How Long Will It Be Before Israel Passes Laws That Force Women To Wear Veils?

Shmarya Rosenberg

Ad agencies prepare special 'modest' versions of their ads for use in Jerusalem that have no womenpictured. Never mind that many Jerusalemites are not haredi, and that Jerusalem is the nation's capital, the seat of its government and political instituions. Even so, advertisers willingly pay for this Jerusalem gender censorship. If they don't, haredim simply tear down or vandalize the ads, even when those ads are posted downtown or on buses that serve all Israelis. Secular Israelis ignore the issue altogether, not because they don't care, but because they can't deal with all the problems, haredi-generated or otherwise, they're faced with. And Jerusalem's 'secular' mayor pretends the problem doesn't exist because he doesn't want to agitate anyone, and cause haredim to riot or secular Jews to abandon him.

Raanan Shaked writes in Ynet:

…[W]hite paint was sprayed on posters promoting the Jerusalem International Film Festival which bore the imageof a woman riding a bicycle (in a long dress!).

At the same time, vandals sprayed paint on posters advertising a Shiri Maimon concert in the same holy capital. This did not happen in ultra-Orthodox Jerusalem. It happened in midtown, but no one seemed to make a big deal out of it.

And why should anyone make a fuss? It really was no big deal. You didn't hear about it. You weren't shocked. Actually, you're probably considering turning the page at this point. And why should this shock us? First of all, the whole issue of the exclusion of women from the public sphere is behind us.

We saw, we protested, we clicked our tongues. Secondly, it appears as though we have become so accustomed to it, that the complete and final disappearance of women from the public sphere in a city that is the official capital of Israel is considered a normal occurrence.

Because that's the way it is, right? Let's just learn to live with it, right?

So the publicists prepare special versions of their posters for Jerusalem, the advertisers fund these posters, the seculars ignore the issue altogether (because there's a limit to the number of wars you can conduct simultaneously) and the mayor doesn't want to agitate anyone.

This is nothing new, of course. The change, if you can call it that, lies in the utter indifference and the acceptance of a situation we told ourselves, not too long ago, that we would never come to terms with.

It took us no time at all to make the switch from "never" to "that's the way it is."

And if this is the time it takes for the Israeli public to accept such a medieval injustice as the expulsion of women from the public sphere – how long will it be before we accept legislation that will outlaw homosexuality or laws that will require women to wear veils?…