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Mar 10, 2011

Moshe Gafni's Disingenuous Anti-Discrimination Campaign

Can you agree and disagree with someone at the same time? If yes, I would like to.

MK Moshe Gafni sent a query to Justice Minister Yaakov Neeman. He wants a response from the minister about the phenomenon of Haredim being refused entry in many yishuvim around the country. In Ramat HaShavim, people are being rejected and not allowed to move in solely because they are haredi. Gafni demanded Neeman explain and deal with the legality of this situation.

Regarding the issue itself, Speaker of Knesset Ruby Rivlin said the issue definitely demands a clear response from the Minister. If a person wants to live in a yishuv where, for example, they do not keep the Shabbos, and he does want to keep Shabbos, as long as he does not force his lifestyle on the neighbors, how cna they prevent him from doing so?
(source: Bechadrei)

So I agree with Gafni that people should be allowed to live where they want. Many yishuvim still function with acceptance committees. I dont know how these committees continue, as in recent years little by little they are being declared  illegal and discriminatory.

On the other hand, I dont see it mentioned anywhere that Gafni included in his query the issue of hardi yishuvim that also operate acceptance committees and reject people who do not fit the  mold. Can a secular famiyl move into Beitar, Kiryat Sefer, Rechasim or others? Even in haredi neighborhoods of mixed cities the haredi community works hard to chase out anybody not haredi.

So if Gafni was being objective and honest about his concern of equality and non-discrimination, I would agree with him - acceptance committees should be disbanded, and people should be allowed to live where they want. However, because Gafni is not working to dismantle the same committees int he haredi towns, to eradicate the discrimination in the haredi communities, I find his query to be disingenuous, to say the least.

1 comment:

  1. The bigger issue is of course denying Arabs the ability to move into an all-Jewish yishuv. The Supreme Court has ruled that this is legal only if there is a specific nature of the yishuv that they wish to preserve (such as an all-religious yishuv).

    Since the same would apply to Haredim and Hilonim, it is simple to see why the Haredim should be allowed to deny entrance to those who would destroy the nature of their yishuv. Whereas a pluralistic, open yishuv should not discriminate against anyone. The issue I can see is if Haredim are planning on moving in so as to change the nature of the yishuv, or coerce people there to do things they're not interested in doing, but this would not apply to individual Haredi families looking to move in.

    ReplyDelete

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