Can we call off the sham of "Jewish Democracy" already?

People perceive Liberal Democracies as regimes and societies in which all citizens are equal.

In which we all enjoy and adhere to the same rights and duties.

However, when asked what makes a democracy, what generally comes to mind is the right to vote. If you can vote, then you're equal.
That's pretty much a crock, the right to vote is simply that.
The right to vote. It says little about the societal position of the citizen.

We don't like to admit it, but Israel (I'm not talking about the Occupied Territories in which the different systems of law are far more distinct and entrenched in the reality of that geography) we live in a caste system.

A few bills that are on the table: #1 Making Jewish converts ineligible for Citizenship in Israel - now citizenship and immigration are already a mess here, but this... this is just anathema to a whole lot of principles a so-called secular democratic state is supposed to be based on. This is isn't democracy, it's theocracy - when the Rabbinical Court has the power to decide who can be a citizen - when previously the Law of Return acted as a "Jewish Litmus Test" - we're heading down a very slippery and scary path.

Along side this travesty, there is the "civil union bill" which, you'd think I'd be for, seeing as if you're a regular reader of mine, you're aware of how I feel regarding the religious establishment(s) and the power they have over the marriage institution(s) in Israel - if you're new just press the tage "jewish-ish" and/or "that religion thing" at the tag section of this post, that should bring you up to date.

Tangential, but related: when I read about the legalisation of same-sex marriage in Washington DC this week I was very happy for my Queer Siblings in the States.

This brings me to #2 The "Civil Union" law, which applies to people without religion. That are registered as being Non-Jewish, they could have Jewish ancestry, but they themselves are no Jewish, or Christian, or Muslim, or Druze, or any other religion that has an established court that oversees marriage.

If you read the News articles on this law, you'll see that this law is pretty vacuous, as it still requires a different institution to decide wether a couple is eligbale for marriage, even if they have no religion.

This is mind boggling and enhances the control the Rabbinical court has over Jewish couples. It's a caste and class entrenching law that will just disable truly secular civil laws from even being considered.

I suppose it's unnecessary to mention that "civil union" only applies to opposite-sex couples and that same-sex couples get to keep the common-law public knowledge "partnership".

Yeah. Secular, Democratic and Pluralistic my peachy white ass!

My jaw dropped!

Fucking Hell:

Only about 60 percent of elementary and junior high schools offer a "life skills" course that includes sex education, and the subject is not taught at all in high schools, according to a Knesset Research Center report. Schools are not required to teach the course.
[...]
Along with sex education, the "life skills" program also includes issues like violence, alcohol, drugs and peer pressure. The elementary schools that teach the program devote one hour weekly to it, while in junior high schools, the subject is taught during homeroom.

But the research center's report noted that sex education is not always part of the "life skills" program, as parents or others sometimes "exert pressure not to deal with certain issues, like sexual identity."

As for high schools, the report states that when sex education is broached, it is often "in response a specific event."

The ministry's sex education unit, according to the report, does not monitor "the extent to which the subject is taught or the type or content of lessons."

I had no idea things were so bad.
I had no idea I was that privileged in my national, public and secular education.

During my twelve years of formal education I had a sex education class twice as a separate class outside the regular curriculum and once as a "special class" when I was doing more advanced biology.
This doesn't include the "special assemblies" we had about AIDS in which we had PWA come and tell us about their lives - one was seriously ill, I remember. Also, the woman was infected by an immigrant from Cameroon with whom she'd had a serious relationship beforehand, the man was infected by a one-night stand in Independence Park (the gay cruising spot), iirc.

You just can't escape it.

I had a sex-ed lesson in 6th grade, in which we were told our bodies were going to change, menstruation, all that blah blah blah, which was given to us in a heterogeneous class (boys and girls) by the school nurse.
In 11th grade by an actual sex-educator who came and explained how sex worked, what a condom is, how a condom works, the Pill, that girls are "allowed to say no", that AIDS can kill you and if you're gay or have anal sex it's more risky.
I basically took what she had to say condoms to heart.
The biology class was a fiasco from start to finish as we went over the biological reproductive system and me, in me being a Rocky Horror going, a virgin where it "counts" - 'cause I hadn't been with a man yet (that only happened after high school), and doing my best not to Out myself to my teacher, was shot down and that harpy asked me "Didn't I think having casual sex was dangerous?"

Yeah.

Memories of sex-ed are a tad shudder inducing, but at least I have them. I learned something - ignored a lot, but if the years of being sexually active, I've managed to avoid STI and pregnancy and I do owe a bunch of that to sex-ed (and my dad, who is a pharmacist and provided me with a lot of information from just being in his store).

Now, I'm discovering that formal sex-ed is taught in only 60% of schools in Israel!

The article also ties the lack of sex-education with the rise in gang-rapes the media has been reporting on. I doubt that, btw. I think the consequences of rape may be a bit more fuzzy - and when I say consequences I mean the fact that STI's are spread and pregnancy can occur - but, the notion that women and girls are there to available for the proclivities of horny boys isn't something that can be countered by two-to-five hours of formal school education that most teens don't give a shit about, anyway.

After all, when I was a teenager, consent was taught as "the right to say No", as though that's the be all and end all of consent. As though other form of coercion weren't just as violent and violating.

I think I need to get into the education system just for that.
I'm just...
This is very scary.