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Huge Israeli protest over school | |
(about 6 hours later) | |
The protesters resent state interference in their religious affairs | The protesters resent state interference in their religious affairs |
Ultra-Orthodox Jews have staged one of the biggest protests seen in Israel, to demand their children be educated separately from other Israelis. | |
Police said 120,000 Ashkenazi Jews rallied in Jerusalem and near Tel Aviv. | |
They turned out to support parents who refused to let their girls share classrooms with Jewish pupils of Sephardic or Middle Eastern descent. | |
The protests were triggered by a court ruling sentencing some 80 Ashkenazi parents to jail. | |
The parents face two weeks in jail for contempt of court and were due to start their sentence on Thursday. | |
'Court is fascist' | |
The Ashkenazi parents, who are of European descent, want segregated classrooms because they say Sephardi families are not religious enough. | The Ashkenazi parents, who are of European descent, want segregated classrooms because they say Sephardi families are not religious enough. |
Some 100,000 protesters marched through Jerusalem with the 40 couples, who planned to hand themselves over to the police in compliance with a Supreme Court ruling. | |
About 10,000 police officers were mobilised in the city. | |
Marchers brandished placards and banners. "The Supreme Court is fascist," one poster read. | |
One protester, parent and rabbi, Meir Elmaliach, told the crowd from a makeshift stage: "We are strong because God is with us." | |
A similar protest in Bnei Brak near Tel Aviv drew about 20,000 people, said police. | |
The families at the centre of the legal battle come from a strictly observant sect of Hasidic Jews called Slonim, who have Ashkenazi lineage. | |
'Not a drop of racism' | |
They have pulled their children out of Beit Yaakov girls' school in the West Bank settlement of Immanuel, and set up lessons elsewhere in the area. | |
The Slonim parents say their objections are based on differences in religious observance between the Ashkenazi and Sephardi traditions. | The Slonim parents say their objections are based on differences in religious observance between the Ashkenazi and Sephardi traditions. |
Yakov Litzman, an MP from the ultra-Orthodox Ashkenazi party, United Torah Judaism (UTJ), told army radio there was "not a drop of racism" in the parents' decision. | |
"There is a set of rules [in the ultra-Orthodox community]. We don't want televisions in the home, there are rules of modesty, we are against the internet," Mr Litzman was quoted as saying by AFP news agency. | |
"I don't want my daughter to be educated with a girl who has a TV at home." | "I don't want my daughter to be educated with a girl who has a TV at home." |
The court had given the parents until Wednesday to send their children back to school, but they refused. |