2 Arabs narrowly escape lynching in Jerusalem

[Scurrilous]

Dozens of ultra-Orthodox Jews assault two Palestinians in Jerusalem Tuesday evening; 'people in yeshiva were yelling: murder the Jews who protect Arabs,' says Jewish man who saved lynch victims' lives

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3571913,00.html

<snip>

"Two Palestinians narrowly escaped a lynching attempt in Jerusalem Tuesday evening after they were assaulted by dozens of ultra-Orthodox Jews. The two Arabs were wounded, while a Jewish resident who protected them with his body was stabbed.

"Blood was boiling, and these crazy people almost killed me," the Jewish man told Ynet. The police are looking into the incident and searching for the attackers.

According to eyewitness testimonies, an angry mob stormed the backyard of a home located near a Jerusalem yeshiva. The family at the home was sitting shiva at the time after a relative died.

"Suddenly, while we were sitting shiva because my father-in-law passed away, two Palestinians stormed into the house bleeding and bruised, following by an angry mob," the Jewish man, who asked that his name not be published, told Ynet. "Dozens of ultra-Orthodox from the nearby yeshiva entered the backyard and severely beat up the two Palestinians, while we, still shocked, were trying to break it up and protect the Palestinians."

<snip>

"The man and his relatives stopped the mob with their bodies and pushed them out of their backyard, while keeping the two Arabs at home until the anger subsided.

"Two ultra-Orthodox guys from the yeshiva's balcony yelled: 'Murder the Jews who protect Arabs,'" the man said. "The two Arabs told us that they had a dispute with the Orthodox owner of a nearby store. After they argued, the masses arrived and started beating them up. We waited a few minutes for things to relax, and then my son and I took them out to a nearby alley, so they can go home."

[ChairmanAgnostic]

1. piece is at hand.

mishun accomplished.

[Tempest]

2. Gotta love those religious extremists

And here I thought it was just Muslims who advocated violence.

[sellitman]

3. There are folks off the rail in every religion.

Too much of anything is unhealthy. IMHO

[Behind the Aegis]

4. Bingo.

Ultra religious = alcoholism (of sorts)

[notfullofit]

5. Muddles the brain. nt

[LeftishBrit]

11. Agreed!

[vadger1]

6. orthodox

I think people treat Israel as too secular of a state. There are some serious religious hardliners in that society and they exist on all levels of the political system.

This is just depressing.

[Behind the Aegis]

7. Israel is a secular state.

The fact their are religious nutcases is NO different than in parts of the world....I give you FRED PHELPS of the US....'g-dhatesfags.com' (put in www. and take out the -.)

[Sezu]

8. WHAT??????? There are fundie nuts elsewhere than Israel?

Who woulda thunk it?

[Violet_Crumble]

9. The poster didn't say Israel wasn't a secular country...

What they said was: 'people treat Israel as too secular of a state.' and went on to point out correctly that there are religious extremistts in the Israeli govt.

As yr trying to claim that it's no different than in other parts of the world, maybe you could point out where extremist religious parties or individuals are part of say the New Zealand, Australian, or any European government? And if as several of you are making out in this thread, it's more important to point out that violent religious extremists exist in every society, then why is it that none of you point that out in threads about Muslim religious extremists?

[LeftishBrit]

10. Same is true in most places unfortunately

The UK is a very secular country these days (less than half even believe in God); but religious nuts have had a poisonous influence in Northern Ireland in particular until very recently, and still do to an extent.

I am gobsmacked at times at the influence of the religious right in America.

There are serious religious hardliners in most places - even those that are far from theocracies - and they cause lots of trouble all round.

[Violet_Crumble]

13. Israel's situation when it comes to politics and religion is quite different than that of the UK..

I'm not quite as up with UK politics as I'd like to be, but I can't think of any religious parties that have held Cabinet positions. And I'm pretty sure that in the UK people can have a civil union, which they can't in Israel. The problem with the power the religious folk hold when it comes to politic in Israel stems from when Israel came into being and Ben-Gurion wanted to get the religious folk onside and to do so he gave them power over some aspects of Israeli life. While he would have seen it as a lesser of two evils thing, and considered it important to get the agreement he needed for Israel to become a state, Israel's not going anywhere now, and any power the religious folk have should be removed from them...

[LeftishBrit]

15. No religious parties have held cabinet office in the UK since forever

However, bishops do have a vote in the House of Lords; which I disagree with.

I think a lot comes down, as I've said before, to the electoral system. The UK and Israel are at opposite extremes for countries with parliamentary systems. We have a first-past-the-post system, which often distorts the results given that there are more than two parties (Thatcher and Blair got parliamentary majorities way out of proportion to their actual majority of votes); but at least means that fringe-nut parties, whether religious or, as is more likely here, ultra-nationalist, tend to be kept out of power. Israel has almost-pure PR, which often leads to small religious parties holding a government hostage.

'any power the religious folk have should be removed from them'

I agree; religion when mixed with party politics usually has a nasty effect.

BTW, the New Israel Fund campaigns in favour of religious tolerance and pluralism, and against religious intrusions into Israeli law, as well as for other causes that I support, such as equality and justice for Israeli Arabs and other minoriy groups:

www.newisraelfund.org

[LeftishBrit]

12. Disgusting nutcases.

I hate the extreme Religious Right; and that goes for all religions.

[pelsar]

14. disgusting?....

i'm afraid i plead guilty to fanatically anti religion.....and it all started when i was with this semi religious girl in a religious neighborhood, it was about 10:30pm and we were all alone....when the "moral thugs" came knocking on the door.......

need i say more?