Let's talk about Israel, which claims it's the "only democracy in the Middle East" (Never mind about that pesky 2006 Palestinian election that was declared legal by George Bush, before he knew the results) But that little factoid aside, let's focus on "Israel" the Jewish state that likes to masquerade as a democracy, but which is actually a theocracy, which likes to also masquerade as a 21st century western society. Israel goes to great lengths to project an image of itself as an being just like America, only Jewish. But again, it's all hasbara.
I doubt any American women would want to trade places with her counterpart in Israel, not after reading this little eye opener below. You see, women are treated just like Palestinians in the racist state of Israel. Both are considered 2nd class citizens in Israel. Palestinians are not considered equal human beings, and women are not considered to be equal to men. In fact, should a woman want to divorce her husband, she can do so only if he agrees to "allow" it. Additionally, should she leave him without his approval, she cannot re-marry and should she have children they are considered "Bastards." And "Bastard" children cannot get married if they live in Israel. So her children would never be legally allowed to marry.
When will Americans wise up to the lie they have been sold about Israel being a Democracy and a normal society:
link According to Jewish law, a man has to agree to grant his wife a divorce of his own free will before the legal separation can proceed. "If he's incapacitated, if he's abusive, if he committed adultery, it really doesn't matter," says Susan Weiss, who runs the Center for Women's Justice. "If he doesn't say yes, you're stuck."Yeah, Israel the "GREAT" Democracy.......................
Ramit Alon, 40, was living in an Orthodox community with her husband and three children when she decided to leave her marriage.
"I got married 16, almost 17 years ago," Alon says. "We had some problems as a couple, and 4 1/2 years ago, I left. I took my kids and just ran away."
Alon says she was optimistic about what lay ahead. "I thought that after I leave, it will take some months and then I could get divorced and start again, a new life. But it's not over."
Stuck In A Marriage
Weiss says she has seen extreme cases among her organization's clients.
"We had a client whose husband tried to kill himself — he was in a vegetative state. She can't get divorced," Weiss says.
But, she says, even when the husband is "alive and well and you know where he is, but simply refuses to give his wife a divorce, she is stuck."
And that's where Alon finds herself. Her husband does not want to divorce her, and she cannot just decide to go and live with another man and bear his children, because under Jewish law, the children of the new union would be considered bastards.
They would not, for example, be able to legally get married here in the Jewish faith, Alon says.
"I have a new life now, but I can't start all over again," she says. "I can't meet someone and marry him and have kids. If I will have new kids before I have my divorce, they won't be able to marry here."
Weiss says the stigma is carried for generations.
"Very few women want to be in the position where their kids are considered mamzerim or bastards. The stigma is really great and the stigma is so bad that it goes forever," she says. "In other words, this person who's stigmatized — his children are stigmatized; his grandchildren are stigmatized; everyone is stigmatized."
