By Ira Sharkansky
JERUSALEM—More than 40 years ago I chose public administration as my specialty in political science. I still poke at it, despite being interested in other things as well.
Here I will poke at the 2009 Report on International Religious Freedom published by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor of the United States Department of State. It was prepared for Congress in compliance with Section 102(b) of the International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA) of 1998. http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/irf/2009/127213.htm
All that is bureaucratic folderol, which says that Congress mandates the State Department, among its many other duties, to monitor and report on religious freedom throughout the world, but not in the United States. More on the exclusion later.
The section on Israel and the Occupied Territories is long and detailed. It will offend Jews hyper sensitive to criticism, but is generally accurate in what it includes. It describes the considerable advantages that government policy provides to Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox Judaism, and incidents of violence and property destruction attributed to individuals against non-Jewish facilities and individuals, including Messianic Jews, i.e., individuals claiming to be Jews who have accepted Christ as their messiah.
Critics could find additional reasons to cite Israel for its lack of conforming to what is considered acceptable among politically correct Westerners. There is no mention in the Report about the restriction against a man with the surname of Cohen marrying a woman who has been divorced.
The section on the Occupied Territories is appended to that on Israel, and spends considerable verbiage criticizing Israeli restrictions on Palestinians, including closing movement from the territories during Jewish religious holidays, and the impact of the security barrier.
One item in the section on the Occupied Territories deals with ultra-Orthodox modesty squads that attack Jewish women on account of their behavior. Civil rights advocates may applaud the language, but it appears to be an issue among Jews in Israel. I recall one incident in the Mea Shaarim neighborhood of Jerusalem. The bureaucrats in the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor do not document the location attached to this allegation. Perhaps they have signed on to the Palestinian narrative that Jerusalem is Palestine.
With a stretch, one can describe the Report on Israel and the Occupied Territories as “balanced.” But it is the same stretch required to conclude that BBC and CNN are “balanced” in their coverage of Israel and Palestine. One can find criticism of all sides, but the overall taste is not friendly to Israel.
The imbalance is most apparent in what the Report does not include. I found no mention of declining Christian populations in Arab sections of Israel or Palestine. Bethlehem and Nazareth were 80 and 60 percent Christian in the late 1940s and 20 and 30 percent Christian recently. The Palestinian capital of Ramallah was once a Christian majority city. Recent estimates are that the Christian population is 25 percent of the total. A report from 2006, not authored by the State Department Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, cites a Catholic priest serving in Ramallah that classrooms have been burned, church window panes destroyed, bible study halls set on fire, and Catholic youth threatened by Muslims. http://www.asianews.it/view.php?l=en&art=5856
The State Department Report is gentle in the extreme with respect to the behavior of Palestinians. In regard to couples who would challenge the norms against Christian-Muslim marriage, it says they “encountered considerable societal and familial opposition.”
This is mild compared to the detailed description about the actions of ultra-Orthodox modesty squads. They may beat, spit, and curse, but honor killings are the specialty of Arab families. No mention of those in the State Department report.
Also missing from the document, excluded by the language of the mandate to issue one of these reports annually, are restrictions on religious freedom in the United States.
Anyone willing to consider abortion or same sex marriages in this category? The prohibitions or restraints come from religious doctrines, promoted by the faithful. Abortion has raised its ugly head once again in the Administration’s effort to bring American health care into the 20th century. The President has placed himself squarely on the side of God by opposing the financial support of abortion by anything that looks like public money.
Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox Jews also oppose abortion, but the Israeli state does not sign onto religious doctrines to the same degree as the United States Congress and White House. There were more than 20,000 abortions performed in government supported hospitals in 2008 according to latest report of the Central Bureau of Statistics.
Same sex marriages in the Holy Land? No chance of getting such a ceremony performed and officially recognized in Israel, and the effort could risk bodily harm in Palestine. However, same sex marriages performed in countries where they are legal have been registered by the Israel Ministry of Interior. It is not as routine as the registration each year of the several thousand interfaith and other marriages performed in Cyprus and elsewhere overseas.
The United States has a reputation for adhering to the Separation of Church and State. The bureaucrats in the State Department who report about religious freedom invite skeptics to question that reputation.
Sharkansky is professor emeritus of political science at Hebrew University
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