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Even the spiritual leader of the Sephardi ultra-Orthodox Shas party, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, has come out against the petitioners seeking integration.

shafique wrote:I applaud the Shas Rabbi and the Israeli judiciary for not bowing to the pressure and allowing these guys to continue the apartheid in the school in question.

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"I cannot take part in the racism and discrimination that is taking place, which is just the tip of the iceberg," said Rabbi Yuval Sherlo, who heads the joint army-yeshiva program in Petah Tikva.
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Even the spiritual leader of the Sephardi ultra-Orthodox Shas party, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, has come out against the petitioners seeking integration. He said they should not have taken the matter to the courts.

The Shas position is very complex and not likely to win it many supporters in its community. One of the main reasons Shas has not expressed itself yet on the matter is because the elite Shas families, including the Yosef and Yishai families, send their girls to Ashkenazi schools.

The Ashkenazi Haredim treat the Mizrahim abominably. It is racism. But at least it is not violent, like the racism of the settlers toward Palestinians. The Haredim put their women at the back of the bus; the settlers not only bar Palestinians from their buses, but from the entire road at times. The Haredim erect barriers between Ashkenazim and Mizrahim in their schools; the settlers carry out ethnic cleansing under the state's aegis, like that of 25,000 residents of Hebron.

So who's the real racist here? Compared to the settlers' hilltop youth, the yeshiva boys are models of morality. But who gets castigated? The Haredi of course. When will the courts come out against settler racism as they have against Haredi racism? They themselves maintain different systems for penalizing Jews and Arabs. When will we hear about the thousands of fictitious civil service positions held by settlers - a salaried security official in every mobile home - in the same way that we hear about the Haredi parasites? And what about the thousands of soldiers who have to guard the settlers, the superfluous roads that have been built to serve them, the electricity and water supplies laid for illegal outposts? All of it, everything, paid by us, more than we pay for Torah study as a Haredi occupation.

So let's call this evil by its true name: a double standard. Cowardice works too.

Ultra-Orthodox activist ready to withdraw claims of discrimination in segregated school row
Rabbi Yoav Lalum removes petition due to threats on his life, says spiritual mentor Ya'akov Yosef.

By Yair Ettinger

An ultra-Orthodox activist said Sunday that he would retract his petition to the High Court of Justice claiming Ashkenazi parents in Immanuel were embarking on ethnic discrimination by refusing to send their daughters to school with their Sephardi parents.

Rabbi Yoav Lalum, a member of the Noar Kahalacha (religious youth) nonprofit organization, had petitioned the court with the discrimination claim that led to a High Court ruling ordering children of European and Middle Eastern origin to study together.
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Lalum's spiritual guide, Rabbi Yaakov Yosef, said earlier Sunday that Lalum was withdrawing his appeal due to recent threats on his life.
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While a majority of 72% support and 26% oppose a boycott of settlements’ products, only 38% support and 60% oppose preventing Palestinian laborers from working in settlements. While the Gaza Strip and the West Bank support the boycott of settlements’ products equally, support for preventing laborers from working in settlements is greater in the Gaza Strip, reaching 45%, than the West Bank (34%).