The battle at the secular School for Languages and Cultures in Beit Shemesh is not over classroom space. It is a battle being fought by haredim for control of the resources of this culturally divided city, and a desperate existential battle being fought by almost everyone else to stop them.
The Haredi War For Beit Shemesh
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com
The Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court issued a restraining order on Tuesday that bars a haredi girls school in Beit Shemesh from occupying any part of the secular School for Languages and Cultures. The order was requested by Israel’s Ministry of Education and essentially remains in force until the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court issues a final ruling on the case or until the Ministry of Education decides to allow the haredi school to use part of the secular school’s building. (The first hearing on the case is scheduled for tomorrow and the court will decide either not to continue the order or to leave it place.)
That secular school is located in what has now become a haredi neighborhood and, on the pretext of a shortage of classroom space for haredi schools and the supposed shortage of secular students in this school, the city government basically seized half of the school, erected a tall wall between the halves and down the middle of the playground, and gave half of the secular school to haredim. It did so without proper due process, without informing secular parents, and without getting the proper license and the necessary permission from Israel’s Ministry of Education.
The secular school’s parents and teachers have been up in arms, protesting the seizure and the behavior of the city government, which is haredi-controlled.
The Ministry of Education also issued a closure order against the haredi school Tuesday, but that order will not take effect for 30 days. It had previously offered another building to the city to use for a haredi school but the city reportedly refused to take it. This refusal likely happened because the seizure of half of the secular School for Languages and Cultures had little to do with a shortage of classroom space and a lot to do with creating a fully homogenous haredi neighborhood that is not “sullied” “degraded” and “profaned” by the presence of secular schoolchildren and their likely “immodestly-clad” parents.
Haredi media is full of claims that that the haredi girls were “expelled” from the School for Languages and Cultures in an anti-haredi purge.
They note the secular school has only 144 students but can hold as many as 500 but do not note that the haredi-controlled government of the City of Beit Shemesh has intentionally restricted the number of students at the school, allegedly so the “nearly empty” school could be seized for haredi use.
Despite the lack of due process, despite the lack of proper permission from the Ministry of Education, despite the illegality of the takeover and the distastefulness of the nearly 10-foot high separation wall, haredim are intent on playing victim. To that end, the city’s haredi mayor, Rabbi Moshe Abutbol of the Sefardi haredi Shas Party, and haredi city council members have decided, along with haredi activists, to erect a tent at a major intersection near the secular school. The haredi girls “expelled” from the secular school will study in that tent until haredim get what they want.
But the conflict over the use of part of this secular school should be seen for what it really is – a haredi attempt to solidify its hold over more of Beit Shemesh.
The truth is, Beit Shemesh really should be divided into two cities: a non-haredi city where most people pay taxes, keep clean streets and do not hurl stones and bottles at little girls and women because their skirts are one inch higher than some rabbi says they should be; and a haredi city where, despite the law, none of that is true.
Some secular residents are trying to effect this division into two separate cities, but haredi leaders oppose it.
Why?
Because without the tax payments of non-haredim, the new haredi city would be very poor and would likely be unable to function.
The battle at the secular School for Languages and Cultures in Beit Shemesh is not over classroom space. It is a battle being fought by haredim for control of the resources of this culturally divided city, and a desperate existential battle being fought by almost everyone else to stop them.
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