In this respect Israel resembles, for example, Iran. Iran officially calls itself an Islamic Republic—the kind of constitutional self-identification that is comparable to Israel’s new basic law about self-determination being something only for Jews. Iran does officially recognize some (though not all) minority religions, and it reserves seats in its legislature for Christians, Jews, and Zoroastrians. But everyone realizes that the state religion of Shia Islam has preference over all others in many ways that are politically as well as religiously significant.
The most extreme pattern of religious preference at the expense of the rights of others is in Saudi Arabia. The kingdom considers the Koran to be its constitution. Open practice of any religion other than Islam is prohibited. Farther east there is Pakistan, which from its birth identified itself as the home and refuge for South Asian Muslims, much as Israel has identified itself as the home and refuge for diaspora Jews. Religious intolerance and impairment of the rights of non-Muslims, including through blasphemy laws, prevails today in Pakistan.
Even places in Israel’s neighborhood that do not have a single dominant religion exhibit religious preferences outweighing wider human and political rights. If you are Lebanese, for example, forget about ever seeking the country’s presidency unless you happen to be a Maronite Christian—despite that faith representing a declining proportion of the country’s population.
More generally, Israel has increasingly come to resemble the surrounding region in its social mores, especially with the rise in numbers and influence of ultra-Orthodox Jews and the political parties that represent them. Specifically with regard to
segregation of the sexes and even, occasionally, religiously-motivated
abusive treatment or women or girls, the resemblance is closest to scenes elsewhere in the region where fundamentalist Islam prevails.
opcorn2: (Not that I disagree, but this will be one hell of a debate.)
