And So They Go Into The Ghetto

Yated Ne'eman reports on the plans of the secular extremists in the Shinui party.

Kol Ha’Ir Yerushalayim weekly published two weeks ago Shinui’s plan to protect Yerushalayim’s secular neighborhoods from "religious invasion". The Shinui leaders say they are aiming to establish a secular coalition, or a secular coalition with national religious members as was done in the Sharon government. From their point of view, the enemy to be fought is the large religious community.

The Shinui plan for Yerushalayim talks about setting up various quarters in Yerushalayim which will specifically be targeted for religious Jews only. Religious Jews will not be allowed to purchase homes in secular neighborhoods. In neighborhoods declared as secular, no synagogues or religious institutions
may be built, buses will be run on Shabbos, and all municipal laws affecting the observance of Judaism such as the prohibition to sell chometz on Pesach, the ban against stores selling pork, and the closure of stores on Shabbos will be cancelled.

Concerning mixed neighborhoods, as soon as the religious residents move out, and the religious schools empty out, the schools will be closed down and no other religious schools allowed to move in. It is not clear why Shinui believes the religious families will move out instead of the secular.

Nonetheless, it is believed that liberals among Shinui members will allow certain religious institutions into their neighborhoods. For instance, Reform, Conservative, and Christian institutions will probably not arouse animosity from Shinui activists if they seek to move into "secular neighborhoods."
An activist from the United Torah Judaism party who read the Shinui platform, responded in shock, "They want to set up ghettoes and a Pale for us like they did in dark times in Jewish history. The only thing they forgot to mention in their platform is that we’ll have to wear yellow Jewish stars on our clothes."