I know it’s a small photo, but see if you can spot the difference between the top image and the bottom one:
Not only were the women photoshopped out by an ultra-Orthodox paper, but they were replaced by men.
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oh, so typical. I imagine they told themselves that looking at the images of these immodest women was sinful. Gah.
oh for the love of Pete.
I’m actually really curious to know who the men are they replaced them with. Random dudes? The men that supposedly got “passed over” for the posts? I mean, really, what kind of factors go into the decision of who to cast as a fictional cabinet member? It’s preposterous!
Oy. They also removed a few of the men. They cropped four men off at the right, and then the bearded guy, second from the right in the front row, replaced the woman in the black v-neck in the center. The other three guys are just gone. Then on the far left, they took out the men second from the left in both the first and second row. The guy in the first row got moved over to replace the woman in the colored jacket, but the one in the second row disappeared entirely.
If you go through the links all the way to the Finnish website, which has a pretty big picture, you can see that they replaced them with two guys, both in the front row second from the end on the left and right.
So… Israel, bastion of democracy and progress in the middle east, was it? >_>
Wow.
That’s….disgusting.
There are no words.
…it could lead to mixed dancing!
Sam FTW. I’m not in the slightest bit surprised though. Between bus service with mechitzot and bleach attacks in bnei brak – it was only a matter of time before women started disappearing entirely.
?!
That’s almost funny. Seriously, that’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve seen all week.
The NYT blog The Lede has a bigger version of the photo here for those who want a better look.
Jamie, Ultra Orthodox does not equal Israel. Don’t forget we have our own very special fundamentalists right here.
Seconded, Butch Fatale. Jamie, that comment smacked of the expectation of Jewish exceptionalism.
Another paper blacked them out, according to the Beeb: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7982146.stm
Hey, Jamie is right on.
Israel is frequently held up as a counter-example to Muslim fundamentalism, when in fact Jewish fundamentalism leads to anti-women violence frequently, as Faith alludes to. Israel is a theocracy, not a secular democracy.
I do not think of israel as a theocracy, but as a sort of theocratic junta, with superficial democratic trimmings, much like Egypt and Turkey (tho’ not so theocratic).
I’m not about to defend Jewish fundamentalists as better than any other kind of fundamentalist, but this was done by two privately controlled newspapers, not the government. If you want to talk about the power the ultra-Orthodox exert in Israel, there’s plenty to talk about, but this deal with the photo – as obnoxious as it is, and it’s very obnoxious – does not make Israel a theocracy.
Seconded, chingona.
shah8: You can only go with calling Turkey a theocratic junta if you count Kemalist secularism as a religion (which would be fair enough).
Thirded.
Imagine Fred Phelps photoshopping Condoleezza Rice out of a photograph, and someone commenting “See? This proves America is a theocracy.” Uhhhm… no. It points to a serious problem, but that does not mean the country IS the problem.
I’m always amazed at how anti-Semitic the comments any Israel-related post on this site are. There are any number of places here in the US that would do the same thing, but since the ultra-Orthodox (not even regular Orthodox) did it in Israel, then Israel must be a terrible place! We should condemn misogyny, not just say it’s part of a culture, therefore that culture and everything about it must be terrible.
I can see Fox News doing the same thing with a picture that has Hillary Clinton with world leaders. They’d probably insert Kissinger or something.
@Flowers
Funny, i usually think the same thing about comments on here following articles relating to Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the ever problematic tag of “Middle East” except the comment smack of islamaphobia
Uh, all we’re doing is highlighting the fact that Israel is frequently held up as a “secular democracy” by those who defend it, when in fact it is neither.
I recognize that the actions of a private newspaper do not equal the actions of a government. I am merely suggesting that in general Jewish fundamentalism is given a pass or at least ignored in the broader context of Islamic fundamentalism as a target for the right or Christian fundamentalism as a target for the left. The Israeli government does in fact give significant power and authority to the Chief Rabbinate, including but not limited to rights of marriage and burial location. Jews cannot marry non-Jews legally in Israel. It tolerates or turns a blind eye to acts of violence perpetrated against women by Orthodox Jews within Israeli society while harshly pursuing both rhetorically and legally fundamentalists of other religions. This includes but is not limited to attacking women dressed immodestly, women riding the “male” section of the bus, and the openly homosexual.
Fred Phelps is not given power by the American government. United Torah Judaism and Shas, for example, are members of the current Israeli government, and were partners of “leftist” Labor governments as well.
It is a very real problem within Israeli society. It is not anti-Semitic to point that out or to point out the irony of Israel-supporters ignoring these facts while attacking the theocratic societies of Israel’s “enemies.”
I think a far more important issue that can be raised here is the lack of israeli citizens of arab descent in the knesset. while the women may have been photoshopped out of the picture by one publication, there are no arab israelis in the cabinent period. and these people are legitimate citizens.