silent. Now, of course, we can hardly hear ourselves think for all the racket they make.
I'm just hoping that the actual majority is at least mildly progressive so we can keep things moving forward. And it is definitely time for that progressive majority, if it exists, to stop being silent. Part of having free speech is the burden of speaking up and flooding the public square with good and honorable speech.
I’m actually more concerned about the women’s rights stuff than I would otherwise be specifically because it has no obvious connection to its actions in the West Bank.
Goodness what an appalling thing to read. I grew up catholic (I haven’t been religious for more than a decade already) and still have to shake my head about the ban women face there to even become clergywomen.
The idea that there should be segregation based on sex is just so fundamentally weird to me especially in the example of boarding public transit.
I do hope this worrying trend is circumvented because it’s become abundantly clear in present times that the moment rights/laws are lost, a long battle is needed to regain them.
Like is this ultraconservative trend so appealing because people feel the past was SOMEHOW more appealing than the current times? I totally do not get it but thank you for sharing!
