The deepening tensions between ultra-Orthodox extremists and more moderate Jews that are roiling Israel "will tear Israeli society apart" unless cooler heads prevail, the nation's minister of religious affairs told Reuters on Wednesday.
His comments follow growing alarm over clashes between extremist sects within Israel's small but growing ultra-Orthodox community, and more moderate and secular Jews in the country.
The minister, Yaacov Margy, decried to Reuters an incident last month in which ultra-Orthodox men harassed and spat on 8-year-old girl Naama Margolese, who attends a religious girls' school in Beit Shemesh, a city that has been a flashpoint in the tensions.
The men claimed she was dressed immodestly -- her attire did not meet their specifications of propriety -- and called her a whore. The ultra-Orthodox protesters see the school as an intrusion on their traditional neighborhood.
"If they ganged up on an 8-year-old girl, this is something that must be uprooted. We have a police force, courts - anyone who is violent must be dealt with. But we don't have to go crazy," said Margy, who said the media has blown the incidents as well as protests by ultra-Orthodox Jews out of proportion.
"If we have a problem in Israeli society we should deal with it through dialogue," he told Reuters. "I call on all people in the media and the extremists on both sides, crazy people: 'climb down off the roof'."
The tensions have come to a head recently, with extremist groups within the ultra-Orthodox community increasingly trying to impose their interpretation of Judaism on the rest of society. They have pushed to segregate the sexes in public venues, seeking to impose separations on sidewalks, buses and other arenas.
Beit Shemesh is a city of 100,000 where an ultra-Orthodox community comprised roughly half the city’s population.
Signs posted in Beit Shemesh urge women to dress conservatively. The AP reports that "modesty patrols" keep tabs on women's attire, and members have flung stones at offenders.
Ultra-Orthodox Jews have responded by claiming they're the subject of societal persecution. In a protest last week, ultra-Orthodox children were dressed up as Jews imprisoned in Nazi concentration camps - sporting stripped inmate outfits and wearing yellow stars of David - and carted around in a back of a truck.
The chilling images elicited widespread condemnation.
"We must leave the Holocaust and its symbols outside the arguments in Israeli society," said Moshe Zanbar, who represents many Holocaust survivors, according to the AP. "This harms the memory of the Holocaust."
Ultra-Orthodox groups have defended such tactics, saying the mainstream media has incited Israelis against the community, which represents about 10 percent of Israel's population, but is growing and coming into contact with more of the secular society.
"The idea was to convey a clear and simple message: that wild incitement against the ultra-Orthodox community will not be tolerated," Rabbi Yitzhak Weiss, a protest organizer, told the AP. "The Israeli media's incitement is reminiscent of the German media's before World War II."
The protests have been condemned by Israeli leaders.
Israeli President Shimon Peres recently depicted Israel as a nation in the throes of a battle for its soul, Reuters reported. Defense Minister Ehud Barak saw Saturday's protest as the "crossing of a red line," the AP reported.
Some secular Israelis have grown concerned by the specter of an Iranian-style religious state, a concern Margy sought to soothe on Wednesday.
"Every morning I go to look at the window and check whether I see some pro-Khomeini protest at my doorstep," he told Reuters. "All I see are green fields, a good atmosphere and good neighbors."
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