On this week’s episode of “Top Story,” JNS editor-in-chief Jonathan Tobin speaks about the disruption by secular “pro-democracy” protestors of a Yom Kippur prayer service in Tel Aviv’s Dizengoff Square.
According to Tobin, the problem is not just the intolerance the protesters displayed but the hypocrisy of Israel’s Supreme Court.
Tobin notes that while the court has intervened in the past to protect the right of non-Orthodox women to pray at Jerusalem’s Western Wall—whether or not it conformed to the traditions of the place—in Tel Aviv, it upheld the legality of a municipal statute that for all intents and purposes bans Orthodox Jewish prayer in public spaces, without any concern for the right of individuals to practice their faith.
Those who claim that the country’s “democracy” activists are somehow defending a truly liberal cause must rethink their valorization of a movement that seems more intent on suppressing its opponents than defending individual rights, he argues.
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