The witch hunt

The Israeli public has heard countless warnings over the years of what is likely to develop with relations between religious and secular people, but it decided to ignore them. In 1998, Seffy Rachlevski published his book "Messiah's Donkey." The book dealt with extremist tendencies in religious society versus the apathy and arrogance of the secular public. When the book was published, Rachlevski himself became a target of attack. He had to endure bitter criticism and ridicule; it was alleged that he lacked the necessary tools and methodology to draw the conclusions he reached. In addition, it was claimed that he was inciting a schism between different groups of people. It is only unfortunate that no one thought to heed his warnings.

Today the cat is out of the bag: women are more and more absent from public and private spaces, yet it still seems that no one is really taking action. No one senses that a tremendous threat to Israeli society is already here. Only recently did former Mossad chief Efraim Halevy warn that the threat of religious extremists on our society is more dangerous than the Iranian threat. Halevy was silenced at once and nothing changed. But over the last few days, something encouraging has happened: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed public dismay and President Shimon Peres criticized the deprivation. At the same time, the Knesset convened a special emergency meeting to discuss the matter.

But condemnation is not enough. Until all those involved come to their senses and eradicate the discrimination of women, it might just be too late. The exclusion of women is not just an external expression, almost surreal, but rather a profoundly open manifestation of a phenomenon. Discrimination against women can tear up both society and democracy.

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We must remember that under the darkest regimes, since the dawn of history, women were the primary victims within any rotten society. This is how it was during the witch hunts of the 15th century, and thus it is in the 21st century, under the Taliban in Afghanistan. These cases, we are talking about societies controlled by a cruel and depraved tyranny. In our case, Israel, we have a democracy, intended to protect us against these dangerous forces.

To eradicate the phenomenon of discrimination against women from its roots, including their exclusion from public spaces, all the democratic factors in Israel must unite to tackle the problem. The way to deal with it cannot be just empty condemnations. We must recognize that we have to deal with this phenomenon aggressively and immediately; no time for idle chatter. In practice, the Knesset must legislate harsh punishments for anyone caught trying to exclude women or discriminate against them in any way.

The time for talking is over; the time for action is here. The exclusion of women is a gross and blatant violation of our human rights. Anyone who maintains the point of view that they can discriminate against women must be dealt with immediately by the law. We must quickly judge these criminals who violate women's rights, as well as the perpetrators of hate crimes in general.

If we don't do it now, we will drown in extreme racism, oppression and darkness. We don't want this, but the clock is ticking and the days of calamity are upon us. We must restore proper order in our society.

The writer is founder and CEO of New Family: The Organization for the Advancement of Family Rights.

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