Culture

Jewish Taliban in Jerusalem

by korzac | June 26, 2008 at 09:34 pm

259 views | 10 Recommendations | 2 comments

Political Jerusalem, more and more ruled by the religious ultra orthodox (Haredi) fraction, caused the 'Taliban Scandal', an incident taken from the 'Theater of the Absurd.'

An embarrassing incident occurred during a Jerusalem City Council meeting on Thursday after council member Saar Netanel interrupted a speech by Mayor Uri Lupolianski, attacking his decision to "cover up" the dancers performing at the inauguration ceremony of Jerusalem's new Chord Bridge.

Councilman Saar Netanel called out.

so how is it that you didn't open with the 'marvelous thing' that happened to us yesterday when the girls of a dance ensemble were dressed in clothes like in Tehran. How is it that you don't open with the fact that women in Jerusalem are being dressed as in Iran?"

Following counter-objections made by the opposition of the city council a creative compromise was reached, according to which the dancers would wear long clothes covering their bodies and black hats on their heads in an effort to blur their sexual identity.

Artistic director of the Mehola ensemble Yaniv Hoffman expressed his revulsion at the decision and told Ynet, "The parents are shocked, the children are shocked, and we are even more shocked.

[q url="http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3560965,00.html"]

I quote,

"These are only young girls, aged 13 to 16. We have performed with them at all of the national events and this is the first time in 20 years that we have come across such an extreme reaction. These are not strippers or gogo girls – the ensemble engages in culture and art[/q]

The full article.

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Jordan Yerman

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 04:42 on June 27th, 2008

Fundamentalism is one of those things that just looks the same, no matter what religion it is based in.

korzac

at 22:43 on June 27th, 2008

...Here is what Uri Orbach, has to say (YNET)...."The only bridge missing in Jerusalem today is the bridge of common sense, which should be used by the turning-a-blind-eye train."..... ..." There is a new ultra-Orthodox trend these days that is prominently featured in the Orthodox media: Wearing a sackcloth and praying to God. The problem is that quite a few Orthodox are trying to put the whole of Jerusalem in such sackcloth."....see here.

And thanks for the comment and the GS.