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Haaretz
Thu., December 24, 2009 Tevet 7, 5770 | Israel Time: 04:29 (EST+7)
Last update - 04:27 24/12/2009
Ashkenazi parent: Sephardi girls have a bad influence on our girls
By Or Kashti
The Education Ministry on Wednesday threatened to prosecute parents of
students in a West Bank settlement school under the mandatory education law,
unless the students returned to their classrooms.
The Ashkenazi students of the ultra-Orthodox Beit Yaakov girls' school in
Immanuel stayed home yesterday, yet again, as part of an organized protest
against the decision by the Education Ministry and High Court to end the
segregation between Sephardi and Ashkenazi students.
"No court ruling or Education Ministry decision can bring the two groups
together," an Immanuel resident said yesterday.
"It's like putting Americans and Africans together. They
can't study together with such huge mental differences," he said.
I had not realized Gov. Wallace was Jewish.
Simply pointing out a statement like this is not the reason to make this
public. Certainly such statements can be found all over the US and in every
country in the world. In the US, in western Europe, the publication of such
a statement would include a condemnation of it. Everyone associated in any
way with the context of it would fall all over themselves to denounce such
as statement. Hypocritical or not, everyone would leave this person high and
dry and publically ostracized.
In Israel not one single person has risen to condemn this statement except
Sepherdim leaders. The silence is deafening.
If you take the time to go through a significant portion of the material
here youi will note not just the deafening silence regarding what
individuals say. You will find senior political figures, government
officials and even Prime Ministers saying they same things. Thise are things
that in any real democracy would lead to a public demand for an apology if
not resignation. In Israel such words usually pass without comment.
"Christians cannot learn with Jews in the same class any more than they can
learn with Blacks in the same class." Antisemitic in the extreme of course.
Par for the course in Israel. Israel, the land of the Jews who lecture the
world on racism. After all, they were holocausted.
Some 70 Ashkenazi students of the Beit Yaakov girls' school stopped
attending classes two days before the Hanukkah holiday - in protest of the
ministry's efforts to force the ultra-Orthodox school to rescind the
segregation, in keeping with the High Court ruling.
The Ashkenazi girls have since been studying in improvised classrooms in
private homes in the settlement.
In August, the court ruled that Beit Yaakov and the Independent Education
Center have "infringed on the Sephardi students' right to equality" by
segregating them from their Ashkenazi peers. It also scolded the Education
Ministry for not using "all the means available to prevent discrimination."
The court demanded that the school "remove every sign and effect of the
rampant discrimination."
The court ruling came in response to a petition filed by Yoav Lalum of the
Noar Kahalacha association, and Dr. Aviad Hacohen, dean of the Sha'arei
Mishpat law school.
"The existence of two separate programs based on different customs is
unacceptable ... The two programs must be merged, and the discrimination
must stop immediately," Education Ministry director general Shimshon
Shoshani wrote in the ministry's comment, submitted to the Supreme Court on
Monday.
Two weeks ago, Lalum and Hacohen complained that the school and education
network were in contempt of court, and were not following the ruling. A
group of Ashkenazi schoolgirls who approached the institute's side gate
yesterday were driven away by a number of ultra-Orthodox men, who noticed
Haaretz's photographer.
"The court and media don't understand that this is another world," a mother
who is keeping her daughter out of school said. "The Hasidic program was
created because of a different religious outlook. Only pure children attend
it."
Only pure Christians are permitted. Impure Jews are not allowed.
"The Mizrahi students' families don't belong with the other families,"
another parent said. "They have a television at home while the [Ashkenazim]
speak Yiddish. The Mizrahi girls have a bad influence on our girls. No court
will change anything," he added.
Here we have a concrete reason. They watch television. I bet they listen to
the radio and read books too. Ashkenazis are too pure to be literate.
"It's better for everyone to have separate study programs. This way each
student keeps his identity - just like you wouldn't play Mizrahi and
classical music on the same radio show," another resident said. The school
has 215 students from first to eighth grade, 35 percent of whom are
Sephardi.
As I said, they don't like radio either. No one would dare mix pure and
impure music. In case you haven't guessed, the evil internet is forbidden.
Computers are evil.
"It's a disgrace to this place, the ministry must intervene to stop the
segregation once and for all," the father of one Mizrahi student said. "The
Ashkenazis think they're more intelligent than we are, but what really bugs
them is our skin color."
Is this representative of Israel? Do not simply deny it. Show me the news
reports which demonstrate that it is not. No problem is you call me
antisemitic. So is Haaretz. I am in good company.
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