Religious Extremism | The American Task Force on Palestine

Official Statement from CRIHL in response to the acts of desecration of the Greek Orthodox Monastery
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Council of Religious Institutions of the Holy Land
February 7, 2012 - 12:00am

JERUSALEM--The Council of Religious Institutions of the Holy Land condemns the acts of desecration and graffiti of the Greek Orthodox Monastery in Jerusalem last night. The Council calls upon people from all faiths – Christians, Jews and Muslims – to respect all Holy Places and sites for all three religions, and strongly discourages extremists’ behaviour that exploits or involves religious holy places in a political/territorial dispute. In the name of the Chief Rabbinate of Israel, The Ministry of Waqf and Religious Affairs at the PA and The Heads of the Local Churches of the Holy Land,

Israel is being hijacked
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Roni Brizon - (Opinion) January 25, 2012 - 12:00am

Kadima Chairwoman Tzipi Livni said in weekend interviews that Israel faces three existential problems: One on the diplomatic-security front, another on the socioeconomic front, and yet another on the religious-cultural front. Ms. Livni is both right and wrong. The three issues are in fact three sides of one problem: What will Israel look like in the future and who will be shaping its national character?

Sexism and the state of Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Independent
by Catrina Stewart - (Analysis) January 10, 2012 - 12:00am

As dusk falls in Mea Shearim, Jerusalem's most pious neighbourhood, black-clad and hatted Jewish men hurry home along the narrow streets lined by medieval-style houses where lights burn dimly in darkened windows. Less than half a mile away, young Israelis mix in bustling bars in central Jerusalem, anathema to this religious ultraorthodox community that has tried its hardest to hide itself away from the temptations of secular life, and ensure a rigorous separation between men and women.

If the extremists get their way
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Shaul Arieli - (Opinion) January 9, 2012 - 12:00am

One recent high-profile solution for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the establishment of a binational state instead of two states. Its logic is comparable to an effort to put two people who couldn't agree on the placement of their two separate beds into one bed. The idea has been put forth by people who see no hope for peace. It has also been advocated by proponents of a "state of all its citizens," but particularly by those who subscribe to the concept that they must "possess the land which the Lord your God giveth you."

Israel Police struggling to suppress Jewish extremists in West Bank, says senior officer
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Chaim Levinson, Jonathan Lis - January 5, 2012 - 12:00am

Israel Police has been unsuccessful in running its agents in the West Bank, a senior police officer said Thursday, adding that officers have been struggling to gather evidence on crimes committed by right-wing activists. Haim Rahamim, head of the investigations and intelligence wing of the Judea and Samaria District in the West Bank, made the statement during a discussion at the Knesset's Constitution, Law, and Justice Committee on law enforcement in the territories.

Israel’s new enemy
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Asharq Alawsat
by Hussein Shobokshi - (Opinion) January 3, 2012 - 12:00am

The extremism that has shamefully started to appear now in some media outlets does not come from the Middle East, and does not come from countries inside the Islamic world; rather it comes from inside Israel itself. Today the voices of violence, domination and force are coming from the traditional orthodox Jews, who make up nearly 10 percent of the current Israeli population. They now have the loudest voices and are influencing the street more effectively.

Settlement outposts at root of Jewish violence in West Bank
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
by Edmund Sanders - December 29, 2011 - 12:00am

For months many Israelis shrugged off the mosque burnings, the uprooted Palestinian olive trees and even the death threats against Jewish leftists. But when young settlers this month vandalized army bases and stoned Israeli soldiers, the question of Jewish terrorism turned into a national emergency. The recent flare-up in settler violence has puzzled many because it comes when there are no peace talks that might lead to land concessions, Palestinian attacks in the West Bank have dropped to new lows, and Israel is led by a conservative government that is expanding settlement construction.

A spitting incident sets off Israeli frustration with Jewish zealotry
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Joshua Mitnick - December 27, 2011 - 12:00am

The harassment of an 8-year-old girl by ultra-Orthodox Jews in the Jerusalem suburb of Beit Shemesh is shaking Israel’s self image to the core, stirring nationwide outrage about escalating religious zealotry and creeping public segregation of women.

Our laws favor Jews
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Moshe Ronen - (Opinion) December 21, 2011 - 12:00am

One cannot argue with the facts. Serious, in-depth examinations undertaken many years ago already proved that there are no equal laws for Jews and Arabs in the territories conquered by Israel in 1967. Then-Deputy Attorney General Yehudit Karp was appointed to look into this exact question in 1982 and found that clear bias exists in favor of Jewish suspects. The Shamgar Committee established in 1994 in the wake of the murder of Muslim worshippers by Dr. Baruch Goldstein confirmed Attorney Karp’s conclusions, and added that nothing has changed since.

'Price tag' slogans painted on Hebron mosque
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
December 20, 2011 - 12:00am

HEBRON (Ma'an) -- A Hebron village mosque was spray-painted with racist slogans on Monday, locals said, in the fourth such attack in two weeks. Suspected extremist settlers daubed "price tag" and "Yitzhar" on the walls of the mosque in Bani Naim, which lies opposite the Kiryat Arba settlement. Yitzhar settlement in the northern West Bank is notorious for so-called price tag incidents, in which settlers exact revenge on Palestinians and their property for Israeli government policies towards unauthorized settler outposts.