Let’s begin at the beginning: Israel is a theocracy. Not a democracy. To be more precise, it is an ethno-theocracy, in which a single religion enjoys supremacy over others; and that religion controls dominant levers of social and political state power. This may seem somewhat afield from the post title, but bear with me.
Every Lag B’Omer, over 100,000 Haredim gather on Har Meron outside Tzfat (Safed) to commemorate the death of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai. He was an ancient mystic sage, and reputed author of the seminal Kabbalistic text, the Zohar. Bonfires are lit on the surrounding hills and they gather in multitudes to pray for the great rabbi’s soul.
As with many other world religious pilgrimage ceremonies, there is great danger when hundreds of thousands or millions of human beings crowd into a limited space. There have been such stampedes before at Hindu sites and the Kabaa in Mecca, where far more have died than the 45 who lost their lives this week.
My purpose with this post is not to blame the victims, nor is it to savage the Haredim in general. I’m making a broader point.
This article points out that the site of the Lag B’Omer ritual is under the “extra-territorial” control of the Haredim themselves. Though there were 5,000 police officers present, they don’t see themselves as responsible for safety on site. They don’t control the hundreds of buses filled with pilgrims which arrive from across the country. There were no monitors, either Haredi or police, at or near the ill-fated passageway in which the victims lost their lives.
This tragedy points to a key contradiction at the heart of Israeli society: it is a state based on an irreversible contradiction. It claims to be a secular western democracy; and it claims to be a Jewish state. At one time the idea of a state based on religion may have seemed resolvable as long as the latter was defined as other western societies do. In a multi-ethnic society, different religions can only co-exist with tolerance and mutual respect. When these competing religions clash or when one religion claims supremacy over the state, then society comes apart at the seams.
Over the past decades, Israel has lost whatever small amount of such tolerance ever existed. The state has been hijacked by a particularly intolerant, virulent, exclusivist, and supremacist brand of Judaism. Personally, I prefer not even calling this Judaism. I distinguish between this pagan cult by calling it Judeanism, since it is entirely alien from the religion that most Diaspora Jews and even a significant minority of Israeli Jews) recognize.
Further, the numbers of religious and secular Jews is almost equal. Yet major elements of the country’s social life are controlled by the Orthodox: birth, death, marriage and divorce, among others. This marks a fundamental violation of democratic principles and essentially disenfranchises secular Jews, who are forced to concede to the authority of the Orthodox in matters vital to life and death. This division is exacerbated when rabbinical leaders voice hateful statements about non-Orthodox forms of Jewish worship.
The tragedy at Har Meron was terrible, but almost inevitable given the compromise Israeli leaders like Ben Gurion forged at the establishment of the state. When religion and state are co-equal, then chaos results. No one is in control. In this case, the state ceded whatever authority it had, assuming religious authorities would exercise their authority responsibly. But they absconded from theirs and this was the result.
The normally reliably pro-Israel Times of Israel even published a report saying that many Haredi Jews themselves have come to agree with at least part of my assessment. Neither TOI nor Haredim of course acknowledge the more far-reaching parts of my analysis, but at least they do regarding the disaster itself. And that is something.
There is talk of establishing a national committee of inquiry to probe the incident and determine lessons from it. Netanyahu has not yet agreed, but he is desperate to avoid responsibility as he flounders trying to create a new government. In fact, he has exploited the tragedy for his own political advantage by asking the president to extend his mandate to form a governing coalition by another two weeks. It seems likely he will come to accept the commission as a suitable way to spread the blame over as many entities as possible.
But it remains unclear whether the report will point to what seems an almost inevitable fact: the Haredim have proven incapable of policing this event. Responsibility must be ceded to civil authorities. If the former will not do so, then it must be wrenched from their hands. Hands that have proven unwilling or unable to provide the safety that is demanded.
The failure to ensure safe conditions only points to the failures of the Jewish-democratic conception of Israel. A continuing refusal to act on these lessons after such a catastrophe will only underline the ongoing tragedy that the modern state of Israel has become.
I don’t agree that theocracy is the problem.
There was a stampede in Denmark at a book festival, the Hillsborough Football stampede too. In your country there have been many stampedes.
We do not know what caused the stampede in Israel yet. Let the enquiry complete and not blame theocracy.
I don’t believe the Rabbis cannot manage crowds. Please…
@ Abdal: Haredim have proven that they cannot manage the Meron event. State reports have repeatedly warned of catastrophe and been ignored. THere is no time to wait to confirm what is obvious to all but apologists like yourself. And we certainly do know what caused the stampede. IT’s in the Times of Israel report to which I linked (which you clearly neglected to read).
With your clearly fake e mail address and name, you’ve raised a red flag regarding who you are and what you’re doing here.
I raise the black and white flag of the Khilafah, not a red one.
Israel may seem like a theocracy but it isn’t a theocracy. It is an ethno-nationalist state in which the Rabbis are given the task of deciding who is Jewish or not. I.e. who is a member of the privileged group. Of course they enjoy many privileges and perks themselves but that does not a theocracy make Iran approximates to a theocracy but it isn’t an inherently racist state because Muslims aren’t privileged. Much like Saudi Arabia, Islam is used to justify the oppression of Muslims not entitle them.
Israel has turned being Jewish into a settler nationality or herrenvolk. Judaism has always been used to legitimise Zionism but Zionism is not and never has been a religious affair
Tony, you are wide of the mark.
The Iranian regime privileges Shi’a Muslims and Persian speakers.
A small fraction of the population belonging to recognized non-Muslim religious minorities, such as Jews and Bahai, are second-class citizens.
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2018-01-30/iran-s-secret-shunning-of-a-minority-faith
Worse off, are the 10% of the Iranian population that is Sunni Muslim rather than Shi’a.
The largely non-Persian, Kurds, Baluchis, and Arabs, are subject to suppression.
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/north-africa-west-asia/no-country-minorities-inequality-state-repression-iran/-iran/
@ Veni: No, YOU are wide of the mark. And I don’t permit lies, propaganda or ignorance here disparaging Muslims.
The Iranian regime is majority Shia. I don’t know a country in the region including Israel which doesn’t discriminate against minority religious groups. There are Sunni groups in Iran which are exploited by the Mossad, the Saudis and others seeking to stir up dissension within the country. So yes, there is tension and conflict between the groups.
Jews are most definitely NOT second-class citizens. In fact, Iran has the second largest Jewish community in the region outside Israel. Jews have seats reserved for them in the Majlis and Judaism is a recognized religion. Bahai are another story. Iranians believe them to be heretics and blasphemers and there is great prejudice against them. But Israeli Jews don’t treat their Palestinian brothers and sisters much better. And speaking of internal dissent within relgions–how about how Israeli Orthodox Jews treat non-Orthodox Jews in Israel? That’s not pretty either, is it?
Don’t peddle Eli Lake’s garbage in my comment threads. He’s an asset of the Israel Lobby, if not Israeli intelligence.
You are done in this thread.
Lets just state that Israel is an apartheid racist/sectarian imperial Frankenstein that has escaped its creators grasp and has gone rogue on its toxic mix of falsified religiosity, foundations linked to international finance, British totalitarian imperial global megalomania, lust for oil, and that it’s ‘Samson option’ mirrors the nihilist luger-in-the-bunker option Adolf resorted to when ‘the German people failed him’.
The rest seems reminiscent of arguing about medieval angels on pinheads as the genocide of Palestine rolls on behind the iron dome of media $i£€nced under an avalanche of hasbara £i€$.
Or is that ‘antiSemitic’?
@ Bobby S: Yeah the bit about “international finance” is anti-Semitic. The rest is just over the top bullshit. You’re now banned.
@ Tony greenstein: After thinking about your comment for a while, I’ve edited this passage in the post. While I don’t agree with you completely, I do agree that I need to expand my definition of the Israeli state. So I would call it an ethno-theocracy. It is an ethnocracy as you note because it privileges one religion over others. But it is a theocracy because that religion enjoys political and social control of major levels of state power.
Zionism began as a secular movement. THere I agree with you. But once Ben Gurion decided he must have the Orthodox within the political consensus and gave them veto power and control of key elements of social policy, he opened the door to the theocracy which has ensued. Today’s Likud (a part which began as a secular nationalist one) has been hijacked/co-opted by the Orthodox.
Meron founded in 1949 on the ruins of the depopulated Palestinian village of Meiron.
There were 154 people in Meron in 1922, and the number rose in 1931 to 189 people, including 158 Arabs and 31 Zionists (16.4%), and in 1948 336 people. Among the village flags was Jalal Kaush, who blew up the French embassy in Beirut in 1957 in retaliation for French crimes in Algeria and he is considered the first martyr of the Palestinian resistance on Lebanese soil.
Meron was not founded in 1922. As early as 1565 it is mentioned in books the celebrations that took place there. They most likely go back further but if you read Hebrew you can find many ref to them in 16th century.
@ avram Stern gang: Oui didn’t say it was founded in 1922. He noted how many inhabitants it had in that year. Nor does it matter when it was founded or by whom. The Palestinian village that did exist there in 1948 was destroyed by Zionist forces during Nakba. Any ancient Jewish presence there is no justification for Judeo-ethnic cleansing.
the Jordanians or the Iraqis were firing artillery in the ’48 war into Safed. from Meron. Check a little bit of history. So they were beaten.
@ Stern gang: You’re an idiot to refuse to distinguish between the indigenous Palestinian residents of Meiron who lived there for centuries and Arab armies who attacked Israel after it declared independence in defiance of Arab warnings against doing so. Your refusal to acknowledge this is racist at its core. Could also be ignorance or stupidity. But no matter. You have been warned. Another comment rule violation and you will be banned.
As the Quran and Torah say, Allah gave the land to Bani Israel through Musa (a.s.) including Meron.
@ Abdal: As I wrote earlier, you’re a fraud and a fake. I don’t permit pro-Israel apologists to Arabize their habasra efforts. You get an automatic block.
A totally avoidable and tragic loss of life.
Jewish scholar: If only women would be stronger in modesty.
The truth is from the other side. This was a state planned massacre that seems to have gone wrong. Luckily not everyone is waiting for the government to start an inquiry. Much evidence has already been collected that shows the police are responsible. The real question is who gave the orders.
https://www.rivkalevy.com/accident-or-murder-in-meron-the-pdf/