ISRAEL: When Israeli town of Beit Shemesh goes to the polls on March 11, the vote may decide more than a bitter mayoral race. Many see it as a bellwether for the strained secular-religious relations throughout the Jewish state

Record ID: 398198

  • Title: ISRAEL: When Israeli town of Beit Shemesh goes to the polls on March 11, the vote may decide more than a bitter mayoral race. Many see it as a bellwether for the strained secular-religious relations throughout the Jewish state
  • Date: 10th March 2014
  • Summary: BEIT SHEMESH, ISRAEL (MARCH 6, 2014) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF MAYORAL CAMPAIGN POSTERS HANGING ON APARTMENT BUILDING SIGN ON APARTMENT BUILDING READING (Hebrew): 'MOSHE ABUTBUL - MAYOR FOR EVERYBODY' VARIOUS OF ULTRA-ORTHODOX JEWS ON STREET CAMPAIGN POSTERS FOR ORTHODOX MAYOR MOSHE ABUTBUL HANGING ON STREET BEIT SHEMESH, ISRAEL (MARCH 3, 2014) (REUTERS) BEIT SHEMESH RESID
  • Embargoed: 25th March 2014 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Israel
  • Country: Israel
  • Topics: Domestic Politics,People,Religion
  • Reuters ID: LVA4KCIB5IM1ACRUDHPBFFHIDVG8
  • Story Text: The Israeli town of Beit Shemesh turns into a battleground on Tuesday (March 11) when its mayor, an ultra-Orthodox Jew, faces his secular challenger at the poll. But this is no ordinary political duel, residents say, it is a fateful moment for their city and perhaps for the entire country.
    A symbol of religious divide in Israel, where municipal elections rarely draw such passion, Beit Shemesh has seen tensions flare in the past few years between its ultra-Orthodox, secular and moderate religious residents.
    Secular residents say the town is being taken over by zealots. Across the schism, the ultra-orthodox community feels it is being hounded, with a nation-wide anti-religious sentiment fanning the flames.
    Beit Shemesh drew international attention in 2011 after an eight-year-old girl belonging to a more liberal religious community was spat at by ultra-Orthodox men who deemed her clothing immodest and protests, some violent have erupted over religious matters several times since.
    With some of its streets in Haredi area and some public bus lines separating men and women, the town has been a focus of national secular-religious divisions.
    Noa Kedmi lives on the border between the newer, ultra-Orthodox neighbourhoods, and the veteran more secular area and says ultra-religious residents are making her life difficult.

    "Every day I am yelled at, I am scared of walking down the street, there are roads I cannot drive down on the Sabbath and I have to choose my clothes carefully before I go out," she said.
    Tuesday's vote is held three months after an Israeli court, citing voter fraud, cancelled the result of an October election, won by the ultra-Orthodox incumbent Moshe Abutbul, whose victory sparked angry demonstrations calling for a new vote.
    Abutbul rejects his opponents claims that he has favoured the Haredim in budget funds and development and says he has developed all parts of the town.
    Beit Shemesh's original population was largely secular, working class people, many of them Jews from north Africa and Arab states. But it has changed greatly in the past 20 years, with immigrants from the former Soviet Union, the United States and moderate-religious middle-class folk moving in.
    Ultra-Orthodox Jews, or Haredim, a term in Hebrew which means 'those who tremble before God', also began settling in Beit Shemesh in the 1990s. Estimates say they make up about 40 percent of the town's 84,000* people.
    Abutbul says the entire Haredi community is being unfairly branded by the actions of a small, extremist handful of ultra-Orthodox families who were involved in the towns most notorious conflicts.

    "It's true that in such a mixed town there are sometimes outbursts, which is natural also in Jerusalem, in (the ultra-Orthodox neighbourhood of) Mea Shearim, and it's true also in Tel Aviv, where there is conflict with other residents. That's how it is when there is a variety of residents, after all this is a microcosm of the entire country, " he said.
    A few streets down from city hall, Eli Cohen's campaign office is covered in black and yellow posters which read 'Beit Shemesh will triumph over the extremists'.

    "This decision will be fateful in determining the nature and character of Beit Shemesh. On the one hand is the side that I represent, which says there is room for everyone, ultra-Orthodox, and those who aren't. We shouldn't forget it was the traditional, Zionist Jewish community, not the ultra-Orthodox, that accepted with open arms the Haredi community to its bosom and into this city and we are happy for that. But now, the extremist mayor wants this to be a completely ultra-Orthodox city," he said.
    Some in the Haredi community feel anger toward them is part of a wider anti-religious sentiment sweeping across Israel. Haredim are about ten percent of Israel's eight million population. They are mostly unemployed and poor, relying on state benefits.
    Many Israelis resent the Haredim, who they see as burdening the economy and sponging off the state while avoiding duties, such as compulsory military service, that bind most others.
    Israel's coalition government, for the first time in a decade has no ultra-Orthodox members in it and includes political parties running on an anti-religious banner in the 2013 election making significant gains.
    Shmuel Pappenheim, a Haredi columnist and member of one of the most strict ultra-Orthodox sectors in Israel, said his community feels that war is being waged upon the Haredim.

    "The Israeli public is not anti-religious, it is anti-Haredi, they are very scared of the Haredim, who they see as alien, who want to instil norms that can't correlate with modern development."
    Beit Shemesh's original population was largely secular, working class people, many of them Jews from north Africa and Arab states. But it has changed greatly in the past 20 years, with immigrants from the former Soviet Union, the United States and moderate-religious middle-class folk moving in.
    Ultra-Orthodox Jews, or Haredim, a term in Hebrew which means 'those who tremble before God', also began settling in Beit Shemesh in the 1990s. Estimates say they make up about 40 percent of the town's 84,000 people.
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