The anti-Gentile marriage laws in Israel are but one example of how control over the social ordering of Jewish supremacists in Israel is controlled by the ultra-orthodox—but a new case of the arrest of a Jewish woman for refusing to grant a divorce has underlined the misogyny which underlies that worldview.
According to a report in the Haaretz newspaper in Israel, a woman who has “refused for 16 years to grant her husband a divorce was put behind bars last week.”
The 60-year-old woman, a teacher, has appealed to the Supreme Court, whose president, Asher Grunis, will decide whether to keep her under arrest.
If Grunis does not rule in her favor, she will remain behind bars until the Jerusalem Rabbinical Court hears her case in July. She can then file a petition over whether the rabbinical court has the right to imprison her.
In 2001, the rabbinical court ruled that the couple’s property be divided, but the woman did not accept. She said she deserved a much greater portion of her husband’s wealth.
The husband says his wife is using the divorce bill to blackmail him. The woman, a teacher from the north, is demanding a house in central Israel and $1.5 million.
The couple married in 1987. Three months later, their only son was born. In 1996, the man filed for divorce, but the woman refused.
Over the years, the rabbinical court has imposed sanctions on the woman, including an order forbidding her to leave the country and the revocation of her driver’s license.
Around six years ago, the rabbinical court granted her husband a marriage permit and ruled that the woman must accept the divorce – a rare decision. The state, however, could not recognize the special marriage permit and still considers the couple married.
Last July, the rabbinical court ordered the woman’s imprisonment, after all sanctions failed to persuade her to accept the divorce. Copies of the decision were sent to Attorney General Yehuda
n a hearing, Amar told the woman to make an offer she would consider acceptable, but she has not made one. The case was returned to the Jerusalem Rabbinical Court, which ordered her arrest after she failed to appear at a hearing on Monday.
This case has far more bearing that just a domestic dispute. It shows that the ultra-orthodox—who are also the leaders and “students” of the vile anti-gentile hatred as laid down in the Torah—are in full control of what should be a secular aspect of any normal society.
In Israel, however, control over these aspects has been handed over to the most extreme elements of Judaism—and they are also the ones who lay down the lay regarding Jewish racial purity.
