RELIGION JO A The Merchant Media Bias Continued from preceding page Management and Employees Convey Best Wishes To Their Customers and Friends For A Very Healthy and Happy NEW YEAR TROY 689-0900 4050 Rochester Wattles/Rochester SOUTHFIELD 354-6505 29525 NMI_ Hwy. Betw. 12 & 13 Mile BIRMINGHAM 433-3000 254 W. Maple Wabeek Bldg: S./ Advertising in The Jewish News Gets Results Place Your Ad Today. tail 354 6060 - y 9 ood 9 ood fziEncis arul aftfi 49..1212112,Ess witfi y ou t4tou9 out tE combz9 y zaz izrizri `MIK' n3V5 The Mitnick Families Charlotte and Herbert Randy, Barry, Halye and Robyn Marsha, Ronald, Scott and Rachel FRIDAY, • SEPT ' 25, 1987 and this right is not limited to the neighborhoods in which they live. They have the right to go into other neighborhoods and yell "Shabbos, Shabbos," without interference from the police or other citizens provided, of course, that they are acting peaceably. This basic right has been infringed as the Jerusalem police have confined them to Orthodox areas. And this is not the most serious of the ef- forts Of Jerusalem officials to ghettoize the Orthodox. Our brethren who are so earnest in defense of the right of Nazis to march in Skokie, with its large Jewish popula- tion, have yet to be heard from on this one. In dealing with the demon- strations, which essentially were peaceful, the Jerusalem police engaged in violent and deplorable conduct of the sort which we would strongly pro- test against if it were directed against fellow Jews living in the United States. "Over- reaction" is far too mild a term to describe the clubbing of demonstrators, • such as I have seen in television reports. The sadistic glee with which police beat persons who weren't resisting is a sight that I will not forget. "Police riot" is,an apprdpriate description of what happened. News reports tell of the police using high-pressure water cannons to disperse the crowds, with the aid of charg- ing horses. I wonder how we would regard such actions if they occurred in our neighborhoods. In addition, the cannons were filled not with ordinary , water but with some yellow concoction which stains garments and is not easy to remove. Here are people dressed in their Sabbath clothing — in many cases the only decent clothing they have — and, by and large, they are peaceful demonstra- tors or bystanders, and the _police have no better ap- proach than a tactic that has nothing to do with keeping the peace and a lot to do with gratuitous sadism. So • far as I know, there haven't been any protests against the excesses of the Jerusalem police. Nor, so far as I know, have there been any protests — or, for that matter, even ques- -tions — regarding the official policy of Jerusalem to at- tempt to confine the growth of Orthodox population to their own' neighborhoods or to designated Orthodox areas and to take affirmative action to deter the Orthodox from settling in parts of Jerusalem where secularists pre- dominate. This apartheid policy, so violative of basic civil liber-' ties and so inherently repug- nant, has been welcomed by ersatz civil libertarians of a secularist mold as an en- lightened way of preventing the further deterioration of Jerusalem into a holy city. The Jerusalem Post, with its skewed view of civil rights when it is an Orthodox ox that is being gored, has repeatedly reported on the ghetto concept. Its resident expert on the subject is Abraham Rabinovich and he has just contributed a piece to The --New Republic (September 14 and 21) which bears some examation. It has the remarkable title of "Jerusalem's Rampaging Rabbis," though there isn't a The Law of Return figures prominently in secularist-religious conflict. single line in the article which mentions or even- sug- gests the notion of "rampag- ing - rabbis" — not in Jeru- salem or anywhere else. In his article, Rabinovich describes how the secularists are organizing to "divert the seemingly organic growth of the haredim" or ultra Or- thodox by "blocking rezoning that would permit the hare- dim to build extra syna- gogues, ritual baths, - and yeshivoth in the non-haredi quarters of Ramot — facilities essential to haredi communal organization. At the same time, they are seeking to pro- vide these areas with pools, tennis courts, horseback riding, and other facilities, not only as an attraction for seculars but as a turnoff for the haredim." Elsewhere, Rabinovich tells us that "city officials have been urging that the haredim be dire'cted to a new develop- ment to be constructed in Ras Amar in northeast Jeru- salem." The Law of Return figures prominently in secularist- religious conflict. We know that many of the Orthodox would like to amend the law. We also know that - a large share of those who avail themselves of the privilege to return under the law are Or- thodox. What we apparently do not know is that the secularists would also like to amend the law by limiting the right of Orthodox Jews to choose where they may live in Israel.