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Feb 5, 2012
Israel's Dangerous Neighborhoods
How sad. Over the past few weeks, the comments (I have said them to when people ask me about Bet Shemesh) while driving through, or talking about, RBS B, whether with taxi drivers or with other people, has more often than not been along the lines of "this is the bad neighborhood of Bet Shemesh". How shameful that "the bad neighborhood" is one that is religious (and it is in that name that it is bad... yet there are other religious neighborhoods that do not have the description of "bad neighborhood" appended to them).
Now, according to Ynetnews,:
Now, according to Ynetnews,:
The US State Department is concerned over recent violence exhibited by extremists in Israel's haredi community and has published a travel recommendation for tourists: Do not walk around dressed immodestly in haredi neighborhoods for fear that extremists would assault you in the street.How sad and shameful it is that a travel warning must be made declaring religious neighborhoods to be dangerous with the threat of possible assault. Whether it is true or not that these are the most dangerous areas in Israel that deserve such a warning is besides the point. Is it more dangerous in these areas than in South Tel Aviv where people are mugged and beaten far more regularly? More so than Lod or Jaffa or other bad neighborhoods? yet some religious neighborhoods have now been deemed to be worthy of travel warnings.
The travel recommendations which were updated by the US State Department two weeks ago with the recent phenomenon of women's exclusion and haredi violence in mind, calls on American tourists to dress appropriately when visiting religious sites in the Old City and in haredi neighborhoods and to avoid driving through those neighborhoods during the Sabbath.
"Most roads into ultra-orthodox Jewish neighborhoods are blocked off on Friday nights, Saturdays, and Jewish holidays. Assaults on secular visitors, either for being in cars or for being 'immodestly dressed' have occurred in these neighborhoods," the consulate said.
Labels:
bet shemesh,
haredim,
Israel,
kannoim,
Mea Shearim,
violence
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So I believe the reason the crime warnings section (which does exist!) on the Israel travel advisory page doesn't mention specific areas is that the kind of crime one would see in Tel Aviv or Lod or Jaffa is the (normal) kind of crime Americans would generally expect in a city in the United States, and so they don't go into as much detail.
ReplyDeleteHowever, Americans aren't used to anything close to the kind of restrictions on dress that are expected in a lot of Haredi neighborhoods in Jerusalem (the section where this is mentioned only covers Jerusalem, probably because naive random tourists wouldn't venture into say B'nei Brak or Beit Shemesh because there's nothing much to see in either place)
Also (particularly) Christian tourists (maybe some very secular Jews as well, but Christians certainly) may not even be aware of Shabbat restrictions.
For reference, the crime section on Israel is as follows:
"The crime rate is moderate in Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza. Break-ins of parked vehicles are common at beach areas, the Dead Sea, cemeteries, and national parks (especially Caesarea National Park). Car break-ins and purse snatchings in cities and cemeteries occur regularly throughout Israel. U.S. citizens should not leave their valuables (including passports) unattended, in parked vehicles or unsecured in hotels."
Also if by not behaving in certain ways the violence is preventable, maybe that's why they're giving more detail.
ReplyDeleteAlso - what percentage of Israeli graffiti has a Torah theme?
MiriamS - what percentage of Israeli graffiti has a Torah theme?
ReplyDeleteNa nac nach nachman meuman. If that's a Torah theme, then 90+%.
:-)
Mark - and "Shmeerat Eynayim" is usually by the same people, so the percentage is going up...
ReplyDeleteMost of the grafiti in my town are English curse words... always wonder about that...
ReplyDeleteWasn't there a store in Modiin that displayed clothing with English curse words on it?
ReplyDeleteJaffa is safe don't be silly
ReplyDelete