The Status Quo

By David Verveer

I am proud to live in a democratic country, an island of humanistic freedom, in the middle of backward autocratic Islam regimes. Having said this, I have to admit that due to historic and semi-religious reasons, my country has laws which are unjust, and horrible cruel to people who for reasons which are illogical can not and do not want to live according medieval Talmudic rules.

Israel has not yet succeeded in separating religion from the state, because a coalition agreements made 60 years ago by our first Prime Minister David Ben Gurion and the religious political parties, a status quo on religious rulings stagnate justice and common sense in Israel ever since.

In Israel, the term refers to an informal agreement conducted in 1947 between the secular leadership of the Zionist movement in Palestine and leaders of the Orthodox Jews, which created a framework for the establishment of the laws in the country. This agreement lays out ground rules for the relationship between state and religion in four major issues: Shabbat, education, Kosher, and matrimonial law. It has been more or less maintained throughout the country's existence.

Especially the last, the matrimonial law does injustice to citizens with other or no-religious affiliations, in Israel a Christian can not marry with a Jew. Even though, if they marry abroad, the state recognizes the marriage, however, if the woman isn't Jewish, their children are not considered Jewish. Mixed marriages are frowned upon, and the non Jewish partner will meet problems from birth till death, he even will not be buried at the municipal cemetery.

But this status quo deals also with other rulings, in Israel, in places which did not have on Shabbat regular bus services, after 50 years still remain without public transport from nightfall Friday night until one hour after nightfall Saturday night.
There are some towns with public transport on Shabbat, for historical reasons or because they have a mixed Arab Jewish population.

In Jerusalem, the very orthodox group of Ashkenazi Jews (Nature Karta) rioted last week, as the Municipality opened on Shabbat a gratis parking plot, in order to cope with the congestion of vehicles serving the tourists visiting the old city and holy places.
They burned waste bins, broke traffic lights, fought with the police, all based on (in their opinion) a break in the status quo agreements.

Sale of non kosher food is prohibited inside the city perimeter, which caused the blossoming of malls on the outskirts of the towns, that are generally open on Shabbat, but this of course does not serve the poor, who do not posses private transport to reach the malls.
I am of course revering only to the Jewish municipalities, and the Arab towns are crowded on the Sabbath with Jews from the region, this of course, indirectly promotes the integration.

I don't expect that in the near future there will be any change in the status quo laws, as the religious parties are needed in order to get a majority government, medieval, unjust, but facts of life.