OK, I've got your attention. If you read my first diary Today I Become a Teacher you know that I am an American that recently moved to Israel. When I finally became a writing member of Daily Kos, I thought I'd limit my writing to teaching. I have several interesting pieces in the works. But yesterday was the Israeli election, I voted for the first time as an Israeli, and there is a story that the Western media knows nothing about that has to be shared. It is a story that we fellow progressives will appreciate and sympathize with, whether we sit on the left or right of Middle East politics. It's the story of a little known political party called Bezchutan.
Follow me below the cheesy swirl.
I'm what you might call a religious Zionist. In Israel I identify as dati leumi. Religiously that means one thing, politically it means another. I live and practice my faith as an orthodox Zionist, but I voted Zionist Union. I believe in hope, change, and the two state solution (when there is a peace partner).
But my story tonight has nothing to do with the broader election. You guy can hash it out however you want (most everything I've read on this website and others, both left and right, is utterly wrong. Americans do not understand the Israeli electorate). The story I want to tell is one of an oppressed people who have absolutely zero voice in our electorate and society. This group of people practices the majority religion, and is part of a community that has consistently strong representation in the Knesset. But this group has no voice of their own.
I speak of the Chareidi women (you might call them ultra-orthodox, I find the label ridiculous). Hundreds of thousands of women who live in insular, tight-knit communities throughout Israel, working, raising families, and trying to make ends meat in extremely tough economic circumstances. And they can vote, to be sure, according to the will of their husbands and rabbis. But there are NO female representatives in any of the Chareidi political parties. No MKs, no one in the party leadership. You will never see a Chareidi woman give a political speech. Their rabbinic leadership forbade it.
But a few women decided to stand up. They formed a political party of their own when the boys wouldn't let them run in the existing parties. Bezchutan means "by their merit (feminine)." A biblical reference. These few women made their own voice. They campaigned in their communities, demanded attention for their issues. Common sense issues like classroom space for children, hiring more teachers, dealing with the price of food and housing, opening up more job training centers for Chareidi people, and enforcing equality laws that are often ignored in Chareidi neighborhoods.
They paid a price. Their husbands were thrown out of synagogues and study halls. Their children were thrown out of schools. They were shunned by their community and made into a public embarrassment. All because these women wanted to exercise the most basic right in a democracy, to express their views. But still they campaigned all the way to the election.
Here's the tragedy... they only got 1,858. That's it. No where near the 150,000 needed to get a seat in the Knesset.
I try to teach my students that civil rights movements happen when people get involved, support a cause, and vote, even when it's unpopular. Because history tilts towards progress. But we have to take those steps. I fear that not enough steps were taken yesterday for this movement.
Why does this bother me? Every progressive cause in Israel already has supporters in the Knesset. The Arab minority will have 14 seats (14!). Heck, the chief of the Elections Commission is an Arab Supreme Court judge (apartheid my ass!). LGBT folks, women, religious reformers, and anti-Zionists all have representation. But not a single Chareidi woman. There is no one to speak for their needs. Certainly not the Chareidi men who keep women so secluded. Clearly these women want a voice, and they should have it.
Why am I bringing this up here? Because all of us progressives must fight injustice wherever we see it. And we must push for equality whenever there is inequality. We have to help those fighting for a voice when their society tells them to keep quiet and go back in the kitchen.
Hopefully in the next election (which won't be too far off) they'll have more support. Until then, I hope their cause gets the attention is deserves.